PATERSON — Amid the shiny hardwood floors in a building that used to house the defunct Riverside Manor restaurant and banquet hall are several inlays bearing the name of what would be Paterson’s newest cannabis retail store — Blaze Green.
The former restaurant’s bar has been converted into a customer counter. New ceiling lights sparkle off empty marijuana display cases in the former dining room. There’s even space for what the owner says will be “an educational centerpiece” featuring marijuana plants and museum-like markers with information about them.
The new furnishings cost more than $100,000, said Blaze Green proprietor Paul Qassis. The biomedical engineer said he also spent $60,000 to get the city license needed for the cannabis store and has been paying $25,000 in rent and fees for more than a year.
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Now, Qassis said, he fears that the investment of his life savings may go for naught, with his budding business failing even before its grand opening.
“I’m going bankrupt,” he said.
On Jan. 24, a Saturday night, Qassis said he received an email from Paterson’s zoning officer, Jesus Castro, rejecting his application for a zoning permit to operate the dispensary. Castro’s letter said retail cannabis stores were not allowed in Paterson’s “mixed used” zoning areas.
Qassis said he was baffled by that decision. Nine months earlier, on May 2, 2025, Castro had sent the Blaze Green owner a letter that said cannabis stores are allowed in mixed use zones.
Paterson Press asked Castro about the contradictory letters he sent to Qassis.
The zoning officer said he wrote the letter back in May based on instructions from the city’s legal department. The January letter, Castro stated, represented his formal decision on Qassis’ zoning permit, which he said he denied because Paterson’s zoning laws were never updated to allow for cannabis dispensaries.
But just before 4 p.m. on Feb. 27, the mayor’s office intervened.
“State law, in conjunction with Paterson’s ordinances, permits the operation of cannabis businesses in our city,” said a statement issued by Paterson’s public information officer, Diana Nunez. “As such, the Economic Development Department’s letter from May 2025 regarding this applicant is correct.”
“We are currently working with the Economic Development Department to ensure that employees understand the rules and regulations regarding cannabis business operations in the city,” added Nunez.
Qassis said he was not ready to start celebrating until he gets the zoning permit.
The Blaze Green struggles reflect Paterson’s long track record of controversy involving Mayor Andre Sayegh’s efforts to generate substantial tax revenues from cannabis businesses.
Sayegh prevailed in a 2021 battle with the City Council by vetoing the governing body’s attempt to ban the recreational marijuana industry from the city. Two years after that, the mayor succeeded in getting the council to pass a municipal law permitting 18 cannabis businesses in Paterson, covering such functions as cultivation, processing, delivery and retail sales.
But three years later, Paterson still has only one sanctioned cannabis business, the RISE dispensary that started in 2019 as a medical marijuana business and expanded to include recreational pot and edibles in 2022 when New Jersey’s law changed to permit such activities.
But RISE peaked in 2023, generating more than $100 million in sales that year, along with $2.2 million in taxes for Paterson. In 2023, the business’ sales fell and the city only got $1.5 million in fees from cannabis sales.
Sayegh, who once championed legalized marijuana businesses in Paterson, has been silent on the Blaze Green situation.
Qassis said he has been frustrated by the fact that the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the state agency created to oversee the industry, has approved his business while the city has given him denials.
Paterson’s economic development director, Tiffany Harris-Delaney, said approval from the state “does not supersede zoning compliance.”
“All applicants must satisfy applicable land use and zoning standards prior to operation,” Harris-Delaney said. “In this case, the zoning determination was issued based on the requirements of the city’s existing ordinance.”
The economic development director referred questions about the interpretation of the Paterson cannabis ordinance and its legislative intent to the city law department.
Paterson’s law director, Aymen Aboushi, punted to Sayegh’s public information director. Paterson Press sent its initial questions to Sayegh and his spokesperson, Nunez, on Feb. 19.