High Points Dispensary eyes Palmyra location this summer

Darryl Hilkert — High Points Dispensary
Paul Szmal 4:35
Exterior view of the High Points Dispensary building, featuring its sign above a covered entrance with columns.
The High Points Dispensary building, a legal cannabis business in Geneva, New York, is shown here.
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The owner of High Points Dispensary in Geneva is expanding, with a second cannabis retail location in Palmyra expected to open by mid-summer 2025 — and he’s doing much of the construction work himself.

Darryl Hilkert, who owns and operates High Points Dispensary near Denise’s on the west side of Geneva, stopped by FLX Morning to share news of the planned Palmyra store. Hilkert said his team recently secured the building and has begun a full interior demolition, with plans to renovate the exterior as well. He said the goal is a mid-summer opening, though he emphasized they’re in no rush to cut corners.

“We want to do it right and make it really nice — cross our T’s, dot our I’s,” Hilkert said. “The first time taught us everything, and now it makes it a little easier on the second one.”

Before entering the cannabis industry, Hilkert spent decades running a construction company. That background has proven useful — his crew handled everything at the Geneva location from demolition to completion, and they’re taking the same approach in Palmyra. He said the decision to open a dispensary was partly about finding a business that was easier on the body than construction work.

“Construction just beats you up so bad,” he said. “By the time you retire, you can’t really do too much to enjoy it.” When recreational cannabis was legalized in New York in 2022, Hilkert said he and his family saw an opportunity for what they thought would be a modest mom-and-pop shop. “It grew into something huge,” he said.

High Points recently passed an unannounced compliance inspection from New York State regulators, which Hilkert said checks documentation, operations, and adherence to the state’s cannabis rules. “We got an A double plus,” he said. “They’re happy with everything we’re doing.”

High Points Dispensary in Geneva is located near Denise’s restaurant on the city’s west side. For more information on the Geneva store or updates on the upcoming Palmyra location, customers can visit the dispensary in person.

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Paul Szmal: It's 7.54 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio, happy to be joined by Daryl Hilker from High Points Dispensary, right here in Geneva, just about, not even a mile from where our studios are, right there by Denny's, morning Daryl, how are you sir?

Darryl Hilkert: Morning Paul, how are you doing today?

Paul Szmal: I am good, and I'm curious, I don't know if we've talked about this before, but how is it that, well number one, what did you do before you decided to open a dispensary? Were you just a member of the working class brigade, or?

Darryl Hilkert: Oh yeah, I've run a construction company for many years, RGA Extreme Renovations, you know I've been a contractor on and off for my whole life, grew up doing construction, so construction was the base of my business for many, many years.

Paul Szmal: And what made you decide to make a switch?

Darryl Hilkert: Well it wasn't so much making a switch, it was thinking of something that was a little bit easier on the body, and a little bit of retirement, because construction just beats you up so bad that you're not going to, by the time you retire you're beat up, and can't really do too much to enjoy the afterlife of retirement. So when this came legal in New York, we thought it could be something neat to have a small mom and pop store, and you know it was meant to be something a lot smaller than what it actually is, I mean it grew into something huge over here, so yeah the construction got put on the back burner now, and we're mainly focusing just on this.

Paul Szmal: And I'm sure the construction experience influenced not only the purchase of the building, but then the design of what it looks like on the inside.

Darryl Hilkert: Oh yeah, yep, we did all the work over there, right from demolition to completion, and we're still doing that, we're doing it with another building we're doing now in Palmyra, we finally got secure on that building, so we're doing the renovation over there, hopefully mid-summer we can have another store open over in that area. Big news that's just coming to light for us, so that's a plus.

But when the cannabis legalization came to New York, we thought it would be a pretty neat thing to get into, because not everybody would be doing it, and you know, although there's a lot of people that want to get into it, it's not an easy business to get into and run.

Paul Szmal: You must have had to do a fair amount of studying and diligence before you even thought about opening the doors to a place.

Darryl Hilkert: Oh yeah, there's so much to it, and the regulations are still changing, since 2022 when they came legalized till now, there's been so many changes already, every meeting they have, they're trying to make it better, so some things are for the better, some for the worse, but it is a New York State facility, and they make the rules and regulations, and we follow them.

Paul Szmal: And you said you just had a, shall we say, with air quotes, surprise inspection?

Darryl Hilkert: Yeah, we had an unannounced compliance inspection, where they come through and they just check through and make sure you're doing all the things you're supposed to do, documenting everything you're supposed to document, and just running the facility the way that it's supposed to be. There's some stores out there that are legal stores that aren't quite doing everything they're supposed to, so those are the guys that'll get tagged a little bit more, but nope, we got an A++, doing great, they're happy with everything we're doing, so yeah, we're doing good.

Paul Szmal: What's the timeline on the Palmyra location, do you have an idea in your head as to when that might see the light of day?

Darryl Hilkert: That building's gonna entail a lot of construction, we're doing a complete demolition of the inside, so it's all gonna be brand new, the outside will be all freshened up with a new look on the outside, so we're not in a rush to get this one open, we wanna do it right and make it really nice, and cross our T's, dot our I's, do everything right the first time that we learned, the first time going through everything, so now it makes it a little easier on the second one, but we're hoping mid-summer to have a store open over there.

Paul Szmal: All right, well I appreciate the info, man, thanks for stopping by as always, appreciate it.

Darryl Hilkert: Thanks, have a good day.

Paul Szmal: All right, that's Daryl Hilker from High Points Dispensary in Geneva on FLX Morning.