And a Hartford board will hear residents’ comments Tuesday night about a plan to bring a Hartford-owned cannabis dispensary to the area near Dunkin’ Park.
LAZ Investments, the investment office of LAZ Parking magnate Alan Lazowski, has been granted a public hearing to seek a zoning amendment to allow for the former Goodyear property at 306 Market St. in Hartford to house a new recreational cannabis dispensary. LAZ Investments owns the now-vacant building and lot.
To allow for a dispensary at the site, which is directly between Dunkin’ Park stadium and the Connecticut River, the company is seeking an amendment allowing retail cannabis within 2,000 feet of the river. Current city regulations allow for cannabis retail only in the downtown, Main Street, industrial and multi-use zones in the city.
After several months of reviewing the permit application, the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission is now seeking public input for the property at its regular scheduled meeting on Tuesday.
The vision for the new recreational cannabis dispensary comes from entrepreneurs David Salinas and Janice Flemming-Butler. Let’s Grow Hartford, launched by Hartford native Flemming-Butler, seeks to give back to the city’s residents by creating a cannabis hub in downtown to leverage the city’s workforce and create generational wealth through social equity.
Lazowski, a well-known city developer, is also a principal of Let’s Grow Hartford through one of his subsidiaries, according to Salinas. Lazowski owns several properties in the city and is also the co-founder of LAZ Parking, a national company with parking lots at 3,500 locations across 41 states. The company, founded in 1981, employs over 13,000 employees and manages over $1 billion in annual revenues, according to its website.
Flemming-Butler, head of the state’s only Black female lobbying firm, is working with Salinas, a serial entrepreneur and founder of business incubator District New Haven who is also seeking to create the Parkville Arts & Innovation District in Hartford.
“We think it’s a great location for our cannabis business, it’s been really the central point of our strategy to use that location for our retail,” Salinas said. “We’re very hopeful that the city feels we would be a good occupant in that spot.”
In 2022, the two entrepreneurs announced plans to open a cannabis business “campus” in the city but challenges have since arisen. Salinas said that the pair plans on capitalizing on cannabis home delivery.
“Strategically we’ve had to make some modifications to the plan based off real estate availability, regulations, capital constraints and funding capacities,” Salinas said. “But we do have the ability to build a robust business in the state from seed to home because we have home delivery businesses. We do plan on taking advantage of that.”
The former Goodyear building, which has been shuttered for over a year, would allow for nearly 15,000 square feet of retail space.
“Typically the way I operate is if I can use a building I will,” Salinas said. “Our goal is to reuse the building as is. We think it’s a great building and it’s got good bones. We don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to repurpose it.”
The virtual Planning and Zoning meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m.
H/T: HartfordCourant.com
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