Pot retailer slates meeting in Blackstone
Company seeking to open marijuana store offers to discuss plans at community forum
BLACKSTONE — A retail cannabis company is ready to discuss its proposal to open a cannabis retail store on Lloyd Street at a community outreach meeting slated for Jan. 24.
Outreach meetings are required by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission and must be held before any local permitting begins.
The Jan. 24 session will be held at 5 p.m. at the Millerville Mens Club, 8 Lloyd St., where representatives of DDM Sales, Inc. will discuss its plans to put an adult-use retail cannabis dispensary in at nearby 1 Lloyd St., the former Bell Liquors building located between the Millerville Men’s Club and Stop & Shop plaza.
Blackstone attorney Christopher Ryan, representing DDM Sales, Inc., says the community meeting will include a Powerpoint presentation focusing on everything from parking to security and a team of experts in the medical and recreational cannabis industries, including a doctor from Harvard Medical School.
The session will be televised on local cable access television.
“This will be an extensive and thorough presentation that is likely to last two to three hours and answer any question someone may have,” Ryan said.
A Massachusetts domestic profit corporation filed on Sept. 21, Ddm Sales, Inc. lists two principals on record - Rekhaben V. and Vishnubhai B. Patel, both from Wrentham. The principals own six different businesses, including a Fairfield Inn by Marriott.
According to Ryan, the corporation has filed a license with the CCC and is also in the process of securing a host community agreement with Blackstone.
Prospective marijuana
businesses are required to secure host community agreements before they can apply for a license from the state. Under the law, local officials can also set the tax rate on marijuana sold within their city or town’s limits, up to 3 percent. Unlike medical marijuana, recreational cannabis will be taxed.
The state plans to levy a 6.25 percent sales tax and 10.75 percent excise tax, and leave to the discretion of municipal officials an option to levy the local tax up to 3 percent.
According to Ryan, DDM Sales is proposing to establish a strictly cannabis sales facility, which would purchase marijuana from nearby grow houses. Products will include THC-infused edible products. Up
to 13.1 percent of all marijuana-related transactions involve edible products, making them the second most popular type of cannabis product sold in the U.S.
The proposed Blackstone business will be located in the front portion of the building, which currently houses Diamond Overhead Door in the back.
If eventually approved, the dispensary would have state- of- the art electronic security and fire alarm systems; uninterruptible power supplies; 24/7 monitoring; a fenced-in perimeter; outside lighting; and private security details.
Unlike a liquor store where patrons can walk in and grab a product off the shelf, cannabis dispensaries are highly controlled, Ryan said. When entering the building, customers are are required to wait in a secure room pending security checks. Only then will
a customer be buzzed into the actual dispensary.
If approved by the town, the dispensary would hire Blackstone residents, especially Blackstone veterans, he said.
DDM’s dispensary proposal was introduced to the town about a month after the Family Grocer convenience store on Main Street unveiled its proposal to open the town’s first licensed retail marijuana store. Owner and manager Gurpreet Kalra is in the process of applying for a provisional license from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission and is also looking to sign a host community agreement with the town.
Blackstone has zoning regulations for various marijuana businesses, which are restricted to commercial and industrial zones.
Blackstone, Millville and Uxbridge have all been
courted in recent months by marijuana businesses looking to set up shop.
Late last year, Millville signed a community host agreement with Blackstone Valley Cultivation Co. co-owners Cassandra Heneault and Lisa Cadan, who are applying for a cultivation license from the state to establish a marijuana growing and processing operation at 141 Lincoln St. The proposed cultivation and manufacturing facility would be located at 141 Lincoln St., which is a residential home in a “commercial business” zone that the company is under contract to purchase. If approved, the company would eventually construct a third 5,000-square-foot building for manufacturing and storage followed by a 10,000-square-foot building for cultivation.
A retail cannabis company is also proposing to
open a cannabis retail store at Marty’s Liquors on Buxton Street. Garden Wonders is proposing to sublease 1,000-square feet of the existing brick-and-mortar store for the sale of cannabis.
Uxbridge has signed six community host agreements with a marijuana companies, including Deep Roots Craft Cannabis, a family-owned cannabis start up that is looking to establish a marijuana growing and processing operation on West Street.
The company is seeking a micro business license from the state Cannabis Control Commission, which will allow it to cultivate, market and distribute cannabis products wholesale to partnering dispensaries. Cultivation and manufacturing operations will take place in an existing 14,500-square-foot building located at 420 West St.,
which is zoned industrial. If approved by the state and town, the company’s principals estimate that the business could see revenues of more than $10 million in three years. The host agreement approved by the selectmen would provide an impact fee to the town of 1.75 percent of gross sales for the first five years.
The town has already voted to enter host community agreements with three recreational marijuana establishments – Grass Appeal, Gibby’s Garden and Caroline’s Cannabis, LLC; Blackstone Valley Naturals LLC, which is looking operate a cultivation and manufacturing facility, at 660 Douglas St.; and Baked Bean LLC for a marijuana processing and transportation establishment at 504 Quaker Highway.