Heka, which was one of Westfield’s three cannabis dispensaries clustered near the Turnpike, closed abruptly Monday after years of litigation from disgruntled landlords and investors.
Heka sold both recreational and medical-use products from 98 Sergeant Thomas Dion Way near the Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport.
Staffers reached by phone couldn’t discuss the shutdown in detail and there were no announcements online or through social media. But a sign strung between two tanks for transporting bulk liquids declared the business’ closure and thanked customers.
In 2018, Heka’s financial backers, Westfield Investment Group, and the landlords for potential-but-never-opened locations in Pittsfield and West Springfield, sued Heka for allegedly breaching loans and leases among other claims and sued its president and CEO Mark A. Dupuis for misrepresentation.
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The case was in the state courts for five years before plaintiffs were awarded a total of $6.2 million in February 2023.
Around that time, Heka shut down its growing and processing operations due to financial pressure, instead buying cannabis from Apical in Framingham, Dupuis said in court filings.
In March 2024, the plaintiffs sued again, seeking to collect $6.2 million and asked the judge to appoint a receiver to oversee Heka’s assets. Plaintiffs said Dupuis and Heka were shifting assets between entities, a charge Dupuis denied in his court filings.
Dupuis told the court in April that Heka had a market value of about $300,000 and could pay $20,000 a month to its creditors as long as it could continue to operate without its accounts frozen.
Heka’s attorneys in the matter didn’t return a phone message Monday. No one was available at the location to answer questions.
Alden Credit Union owns the building at 98 Sergeant Thomas Dion Way, having bought it in 2022 from a Dupuis-controlled company for $6.4 million after having been a mortgage lender to the project.
Peter J. Miller, director of community development and planning for Westfield, said he was not informed of the shutdown by either Heka or by the state Cannabis Control Commission.
The Cannabis Control Commission did not return a request for comment.
The shutdown leaves Westfield with only two marijuana retailers — Cannabis Connection and Pioneer Valley Trading Co. — out of a maximum of four licenses allowed by city regulations.
When it opened in October 2021, Heka promised to employ 100 or more people and offer 60 to 70 strains of cannabis.
It’s unclear how many people worked for Heka at the end.
A long-promised Pittsfield location at 745 East St. never opened and is till listed as “coming soon” on the company’s website. Its Facebook page was last updated in September 2022.
The name Heka comes from the ancient Egyptian word for both the practice of magic and of the god of medicine and magic. Heka had faced criticism from a former employee over the quality of the cannabis it grew and problems with mold and insects.
More cannabis consolidation to come
Ryan Dominguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition, an industry trade group, said there will be more consolidation in the state’s six-year-old, $1.6-billion-a-year cannabis industry.
The price of an ounce of flower product is still low, at $143 an ounce, down from more than $400 an ounce in 2021.
“You are seeing a race to the bottom,” Dominguez said. “It is really hard for some of these business to keep their doors open.”
Supports like outside investors and the state’s social equity trust fund can help. But the market is oversaturated, he said.
“You will start seeing more of these closures as we get into the late part of this year and into next year,” Dominguez said.
H/T: www.bizjournals.com
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