Throggs Neck Dispensaries: Two Licensed Weed Shops, One Block of East Tremont

For most of the Bronx, the complaint is that legal weed is too far away. On one stretch of East Tremont Avenue in Throggs Neck, it's the opposite.

Victory Dispensary, at 3653 E Tremont Ave on the corner of Philip Avenue, opened May 5, 2026, state licensing records show. That put it roughly a block from Say Less, at 3764 E Tremont Ave, which opened December 15, 2025. Both hold CAURD licenses, the equity license set aside for people with past cannabis convictions and their families.

Two licensed stores, one block, in a neighborhood that fought hard over the second one. Here's how it happened, what neighbors said, what the owners promised, and what it could mean for anyone shopping along East Tremont.

How Throggs Neck ended up with two

A 13–10 vote

Bronx Community Board 10, the East Bronx board that covers Throggs Neck, voted 13–10 on May 1, 2025, to recommend Victory. Community board votes on dispensaries are advisory; the state makes the licensing call. But a 13–10 split is about as close as these votes get, and it tells you the board itself was divided.

Compare that with April 16, 2026, when the same board voted 29–0 to recommend I Bud You NY Inc. for 1446 Williamsbridge Rd, the board's minutes show. That store has not opened yet. Same board, less than a year apart, two very different temperatures. The minutes don't fully explain the gap, but Victory's site, a block from an existing store and close to several schools, is the one that drew organized neighbor opposition.

The neighbors' case

By April 2026, with Victory's opening approaching, the opposition had gone public. Residents' concerns boiled down to four things:

• Schools. At least four schools sit within a half-mile, and students gather at a nearby McDonald's and bus stop.
• Clustering. A second licensed shop just one block from the first.
• Safety and traffic. Fears of more foot traffic, crime and possible conflict with illegal sellers.
• Property values and neighborhood character. Some longtime homeowners worried a second shop would change the feel of the block, and what their houses are worth.

Not every voice was opposed. Some residents noted that the same kinds of concerns come up around liquor stores and smoke shops.

What the owners promised

Owners Francisco Gomez and Ali Zindani answered with a public list of commitments. They pledged:

• Armed security during all operating hours
• ID scanning at the door to confirm every customer is 21 or older
• Hiring 10 to 15 local Throggs Neck residents
• No on-site consumption
• Help identifying illegal cannabis sellers in the area
• Hours of 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The store opened in May, a year after the board vote.

These are promises made in public, which makes them worth tracking. Neighbors can reasonably ask, a few months in, whether the security, the local hiring and the hours match what was said. We'll be asking too.

A 13–10 vote isn't a mandate. It's a promissory note, and East Tremont is going to find out whether it gets paid.

The East Bronx map, filling in

Zoom out and Throggs Neck's pair looks less like an oddity and more like part of a pattern. State licensing records show these stores open in and around the area, every one of them opened since the spring of 2024:

Three of those six opened in 2026 alone. Borough-wide, the Bronx has 23 licensed stores; Manhattan and Brooklyn each have more than three times as many. So even with two on one block in Throggs Neck, the borough as a whole remains under-served relative to its neighbors. Our full Bronx dispensary map shows where the gaps still are, and our profile of Hibernica's two years in Pelham Bay shows how one East Bronx equity store built its base.

What two stores on one block means for your wallet

For shoppers, clustering has an upside the neighbors' debate mostly skipped: competition.

The statewide trend

Prices are already sliding across New York. The Office of Cannabis Management's July 2 presentation to the Cannabis Control Board put per-unit price declines at about 7% from January to June. At the same time, the market keeps getting bigger: 683 adult-use dispensaries were open statewide as of June, legal sales hit $895.4 million in the first half of the year, and the state's licensed growing canopy keeps expanding. More stores and more supply chasing the same customers is a recipe for lower shelf prices.

The squeeze on owners

That's good news at the register and harder news for stores. The same state presentation put median dispensary revenue around $2.6 million a year, and falling prices mean thinner margins on every sale. Two equity stores a block apart are splitting the same neighborhood customer base, which means deals, loyalty programs and service become the way to win.

How to shop it

• Compare menus online before you walk. Both stores are close enough that checking two menus costs you nothing.
• Ask about first-time and loyalty deals. These are common at licensed stores; ask what's current.
• Verify every time. Look for the OCM QR sticker at the entrance, or search the address on the state's online Dispensary Location Verification tool.
• Budget for tax. Expect 13% at checkout: 9% state plus 4% local.

New to all of this? Our first-timer's guide covers ID, limits and dosing.

What we're watching on East Tremont

• The promises. Security, ID scanning, local hiring and hours, as pledged to neighbors.
• Whether both survive. With prices falling and median revenues modest, two equity stores a block apart is a real test of the market.
• Future CB10 votes. After a 13–10 fight and a 29–0 sweep, how the board weighs proximity to existing stores will shape where the next East Bronx shop lands.

If you don't live near East Tremont, you still have options: a licensed weed dispensary in the Bronx like Buddiez Bronx Cannabis Dispensary in Melrose, which sponsors the Free Press, is one of 23 across the borough. Our dispensary reviews compare them, and The Block tracks community board fights as they happen.