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The Manchester Planning and Zoning Commission approved a permit Wednesday for a hybrid-use cannabis retailer along Buckland Street to be built in the former Friendly’s restaurant building.
The applicant, Curaleaf, operates dispensaries nationwide, including medical facilities in Groton, Hartford, Milford, and Stamford.
Curaleaf submitted the application in July, describing a facility that would be used to sell both recreational and medical cannabis products.
The application proposed using the existing building for the dispensary with minimal modification to the site.
No changes were proposed to the building size, height, or location on the property at 240 Buckland St.
Benjamin Clack, a real estate lawyer for Curaleaf, said the company expects it won’t receive the necessary permit from the state to operate as a hybrid retailer until January.
Clack said the company is “technically the largest operator in the United States and the world” with a recent expansion into the European market. Curaleaf has 132 retailers and 26 cultivation sites across the country, a number that grows month by month as state regulations change, he said.
Curaleaf intends to move its Hartford operations to the Manchester location, as the location has easier access and more parking.
The site is at the base of Pavilions Drive, a main entrance to the Shoppes at Buckland Hills Mall, and near major exit and entrance ramps and connectors to interstate highways, including I-84, I-384, and I-291.
Christina Capitan, an advocate with the group CT CannaWarriors, said she has a number of issues with the idea of the Curaleaf facility at the former Friendy’s site.
Capitan said as a large corporation, Curaleaf has the pull and the resources to stifle competition, especially equity applicants who received priority licenses in an effort to correct injustices from enforcement of previous state drug laws.
“I would really love to see Connecticut leave some room for these smaller local operators to thrive,” Capitan said.
Capitan said that the move from Hartford to Manchester could prove unfair for those who frequent the Hartford retailer for medical-use cannabis products.
“The patients in Hartford may not be able to access their dispensary anymore and that’s a big concern … as a patient advocate and a consumer myself,” Capitan said.
PZC Chairman Eric Prause said the facility follows all the regulations laid out by the PZC in December 2021, and would be a generally appropriate use of the site.
PZC Vice Chairman Patrick Kennedy said he’d like to see the site of the vacant Friendy’s restaurant put to use.
“The fact that something’s being done with it is a positive,” Kennedy said.
PZC member Michael Stebe asked Clack if Curaleaf could begin operations as a strictly medical-use dispensary in Manchester before receiving hybrid approval.
Clack replied he was not sure, but that he intends to find out and report back.
In June 2022, the PZC unanimously approved an application from Fine Fettle for a recreational cannabis retailer at a nearby site at 91 Hale Road. The location is less than a mile from the Shoppes at Buckland Hills and in the same building as Leslie’s Pool Supplies.
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