(Image: CHS)

(Image: CHS)

Destruction from last week’s smash and grab break-in at Capitol Hill’s The Reef pot shop is bad enough that the street remains closed to cars near the badly damaged storefront three days later. But the store’s ownership is making plans to get back to selling cannabis.

“We’re planning a grand re-opening party,” David Olivas, director of operations for The Reef stores tells CHS after a weekend of securing inventory and trying to sort out what steps come next after the city issued an emergency order limiting access to the building following Friday morning’s break-in in which a group of thieves used a car to ram the storefront, partially ripping open the 99-year-old masonry building.

Police are looking for the suspects and two SUVs reported leaving the scene and likely involved with another smash and grab in SoDo only 30 minutes after Friday’s early morning heist attempt on Capitol Hill.

Olivas tells CHS that there is no timeline yet for when The Reef might reopen as the store sorts out what they’re told will be an expedited permit process given the extensive damage to the building that is putting the right of way on the city sidewalk and street in danger.

He said The Reef is also examining why sidewalk bollards permitted by the city to be installed last year after a previous smash and grab burglary didn’t do more to limit damage and whether a more complete set of protection can be put in place at the busy intersection of E Olive Way and Denny.

CHS reported last year on the Seattle cannabis industry’s growth after ten years of regulated — and highly taxed — marijuana sales. While physical barriers like bollards could help address the immediate threats around the dangerous burglaries, more important would be banking changes federal officials could finally put in place that would end the dangerous days for the stores as cash-only businesses. The Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act has been debated and punted repeatedly in recent years and 2025 looks like it will come and go without any progress on the issue.

UPDATE: Former policy director for Seattle City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth and co-owner of the Hashtag Cannabis shops Logan Bowers says cash is not the issue and that most stores aren’t being targeted for their cash any longer.

“The problem is it’s so easy to steal cars, the perceived risk is so low (rarely caught), and maybe COVID made them crazy, they’ll do it for trivial amounts of product,” Bowers said.

Closed to cars — but not bikes or pedestrians (Image: CHS)

After initial inspections, The Reef is focused on reopening, though Olivas said he couldn’t speculate if it would be days or weeks or more to get the permits and complete the work to stabilize the old building.

Smaller scale damage from break-ins and vandalism have become a significant and ongoing cost for Capitol Hill small businesses with challenges ranging from tagging and etching to busted doors and windows.

In the CHS Facebook Group, a recent post about damage at Broadway’s Pinto Bistro suggested that plywood at a Capitol Hill business is a sign the restaurant or shop could use more support. One Broadway shop owner said she has had to replace glass at her store five times in 11 years.

In 2022, the city launched a Storefront Repair Fund to help businesses pay for vandalism or damage. Funding for that program is now closed, the city says.

The Reef has been doing business on Capitol Hill now for seven years. It acquired the 1926-era building and opened in the summer of 2018 as the first I-502 retail pot shop on E Olive Way and the third pot shop shop on Capitol Hill.

The store is owned by a company belonging to real estate investor Adam Simon. Simon purchased the building home to The Reef for $1.4 million in June 2017. The company faces competition from a nearby Uncle Ike’s. The Reef has also added to the street’s scene with a colorful new paint job by mural artist Weirdo. The Reef’s building was once home to Amante Pizza and its notorious flashing sign.

The Reef’s lower E Olive Way street level is also home to another business. The Latin flavors of Bad Chancla are the latest to call the space home. The small counter restaurant remained open for business over the weekend.

The closed street signs, caution tape, and crumbling brick, meanwhile, are mirrored by the demolition across the street. After the facade of the 1917-era unreinforced masonry building started to fall off earlier this year, the city ordered the demolition of the Olive Way Improvement Company under “emergency conditions.” A seven-story, 106-unit mixed-use apartment building will someday rise at the corner.

Hopefully, The Reef’s reconstruction and repairs will be completed long before that project finally digs in.

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