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Most of New York Is Losing Money. Here’s How Gotham Plays It.

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Cannabis Podcast Full Transcript

Joanne Wilson

Joanne Wilson is an entrepreneur, angel investor and philanthropist whose career spans retail, media, real estate, hospitality and technology. Through Gotham Gal Ventures she has backed more than 140 companies, including Food52, Eater and Parachute Home. She chairs the Public Housing Community Fund, sits on the board of Friends of the High Line, and co-founded Gotham Gives with her husband, Fred Wilson.

Her latest venture, Gotham, is a cannabis concept store that pairs New York’s best cannabis with art, design, fashion and culture, with stores in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Hudson. Its flagship operates in partnership with STRIVE. She also runs the Gotham Growth accelerator for New York cannabis brands and co-created The Highrise with Cultivated Media.

She is one of the few operators who fights the rules in public and runs stores under them every day. That is the view New York operators need going into 2027.

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Most of New York Is Losing Money. Here’s How Gotham Plays It.

Oct 29 | 11am PST | 2pm EST

Only 36% of New York cannabis operators are profitable. Of the ones that lost money last year, four in five have been in the red for more than 15 months. And the rules that decide what 2027 costs are still being written.

New York is five years into legal cannabis. Taxes are high, compliance is heavy, and the state keeps issuing licenses. Now operators face a wage board bill, a pending lawsuit over labor peace agreements, new ownership disclosure rules and a push to let liquor stores sell THC drinks.

Joanne Wilson runs Gotham, a cannabis concept store with locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Hudson. She has testified in Albany, sued the state over labor peace, and written openly about what the rules cost her business. She will walk through the market, the fights, and what she is doing inside her own stores to stay healthy.

Why This, Why Now

The Governor has until the end of the year to act on the wage board bill. Operators are setting 2027 budgets right now without knowing what labor will cost. Waiting for Albany is not a plan.

Source: FTI Consulting survey of 40 New York licensees, commissioned by a coalition of businesses opposed to the wage board bill, reported by MJBizDaily, September 22, 2026.

What You’ll Walk Away With

The 2027 rule map: the wage board, the labor peace lawsuit, ownership disclosure, showcase events and THC drinks in liquor stores, and what each could mean for your costs.
Revenue beyond flower: how Gotham sells art, merchandise, its own private label and events, and why some customers come in for those alone.
Fund, hold or cut: how Joanne decides which marketing and operating lines to protect when margins are tight.
Store-by-store health check: what a Manhattan store and a Hudson Valley store need differently.
Advocacy worth your time: which fights an operator should join and which ones to leave to the trade groups.
The 30-day move: what she would tell a multi-store operator to do before the new year.

Speakers

Joanne Wilson

Founder & CEO | Gotham

Most of New York Is Losing Money. Here’s How Gotham Plays It.