Cannabis grower approved for Worcester
Photo | Grant Welker
Calyx Peak plans to move into a 100,000-square-foot building on Pullman Street in Worcester.
A cannabis cultivation and manufacturing center has local approval to open on Pullman Street in Worcester.
No opening date for beginning of distribution is set but it could be next summer, Calyx Peak CEO Ed Schmults said in an interview. The company is eyeing a location in Mansfield for its national headquarters, seeing a potentially massive market in Massachusetts, the first East Coast state to allow recreational marijuana retail sales.
"We expect a strong presence in Massachusetts," said Schmults, who lives in Providence. Schmults and the company's vice presidents of finance, merchandising and marketing are in New England while other top executives are in California, where Calyx Peak has two large facilities north and south of Los Angeles.
"We're thinking nationally, and we want to have senior executives in our key markets. Right now, the two big ones are California and Massachusetts," he said.
Calyx Peak, which has marijuana operations in California, Nevada and Ohio, received Worcester Planning Board approval June 26. The company hopes to open three retail locations in Massachusetts, with locations yet to be determined.
Before it can open, the company still needs final approval from the state Cannabis Control Commission.
Calyx Peak's Worcester facility is planned to initially employ 20 people, and eventually up to 52. It will be closed to the public, and open only to workers who will staff the facility between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. each day.
The facility, which will take up a large part of a 104,000-square-foot building at 10 Pullman St., will also have around-the-clock video surveillance, Schmults said.
Nationwide, the company has roughly 175 employees but hopes to grow it by the end of the year to around 250, Schmults said.
The 10 Pullman St. property, which a warehouse built in 1940, is owned by a limited liability corporation registered to Worcester developer Chacharone Properties. The firm bought the site in 2016 for $950,000.
Calyx Peak is the latest company to be approved for operations in Worcester since retail sales began last fall.
Good Chemistry opened its adult-use retail shop in the spring, and Temescal Wellness runs a cultivation facility at 143 Southwest Cutoff.
Provisional state licenses are in place for recreational sales for Mayflower Medicinals, Mission Massachusetts (which is also seeking a cultivation and production facility in the city), and Trichrome Health Corp. Applications for retail shops have been submitted to the state's Cannabis Control Commission by the entities The Botanist, Evergreen Strategies, Munro Associates, The Headyco, Suns Mass II, and TDMA.
Evergreen Strategies would operate at 143 Southwest Cutoff, Mission Massachusetts at 640 Lincoln St., Mayflower Medicinals at 645 Park Avenue, Trichome Health Corp. at 68 West Boylston St., TDMA at 74 Grafton St.
RC Cultivation and Supercritical Mass Laboratories have submitted applications for cultivation facilities at 30 Pullman St. and 251 Brooks St., respectively.
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