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October 7, 2024

30-year-old cannabis entrepreneur eyes East Hartford for new packaging business

Paige Cecchi

After a decade working in the cannabis investing and consulting field, 30-year-old Paige Cecchi is ready to strike out on her own with a small cannabis packaging business in East Hartford. 

The New York City-based cannabis entrepreneur has an application going before East Hartford’s Planning & Zoning Commission Wednesday. 

In it, Cecchi – operating under 351 Burnham LLC – details her plan to run a cannabis products packaging and manufacturing operation in an 8,000-square-foot light manufacturing building on nine-tenths of an acre at 351 Burnham St. The operations will include packaging cannabis flowers, pre-rolling smokable cannabis products and filling up vaping cartridges. 

Another limited liability company headed by Cecchi paid $420,000 for the 1981-vintage, metal-sided building in 2022. On Tuesday, Cecchi said she was drawn to invest in East Hartford as it was one of Connecticut’s first communities to adopt well-defined cannabis zoning regulations. 

CoStar
351 Burnham St., East Hartford

When Cecchi bought the building, her plan was to launch a business if her application for a license in the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection lottery was successful. If not, she hoped to lease out the property. 

Cecchi very nearly went the second route. 

In March, the Planning & Zoning Commission approved a plan by The White Oak Bridge company to open a cannabis warehousing and logistics business at 351 Burnham St. 

White Oak Bridge CEO Justin Frytz, on Monday, said his group has decided to focus on a larger property in a complex at 191 Park Ave. in East Hartford.  

There, he hopes to include manufacturing and distribution of cannabis-infused beverages with the logistics business. He expects to submit a fresh application to the town this week. 

There are no hard feelings, Cecchi said, and she plans to use The White Oak Bridge in her logistics chain. The more cannabis businesses thrive, the stronger the industry will be as a whole, she said. 

Cecchi has a cannabis products packaging license. She intends to apply to expand the license to allow for manufacturing capabilities as well."

Cecchi’s application to East Hartford said her business would run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., every day. It would launch with no more than nine employees in its first two years, then expand up to 16, Cecchi said. 

Cecchi teaches in the cannabis business graduate program at LIM College in New York. The East Hartford venture is her first time striking out independently. She said it will cost about $500,000 to upgrade a quarter of her East Hartford building for the new venture, which she expects to launch by January. She also said she plans to move to the East Hartford area to oversee the business. 

As part of its licensing process, 351 Burnham LLC is conducting a community needs survey to find out where it can best apply resources to help fill needs, possibly including food security, in areas disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. 

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