ATHOL — The Board of Planning and Community Development approved a special permit for Blue Jay Botanicals Wednesday night after the final public hearing on the proposed recreational cannabis shop, marking the second and final such shop allowed in town.
New Salem residents Cindy and Bill Hartwell plan to partner with Mass Grow LLC, the large-scale marijuana cultivator that owns the former L.P. Athol Corporation building, to open their business. Mass Grow intends to purchase the adjacent Victory Lane Motor Sales building and parking lot and rent the space to the Hartwells.
“We wanted to make Athol a destination for the (cannabis) industry in Massachusetts,” said Frank Perullo, owner of Mass Grow and CEO of the Novus Group business consulting firm.
Mass Grow has signed a purchase of sale agreement with the owners of Victory Lane Motor Sales, Robert and Sheila Hamilton, for just under $400,000. The 22 Chestnut Hill Ave. property includes a 3-story building and 2-acre parking lot that Mass Grow will rent to the Hartwells, serving as a landlord and primary wholesale distributor for the store. According to Perullo, the deal will close on Jan. 15 and renovations should begin in the spring.
“There is no closing date set as of now,” Robert Hamilton said. “It is predicated on the buyer getting their permits from the town and the state.”
Also on Jan. 15 Victory Lane Motor Sales’ business license will officially expire, and before then they must liquidate all their remaining vehicles. Alleged violations of faulty business practices, lack of proper signage and performing maintenance off site at a non-licensed facility will could prevent the town from renewing Victory Lane’s business license application this year.
According to Victory Lane owner Robert Hamilton, the used car dealership is willing to correct the errors, look for a new location and continue operating their towing business.
“We’re currently looking for another locations but we’re really not sure what we’re going to do,” Hamilton said.
Because Athol’s zoning bylaws limit the number of recreational marijuana facilities in town to 20 percent of the number of liquor stores, this is the last special permit the Planning Board can issue and the last pot shop allowed in town.
“People are glad there’s only two,” said Board member Jacqueline Doherty.
Blue Jay Botanicals would sell a wide array of products manufactured at the Mass Grow facility: marijuana, edibles, oils and other hemp-based products. Plans include renovating all three floors of the building, each about 2,000 square feet in size. The retail marijuana shop would occupy the first floor, office spaces on the second, but plans for a third floor “community space” have been put on hold.
No one from the community was present at Wednesday night’s hearing other than those involved in the business application, and the public hearing was officially closed. Select Board approved a host community agreement for Blue Jay Botanicals last month.
Traffic concerns were still the primary concern discussed at the second public hearing on the proposed pot shop. Tony Capachietti of Hayes Engineering presented plans to the Planning Board outlining changes to the layout to ease traffic concerns. These include extending the guardrail along the Main Street entrance, implementing a one-way entry and exit driveways, and painting left and right turn lanes when exiting onto Chestnut Hill Avenue.
“I’m getting fairly comfortable with the traffic and how it would be incorporated into the flow there,” said Planning Board chair David Small. “All the comments we’ve had have been about traffic.”
Watching rush hour traffic on Main Street last month, Capachietti counted 936 cars in one hour, which is consistent with MassDOT’s traffic estimates, he said. Because several other pot shops will have opened across the state by the time Blue Jay Botanicals opens next fall, neither the Hartwells nor the Planning Board expect traffic to be as bad as Northampton or Leicester, where the first two pot shops on the east coast opened in November.
The Board shared a draft of their conditions Wednesday night and approved them as modified. Conditions include providing the town with a detailed plan for opening day, implementing an odor control policy and allowing the Planning Board to conduct a traffic study soon after opening.
“Instead of a blanket special permit, it is a special permit with conditions,” said Cindy Hartwell, the daughter of former LP Athol Corporation building owner Vincent “Bill” Purple, who recently sold the L.P. Corporation building complex to Mass Grow.
Located on the corner of Chestnut Hill Ave and Main Street, the potential pot shop is immediately next to the former L.P. Athol Corporation building. Mass Grow plans to invest up to $20 million renovating the L.P. Athol Corporation building for grow space, cannabis processing facilities and even a testing lab.
“We wanted to control our own destiny,” Perullo said. “We wanted a campus.”
The Mass Grow facility will serve as the wholesaler for three of Perullo’s cannabis dispensaries in the state, two of which are located in the Boston area. Perullo said he wants to turn Athol into a destination for the cannabis industry, and sees the new business as a benefit to the town that will bring jobs and new life to parts of town plagued with empty space and blight.
“Cindy’s dad owned that building for 30 years and we’ve never see all the floors lit up like that,” Bill Hartwell said in reference to the recent renovations in the new Mass Grow building.
The Hartwells are still waiting for the state Cannabis Control Commission to approve their license application, after which the renovations can begin.
In March the first recreational cannabis dispensary in Athol, Elev8 Cannabis, will open across the street from the post office in downtown. Another recreational marijuana cultivation and processing company, 1620 Labs LLC, has received a special permit from the town to renovate the former Agway building on Exchange Street as well.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@atholdailynews.com.