Just after SF real estate magnate Victor Makras was found guilty of bank fraud, we learn his son is trying to turn over a new leaf with a proposed Ingleside-Mission Terrace cannabis dispensary.

It was stunning news last week when politically well-connected San Francisco real estate mogul Victor Makras was found guilty of bank fraud and making false statements to a bank, with both of those charges carrying a possible 30-year prison sentence, as part of the ever-expanding Mohammed Nuru public corruption scandal. But now, a week later, we learn of a curious new sticky note to that affair.

Makras’s son Tyler Makras is working on opening a cannabis dispensary in the Ingleside District, according to a community notice from his ownership group. That group held a community meeting the night of August 25, ironically, a mere 15 hours before the news of Victor Makras’s guilty verdict.

SFist obtained the above community notice, which was sent out via email the early morning of August 15. The meeting notice was also posted in various Facebook neighborhood groups.

The Tyler Makras pictured above is an exact match of the Tyler Makras Instagram account profile photo, an account that also pictures him with Victor Makras and his wife Farah Makras. (Also popping up on this account: Willie Brown, Kris Jenner, Richard Branson, and Warriors owner Joe Lacob.)

SFist did not attend this meeting, but the Ingleside Light did. They describe Tyler Makras as “the son of Victor Makras, the politically connected real estate mogul who was convicted of bank fraud on Friday, Aug. 26.” That paper also adds that “Makras Real Estate, which Tyler had said he worked for, has long represented the property that the business would operate in if approved.”

We reached out to the email address in the flyer in an attempt to confirm all this. SFist got a response from co-owner Patrick Hall saying, “We were excited to start our community outreach with our first meeting on Thursday. I’ve lived in this community my whole life, and right now there’s no option for medical or adult use cannabis anywhere within a mile of us.  Tyler and I hope to fill that need with a small, safe, and local store. And we’re going to spend the next several weeks reaching out to everyone we can in the community and hopefully earning their support.”

We should note that there is absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Tyler Makras or this proposed dispensary. The fact that they’re having community meetings shows they’re doing their best to play by the rules. This dispensary appears wholly unconnected to Victor Makras’s legal troubles, other than that his son is a co-owner, and the proposed dispensary is operating on Makras Real Estate property.

We can confirm on the SF Office on Cannabis website that there is an active application for a retail cannabis sales permit at 1019 Ocean Avenue, under the name of 1019 Smoke LLC. That said, they do not yet have the retail storefront permit that would be required to open up shop and sell cannabis at the location. The SF Office of Cannabis tells SFist that their office “has not permitted 1019 Ocean,” and the location also does not yet have the California Department of Cannabis Control license that would  be required to sell legal marijuana at the location.

But the proposed shop has been approved as an equity applicant (Hall meets the equity criteria by virtue of having attended an SF public school), so they are definitely in the application pipeline. The fact that they’re already holding community meetings indicates they have made some progress getting through that pipeline.

The 1019 Ocean Avenue location is a long-vacant storefront at Ocean Avenue and Harold Avenue, formerly Bay Circle Graphics and Printing, and half a block down from Beep’s Burgers. It’s right in between Mack’s Dry Cleaners and Wiley’s Liquors. As Ingleside residents know, there is also a very nice Whole Foods at the western end of that block.

And there are no dispensaries in that area — it’s a “cannabis desert” if you will. So the shop would serve a legitimate retail need in a neighborhood that’s underserved (for legal weed sales, at least).

The sins of the father (or a co-owner's father) will not in any way affect whether the state and local permits are granted to this proposed dispensary location. The guilty verdicts against Victor Makras will not ding or disqualify the application.

But public opposition can halt a dispensary, no matter how powerful or politically connected the owners are. Former Oakland mayor Jean Quan learned that the hard way in 2017, when her proposed Outer Sunset dispensary won approval for every permit in the book, but was still shot down in an appeal to the Board of Supervisors when oodles of neighborhood residents complained.

Related: More Nuru Fallout: Prominent Landlord Victor Makras Found Guilty of Bank Fraud [SFist]

Image: tylermakras via Instagram