This story was reprinted with permission from Crain’s Cleveland Business and written by Stan Bullard.
The song “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas,” a 1968 love letter to marijuana-laced brownies, may come to mind with the proposed renovation of the one-time Record Rendezvous store in downtown Cleveland.
Klutch Cannabis, the medical dispensary based in Akron, is identified as the first-floor tenant of the landmark at 300 Prospect Ave., according to plans filed with the city of Cleveland.
Plans filed for the Thursday, April 18, meeting of the Downtown/Flats Design Review Meeting show the proposed marijuana dispensary and a sign with the Klutch Cannabis logo on the property.
The designs were filed by MPG Architects of Fairlawn for what it described as the first of two phases for the proposed project. The dispensary would be on the first floor, with offices for the operation on the building’s second floor. A future phase would include a total of four apartments on the third and fourth floors of the 1908 vintage structure.
Readying the long-empty storefront for the dispensary also will require renovating the structure’s storefront.
Pete Nischt, vice president for compliance and communications for Akron-based Klutch, declined comment.
The dispensary likely has control of the space for the plan to be filed. However, such locations must be authorized by the state of Ohio for a medical dispensary to become operational. Klutch currently operates dispensaries in Canton and Lorain. The application for design approval said about 25 employees would work at the dispensary.
The building at 300 Prospect was the second location of Record Rendezvous from 1945 until 1976, according to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Owner Leo Mintz coined the term “rock ‘n roll” to break the taboo of white people listening to rhythm and blues music, the encyclopedia states. The term was later popularized by radio disc jockey Alan Freed.
