A lot of people will go through a lifetime with dreams of winning a lottery but never come close. Bucket loads of money and effort later, they are no better off than they were, and sometimes worse. And then someone will come along and not just win the lottery, but when it twice in the same drawing. Lucky bastard.
KC Martin Franks (not sure if this is a name of a person, the name of an LLC, or both) won two spots in the Washington State retail license lottery back in July. According to the Marijuana Applicants List, 388 businesses entered the lottery for their chance to win one of 27 available recreational cannabis licenses for the City of Seattle. That means KC Martin Franks had just under a 7% chance of winning. Which would mean he had just over a 3% chance of winning the lottery twice. Again, lucky bastard.
Just recently, Central District pot shop Uncle Ike’s, opened as the 2nd recreational marijuana store in Seattle. Even though their were several owners attached to this shop, the only name anyone knew of was Ian Eisenberg, a local entrepreneur. But, because of a lawsuit filed by the church next door to the pot shop which discloses additional info, we now know who the other owners are – one of which is KC Martin Franks.
So why do we believe KC Martin Franks is rich? For one, when CapitolHillSeattle.com covered the opening of Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop back in September, the article states in reference to Ian Eisenberg’s ability to work out a deal: ‘…was able to work out an “oh my fucking god” expensive deal to acquire a portion of another company that did luck out in the liquor board’s summer pot license lottery.’ It looks to us that KC Martin Frank is beneficiary of an expensive deal. So we assume he’s rich. Of course, that’s subjective. Add the fact that Uncle Ike’s pulled in oodles of money the first week they were opened, and it’s safe to say that if ‘Franks’ isn’t rich, he’s headed that way.
So how does this mess everything up? KC Martin Franks had won 2 recreational retail marijuana license rankings when the lottery was held back in July: one in SODO and one in Ballard. Both of these neighborhoods saw more retail lottery winners than anywhere else in Seattle. Now that KC Martin Franks has partnered up with Ian Eisenberg and another business man, using the property Ian Eisenberg owned in the Central District, that means there will be one less shop in Ballard or SODO, than assumed.
Because SODO had the highest concentration of recreational marijuana retail lottery winners, we thought this neighborhood could potentially be the marijuana district of Seattle, and a perfect location for such a thing. In fact, shortly after the lottery was held, we took a trip down to SODO and explored the possibility. If the SODO address was used for Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop, then that would mean one less retail marijuana shop in the area. While SODO could still be a marijuana district, there is currently only one shop there now – Cannabis City – and who knows if other lottery locations haven’t been moved for one reason or another.
How this messes things up, is actually subjective as well. In the eyes of those who live in the Central District and Capitol Hill , this only makes things better, as their will soon be two recreational marijuana stores in the area when Mello Times opens. Unless if you are Mount Calvary Christian Center, then it makes everything a living hell.
