A model cannabis dispensary has opened in the Bronx as an example of how prospective entrepreneurs could design and construct their enterprises when Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses are issued, Crain’s New York Business reported.

The design of the showroom, built at the Bronx General Post Office by the Bronx Community Foundation and the Bronx Borough President’s Office—along with community groups and several out-of-town firms with cannabis experience in other states—is based on regulations released by the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM).

The state's Cannabis Control Board (CCB) approved 36 licenses for cannabis retailers earlier this month. Twenty-eight of the licenses were issues to for business owners with a cannabis conviction or a family member with a cannabis conviction, and eight to nonprofit organizations.

New licensees had to demonstrate successful business histories in order to be awarded a license.

“People are applying for this business license, but they don’t even know what it looks like,” said Desmon Lewis, co-founder of the Bronx Community Foundation.

Anne Forkutza of Bend, Oregon-based cannabis tech platform Dutchie, which has applied to provide software solutions to the first group of license holders, explained the intricacies of operating in such a tightly-controlled industry, She said, for example, that “You need to track and trace and report every single cannabis item that gets sold or moved from one place to another,” as well as reporting inventory changes and the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active chemical in cannabis.

Crain’s noted that cannabis was not available at the showroom.