Owners of stalled Pontiac cannabis shop say they keep hitting city roadblocks; mayor calls it procedural

A planned cannabis store at Saginaw and Pike in downtown Pontiac sits unfinished, and work has been stopped for months, WDIV reported Monday, Oct. 19. Its owners say they keep running into roadblocks at the city. Mayor Mike McGuinness told the station the city is following its regular process and wants the shop to open.

The store, Off the Charts Pontiac, is one of the shops under Pontiac's social equity program, which was set up to bring five adult-use cannabis retailers to the city, WDIV reported. Several of the others have already opened.

The owners' account

The following is how the owners described events to WDIV. The station did not report the city's account of each step, and the Journal has not independently confirmed it.

Managing member Joey Evans, who is from California, told WDIV the partners wanted to bring a company with more than 40 California stores to Pontiac. His partner, identified only as Kyle, is from Flint and holds a social equity license, the station reported.

• December 2025: The city clerk's office issued a conditional permit for the building, according to WDIV.
• After that: The owners said they tried to drop off construction plans with the Building and Safety department within the required 30-day window, and that they were not allowed onto the site plan review list several times. After what they called heavy pushback, the city issued a selective demolition and framing permit, according to WDIV.
• Late January: The owners said they were told they had never been issued permits and were working out of scope. They said a planning and building supervisor would not accept their notarized applications.
• Later: They asked the mayor to step in and then filed a misconduct and ethics complaint with the city. They told WDIV a cease-and-desist sticker went up on the window within hours. Days later, they said, a city official came with fire department staff and armed sheriff's deputies and posted another cease-and-desist notice.

The owners told WDIV they had no active safety violations and that the fire marshal had approved part of their plan. Evans said they have paid the city nearly $20,000 in fees. The owners said the problems continued and they were forced to stop work. WDIV reported that an out-of-state family has invested about half a million dollars in the project. One out-of-state investor, Brent Hollingsworth, told the station it feels like the owners are being fought against while other shops open first.

The city's response

McGuinness told WDIV he wants the shop to open and that another working downtown storefront would be good for the city.

Asked about the specific problems the owners described, McGuinness told WDIV they were procedural.

He said the owners had asked the city's public integrity team, which he called an independent entity at City Hall, to look into their complaint. "My understanding is that it has been thoroughly investigated," he said, according to WDIV. He said the city wants to look into anything else the owners feel has not gone right.

When WDIV asked to put specific questions to the planning department, McGuinness said he was giving a general response on behalf of the city, the station reported.

WDIV said other shops in the same program had opened much faster, and that it was still waiting for a definitive answer on why this one has not. The station did not report which approvals the shop still needs.

Sources: WDIV/ClickOnDetroit (Kyla Russell, Oct. 19, 2026).