Cannabis dispensary in Louisville touts high-end showroom

LOUISVILLE — Most Coloradans who visit a cannabis dispensary expect a small, often-cramped, unevenly lit space with often cluttered displays of products in glass cases and hanging on walls. They don’t expect a bright, open, minimalist space that looks more like an Apple store or a high-end jeweler.

That “wow factor” is what chief executive Shaun Gindi was after when he opened Ajoya at 1100 W. Dillon Road near McCaslin Boulevard in Louisville’s Colony Square area. The mission, Gindi said, “was to transform the way people experience shopping for cannabis.”

The rebranded shop — maybe “showroom” is a more accurate description — opened Oct. 24 a few doors from Shaun and Joey Gindi’s former dispensary, known as Compassionate Pain Management.

“We’re in a different building in the shopping center — right near a Noodles & Co. — so we’re much more visible than our last location,” said Nicole Kennebeck, director of retail operations. “CPM was set up to be a one-on-one consultation setting. We started out as medicinal, and got the dual license for recreational in April 2014. But because we had started in a medicinal context, it didn’t translate well.

“We wanted to really shift the paradigm about what people think about buying cannabis,” she said. “We took on being responsible for putting the cannabis culture in a new light — in a space that’s safe, inspired and pretty. Experience is something millennials are looking to invest in, much more than things. So we wanted people to have a great experience when they’re buying cannabis.”

The answer was to enlist Denver-based Roth Sheppard Architect, whose retail, restaurant and office designs had earned it the 2012 Western Mountain Region Architectural Firm of the Year award from the American Institute of Architects. Boulder-based B&B Remodeling turned the Gindis’ vision into reality.

“Everything is very bright and well lit, in a large open space,” Kennebeck said. “All of our glass is very visible.”

A main bar and long counter features individual customer-care areas along the counter, maintaining the open feel while still providing privacy for transactions between customers and budtenders, who are dubbed Cannabis Concierges. LED lighting in the ceiling is controlled by an iPhone app with the ability to change color to create different moods by season and throughout the day or night. Display cases create retail pockets where locally produced glassware items and accessories are highlighted.

A back wall contains boxes with logos of the shop and the products, she said, “but we have little glass jars on the counter so you can get an idea of what’s in the packaging. A lot of the edibles’ packaging requires that they be opaque. The edibles’ bulky packaging with child-proof opening is just not aesthetically pleasing. But because you’re able to interact with our products in the sample jars you don’t need to see the packaging.”

Customers are “pleasantly surprised” when they walk in, Kennebeck said, “not just because it looks different but because they’re comfortable. They don’t feel nervous in the space. They don’t have to worry about what’s behind the scenes because there’s nothing behind the scenes.”

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