Retail Cannabis in Delaware

The retail cannabis landscape in Delaware is extremely rigid and unique.  It took 14 years to to open thirteen medical dispensaries statewide and the 2024 adult-use lottery potentially added thirty more.  

All thirteen incumbent medical dispensaries converted to adult-use and 11 of them opened to Delawareans 21 and older starting 8/1/25.  August sales totaled $7.4MM

Delaware dispensary locations

Because of the restrictive municipal zoning currently in place and being challenged, the retail license awardees that are able to get open will be clustered instead of evenly distributed throughout the million plus potential AU customers.

Municipalities like Bellefonte, Newark, Dover, Milford, and Georgetown are allowing a limited number of retails, while others like Elsmere, Greenwood, and Seaford are still considering.  It is most often a matter of where and not if, and these political subdivisons have a tremendously hard time agreeing on and codifying a reasonable ordinance.

Sussex County's incredibly restrictive Ordinance 3016 that led to the passage yet unfortunate veto of SB 75 is now being reconsidered.  Stay tuned for the Council's hopefully heavily amended new ordinance.

Finding a suitable location should be the first step because of how critical a decision this becomes for a retail establishment of any type.  Ideal sites will be free standing with great ingress/egress/parking, but with more at stake because of the soft costs and barriers to entry involved with cannabis retail buildouts.  

Building setbacks, distance from residential zones, schools, parks, churches and other senstive uses as well as traffic concerns will come into play long before you ever sign a lease or break ground on a project.  Vet the property impeccably so that there a no suprises later like previous environmental concerns or being in a flood zone.  

The property should really fit the use nearly as is and the more modern a building the better.  The build out and inspetion process will be much smoother the more plug and play the chosen site is and the less major retrofitting necessary.  Minmizing this will reduce soft costs as well as delays related to permitting and contractor supply chains.

Important infrastructure concerns to keep top of mind during site search for a retail dispensary:

• vault
• secure, limited-access areas
• line of sight for security cameras
• back of the house space optimization
• front of the house customer flow