A pair of adult use cannabis dispensaries appear due to open this year in the lower Naugatuck Valley.
In Derby, David Salinas said he hopes to open an as-yet unnamed recreational retail shop in space currently occupied by the Italian Pavilion, a venerated Valley eatery in business for more than 50 years.
Salinas told the Derby Planning and Zoning Commission at its Jan. 16 meeting that the restaurant’s current 6,000 square feet of space will be divided in two, with the retail cannabis shop occupying space in what is now its dining room. The eatery will still operate out of a smaller space, Salinas said.
The commission approved the application unanimously.
In an interview Thursday, the Milford resident and entrepreneur behind the District co-working space in New Haven said he hopes to start construction “as soon as possible.”
“I’d like to be open by summer 2024,” Salinas said. “I love that area. I feel that it attracts so many folks from different towns and cities around it. I love the proximity to the highway, the visibility to Route 8.”
Other occupants in the shopping center off Exit 16 of Route 8 include a Panera, Popeye’s, Starbucks, AT&T store, Aldi, a pharmacy, an urgent care and a smoke shop.
“I think it’s a great location,” Salinas said, adding that city officials have been very helpful during the process. “I’m surprised nobody tried to do anything prior to us coming in.”
Under state law, 3 percent of all the sales, or $30,000 of every $1 million, will go to the cities where dispensaries are located.
Salinas told the commission he hoped to serve 200 to 400 customers per day, but said it’s hard to predict how much they’d be spending on average. “It’s really market-dependent.”
Up Route 8 in Seymour, construction is already underway at a dispensary to be opened at the Seybridge Plaza on New Haven Road.
Efforts to reach a representative of the business, officially named Divine One LLC, which operates dispensaries elsewhere in the state, were unsuccessful.
Brown paper covered the windows of the prospective business Thursday, which was formerly occupied by Trilogy Lounge.
A construction permit was issued for the space Nov. 23, 2023.
Beside the Seymour business, there are no other licenses issued to any adult use cannabis retail businesses in the lower Naugatuck Valley, according to a search of the Department of Consumer Protection website.
Though cannabis shops have long been absent in the lower Valley, the tax benefits to municipalities for such businesses could help to drive economic development, according to Rick Dunne, executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.
“With a vendor located in your community, even if they make deliveries to other towns, Derby gets that tax revenue,” Dunne said.
Time will tell whether the Valley becomes any more or less attractive for such businesses, he said, predicting they will eventually be regulated similarly to liquor stores.
“I don’t know if it will be a destination,” Dunne said, citing a recent court decision that echoed the comparison. “It’s really no different than regulating package stores.”
H/T: MSN
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