Cannabis shops to break ground in Norwalk in July

Race to be city’s first recreational retail location

NORWALK — Cannabis companies Fine Fettle and Shangri-La both plan to break ground on their retail locations in July as they race to open the city’s first recreational cannabis dispensary.

Ben Zachs, chief operating officer at Fine Fettle, said the company is finalizing its construction documents and will send its application and materials for the 191 Main St. location to Norwalk’s building and code enforcement department in two to three weeks. Meanwhile, Shangri-La has already submitted them, said CEO Nevil Patel.

“We are actively looking forward to completing the process and construction to be first in the market,” Patel said.

Fine Fettle, which has several dispensaries in Connecticut, including in Stamford, earned its special permit from the Planning and Zoning Commission in April, a few weeks before Shangri-La got its approval for a recreational cannabis dispensary at 430 Main Ave.

“Our goal is to beat [Shangri-La] to market,” Zachs said.

Following the construction approvals, Fine Fettle will build off of the existing two-story structure to create a vestibule and approximately 800square foot space that, in part, will house a staterequired vault to contain cannabis products, Zachs said.

He said he’d “love to be open tomorrow,” but construction takes time before the location will be retail-ready.

In a multi-tenant strip mall at 430 Main Ave., Shangri-La’s construction, consisting solely of interior renovations, will likely wrap up in mid-October to late November.

“We are hopeful we can complete construction between a three to four month time period,” Patel said.

The two-story site, Shangri-La’s first East Coast location, will house offices on the second floor and sell cannabis out of the first floor, Patel said.

So far, both companies’ plans have been reviewed by Norwalk’s fire marshal and departments of transportation, mobility and parking, planning and zoning, police and public works, among others.

Fine Fettle will sell recreational cannabis as an equity joint venture: the company has partnered with an individual that owns or controls at least half of the business whose income was less than three times the state median over the past three tax years.

The partner also must have either resided in a disproportionately impacted area for a minimum of five of the last 10 years or for nine years before age 18. Disproportionately impacted areas are census tracts with a “historical conviction rate for drug-related offenses greater than [10 percent].”

Kennard Ray is listed on the provisional adultuse cannabis retailer license for the proposed location.

Conversely, Shangri-La applied in the state Social Equity Council’s general lottery and was granted a provisional retailer license.

Patel said the company is in the midst of hiring different contractors for the site.

“All the plans are being built,” he said. “We’re signing contractors, subcontractors, security.”

Zack Mecier, the construction project manager for Connecticut at Shangri-La, said full drawings for the proposed dispensary will be submitted to the state the week of June 12.

Hiring for the retail location will take place during construction, two months from opening, Patel said.

Mecier said he looks forward to when the location finally opens.

“As a cannabis user myself, I’m excited to create jobs in the community,” he said.