STRATFORD — A Michigan-based company has won approval to open a recreational cannabis store off Interstate 95, a retail facility that is now set to be the town’s first dispensary after earlier plans from a separate company fell through.
The Stratford Zoning Commission voted unanimously this week to approve plans from C3 Industries, which operates two dozen dispensaries in the Midwest and New England, to open the store at 130 Honeyspot Road.
The company plans to construct a new entrance for the two-story structure and is aiming to renovate much of the existing 113-year-old building, which previously housed Johnny’s Restaurant but has sat empty for several years and has fallen into disrepair.
“We think that aesthetically the building is not great to look at today but the bones are very solid,” Ankur Rungta, the company’s co-founder and CEO, told the commission. “We feel very comfortable that we will be able to make the necessary renovations to bring it back to life and to hopefully make it a really attractive building and better than what it currently looks like.”
Rungta said it could take up to a year for the company to complete the renovation, build a new addition and secure the necessary approvals from the state Department of Consumer Protection, which regulates Connecticut’s budding cannabis market.
So far, the state has only approved several adult-use dispensaries.
Still, the store will likely be the first dispensary to open in Stratford since state lawmakers legalized marijuana in 2021 for adults who are at least 21 years old. The first recreational sales began earlier this year in a handful of towns and cities.
However, the application is not the first time a cannabis company has proposed opening a local dispensary. Earlier this year, the commission approved plans from Illinois-based Verano Holdings to open a retail facility on Stratford Avenue despite pushback from residents concerned about the facility.
But the project ultimately fell apart after Verano learned the tenant currently occupying the Stratford Avenue building, a popular beauty supply store, held a multi-year lease preventing the cannabis company from taking over the property and converting the store into a dispensary.
A spokesperson for Verano, a national company that operates more than 100 dispensaries, including a pair in Connecticut, has said the company still plans to expand its footprint in the state, but has not yet announced any new locations.
C3 Industries, which was founded in 2018, began in Michigan before opening cultivation and retail facilities in Missouri and Massachusetts. Rungta said C3 is now planning on opening a dispensary in Canton and a cultivation facility in East Hartford as part of a plan to grow the company.
“We’re currently in the process of expanding into a number of new states, Connecticut being the first as well as New Jersey and Illinois,” he said. “So we are expanding our business as we speak.”
Site plans show the company plans to build a 100-square-foot addition on the rear of the property that will serve as a new main entrance for customers. They also plan to outfit the unfinished second floor with storage and office space and construct a new fenced-off parking lot that will include 25 spaces.
The dispensary will rely on a carbon filtration system to prevent odor from escaping the building, according to the application. The plans also show the cannabis products will be stored in vaults and that the facility will be monitored by video surveillance equipment.
The vote to approve the dispensary comes about a month after the commission endorsed plans from a separate cannabis company to open a 3,700 square-foot manufacturing facility in an old brewery on Honeyspot Road to make THC-infused snacks and beverages.
The Honeyspot Road location will be located a block or so from St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church and, like the controversial dispensary that was briefly planned for Stratford Avenue, near a largely residential area.
As part of the commission’s decision to approve the dispensary, the panel included a requirement that the store can only be open from noon to 9 p.m. on Sundays in order to not disrupt worship services. On every other day of the week, the store can welcome customers between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.
H/T: CTPost.com
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