One of the highlights of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair was the Anheuser-Busch pavilion, which served up frosty mugs of beer to Fair visitors. The ornate bar ultimately was moved in 1976 to the Rockwell Inn in Morris, Illinois.

Sometime later, a fire engulfed the Inn, sending the tin ceiling crashing to the space below, which housed the bar. Miraculously, the tin ceiling fell around the bar and protected it from the fire.

The Rockwell Inn reopened and still retains its old world charm, including a new tin ceiling, its original dark-stained wood and stained glass and the old World’s Fair bar.

Mitch Kahn, founder and CEO of Grassroots, a national leader in medicinal cannabis, loved the ambience of the Inn and recognized that it could be remodeled as one of their medical cannabis dispensaries.

“It really is just a neat building with character that we want to keep, from the tin ceiling to the bar that’s over 100 years old, and retrofit it to our purposes,” notes Kahn, who saw the promise of remodeling an old building and turning it into a modern facility.

Grassroots turned to Northbrook, Illinois’ Cannabis Facility Construction (CFC), a division of Mosaic Construction, which has leveraged over 25 years of Design-Build commercial construction expertise to help its clients and investors manage the challenges inherent in cannabis facility construction.
CFC has taken a fresh look at building full-service medicinal cannabis cultivation facilities, processing centers and dispensaries by remodeling the interior design of unused or abandoned buildings. Today, CFC has 28 facilities completed and in development, covering more than 328,970 square feet.

The Morris facility is the first cannabis dispensary in Grundy and Kendall counties. It measures 5,200 square feet – one of the largest dispensaries in the Midwest. The Morris dispensary is a destination for people with medical conditions – not a business with neon signs to attract customers. Unlike other dispensaries, the Morris dispensary has the space to become a wellness center, offering acupuncture, yoga and massage therapy.

For more information, please visit Cannabis Facility Construction or call 847.504.0177.