Spark’d marijuana dispensary abruptly closes in Crystal Lake

Spark’d Crystal Lake, the city’s second adult-use marijuana dispensary that opened a year ago, abruptly closed Sunday.

A sign on the dispensary’s door at 330 N. Route 31 – although hard to read behind an iridescent film on the door’s glass – announced the location is permanently closed and encouraged customers to go to other Spark’d locations. Those include one in Richmond.

The Crystal Lake dispensary is owned by a group including Tony Bellino and was managed by Alighted under the Spark’d name.

“We terminated our relationship with the management company,” Bellino said Sunday. “The management company was also our partners – minority partners.”

According to documents provided when the city approved a second dispensary in February 2022, the location was owned by 330N LLC, which is controlled by a group including Bellino, and by 280E LLC, a corporation owned by Bryan and Zachary Zises. Spark’d Crystal Lake opened Dec. 12, 2023.

Reached by text Sunday, Zachary Zises said there had been a “changeover in management” at the Crystal Lake location and that the license holder “is going to reboot under new management and branding.”

It is unknown if, or when, another marijuana dispensary would open at that location.

“With the state of Illinois you have to have a management company, and if the management company leaves you can’t run the store,” Bellino said.

“Some want to go in one direction and some want to go in another. When that happens you bang heads.”

—  Tony Bellino, co-owner of Spark'd Crystal Lake

They may have to start from scratch with city and state approvals, Bellino acknowledged.

Spark’d also operates the Richmond dispensary. That location is unaffected, Zises said.

Regarding what prompted the end of the relationship with the management company, Bellino said: “Some want to go in one direction and some want to go in another. When that happens you bang heads.” He did not elaborate.

Zises indicated the store was not profitable, “so the owner needed to find a different path.”

It was not their intention to close the dispensary in December, Bellino said.

“Abruptly at this time of year is not what I wanted, and it is not appropriate for the people who work there and for the customers,” he said.

He said he understood those working at the Crystal Lake store would be offered work at other stores.