Brookhaven Town’s first recreational cannabis shop could reopen as soon as this week after being forced to close in August amid a legal dispute with property managers at the East Setauket corporate park where the pot store opened in June.

State Supreme Court Justice James C. Hudson last week lifted his injunction barring Strong Strains from operating in the Stony Brook Technology Center, lawyers in the case told Newsday. Hudson acted after property manager Stony Brook Technology Center Association declined to post a $3.75 million bond that had been required as part of Hudson’s injunction, a lawyer for the association told Newsday.

Strong Strains’ attorneys, David C. Holland and Andrew Schriever of Manhattan, said Monday the store likely will reopen Wednesday or Friday after rehiring staff and stocking shelves.

The Stony Brook Technology Center Association had sued Strong Strains in August alleging the store did not comply with the corporate park’s rules, which bar activities that are disallowed by federal law.

Recreational marijuana is legal in New York but banned under federal law.

Holland and Schriever estimated the store had lost $1.7 million since closing in August.

“Our client was really caught by surprise that he was in this court case in the first place,” Schriever said in a phone interview. “Long Island is mostly shut out from the cannabis business. To get that opportunity and have that opportunity quashed is a very difficult circumstance.”

A lawyer for the property manager, Brian Egan, of Patchogue, said in a text that Hudson lifting the injunction “does not change the underlying merits of the case against Strong Strains, but only allows them to open while the case is pending.”

He added: “We will continue the closure case in [state] Supreme Court and we are confident we will prevail.”

1 of 9 shops on Long Island

Strong Strains is one of nine recreational marijuana stores on Long Island, all in Suffolk County, according to the Long Island Cannabis Coalition, a trade group. New York legalized recreational pot in 2021.

Strong Strains opened in June after obtaining a state operating license and town permits.

A second Brookhaven pot store has since opened, in Coram. Cannabis shops in Farmingville and Medford have received state licenses and are awaiting town permission to open.

The day Strong Strains opened, the property managers, including Ronkonkoma-based Tritec Real Estate, filed a cease-and-desist letter demanding the store close immediately, citing the federal ban on recreational pot. 

Holland and Schriever said Strong Strains co-owner Surinder Sandhu did not learn of the corporate park’s pot shop ban until after the store opened.

In a statement, the store owners said they “will not be deterred in our fight as a lawful cannabis dispensary to remain open for business, provide industry-leading wages to the 15 employees who are part of the Strong Strains family, and provide curated cannabis products that meet the highest industry testing standards, assuring quality and safety.”

Legal issues in other towns

The corporate park includes 28 buildings housing dozens of research, medical and technology companies on a sprawling 103-acre campus off Route 347 near the Stony Brook University campus.

Brookhaven is one of four Long Island towns where recreational pot stores are legal. The others are Babylon, Riverhead and Southampton.

Riverhead and Southampton have faced legal issues in recent weeks related to pot shops.

A cannabis licensee sued Southampton over a recent rezoning, arguing the move prevented its dispensary from opening in a former bank building in Hampton Bays, Newsday reported.

In October, state cannabis officials ruled Riverhead and Southampton had imposed “unreasonably impracticable” rules restricting where pot dispensaries may be located, Newsday reported.

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.