DECEMBER 2, 2024
Lessons learned after five years of legal weed When it comes to the recreational marijuana market in Illinois, the green rush is more like a slog. Operators have some feedback to share. By John Pletz
People’s purchasing habits likely will change if tariffs are once again levied on wine, says Erin Carlman Weber, owner of Ukrainian Village restaurant and wine shop All Together Now. | ALEXANDER GOULETAS/ORGANIC HEADSHOTS
Chicago’s wine world braces for Trump tariffs He’s done it before. “We’re expecting this to be at least as bad or worse,” one importer says. I By Ally Marotti
C
hicago’s wine industry is preparing for potential tariffs from the incoming Trump administration, with importers and distributors stocking up on inventory in hopes of delaying price increases. Restaurant owners, too, are concerned. The price of eating out has gone up about 30% since 2019. Operators worry that tariffs on imported wines would force them to raise menu prices again, scaring off consumers fatigued by pricey meals. In the low-margin restaurant world, the markup on imported wines is usually a way to
Tariffs on imported wine actually do a lot more damage to businesses here in the U.S. than they do abroad.”
See WINE on Page 34
— Ben Aneff, U.S. Wine Trade Alliance
Scott Weiner thought the cannabis business would be a lucrative side hustle. Like many other entrepreneurs who won licenses to grow or sell marijuana when Illinois legalized recreational use, he found out it’s not the easiest way to make a buck. “Nobody tells you when you get into cannabis . . . how hard it’s going to be,” says Weiner, a veteran restaurant owner who became a partner in Okay Cannabis, which won licenses to open retail stores. “It’s a full-time job where you might be working for free. I think a lot of people . . . thought this could be kind of a part-time thing, with guys running the business for you. Nothing could be further from the truth. I can’t tell you a harder year I’ve had in business.” Weiner and his partners in Okay Cannabis recently sold their three Chicago-area dispensaries to Nature’s Grace & Wellness, a group from western Illinois that has been in the business since Illinois first approved med-
ical marijuana use a decade ago. When Illinois legislators legalized recreational marijuana in 2019, thousands applied to get in on the action. What some saw as a short path to riches has turned into a slog. Sales have been hampered by competition, both legal and illegal. Inflation took off, squeezing customers’ wallets and pushing up costs for operators. What little capital there was early on has largely dried up. Even the giant multistate operators that got in early have hunkered down, trimming jobs to conserve cash. “From a business perspective, this green rush we’ve been talking about for several years, the craze has died down,” says Jonathan Robbins, an attorney in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who chairs Akerman’s cannabis practice. The slumping market is reflected in statewide revenue from recreational cannabis sales, which totaled $136.5 million in September. It was the first year-over-year decline since the program started in January 2020. See WEED on Page 38
Hotel owners take issue with Kaegi assessments Downtown hoteliers are bristling at newly released valuations that suggest they have fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic By Danny Ecker
An advocacy group for downtown hotel owners is blasting Fritz Kaegi for what it deems to be wildly high spikes in the Cook County assessor's new property valuations, calling them a threat to job creation and new investment in the recovering local
hospitality sector. The public bristling from the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association comes as owners of many prominent hotels in the heart of the city grapple with triple-digit percentage increases in their 2024 initial assessments, numbers that play a key role in determining owners' property tax bills next year.
Twenty large hotels in and around the Loop reviewed by Crain's saw their initial assessments jump by an average of 131% from their final valuations in 2023. Among other examples riling up hotel investors, the assessor's office estimated the See HOTELS on Page 34
The Palmer House Chicago hotel in the Loop saw its assessed value rise by 108% from last year. | COSTAR GROUP
VOL. 47, NO. 47 l COPYRIGHT 2024 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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