July 27, 2020
Fitchburg, becoming cannabis hub, approves 18th & 19th business
Photo | Courtesy | Dorothy Joyce
Ben Mangano, Revolutionary Clinics head chef, holds a cannabis chocolate bar.
By Grant Welker
Fitchburg has four cannabis operations up and running today, but far more are on the way, making the North Central Massachusetts city into something of a hub for the still-developing industry.
The city's Planning Board has approved Fitchburg's sixth and seventh proposed cannabis retail shops, adding to 12 production or growing facilities either in operation or have received city approval. Those latest approvals by the Planning Board on July 14 were for BOT Realty at 223 Lunenburg St. and Marchetti Industries at 50 Whalon St.
Those two retailers would join Local Roots, a shop at 371 Lunenburg St., which was the city's first in operation.
"There's a lot of investment taking place," said Mike O'Hara, the principal planner in Fitchburg's Department of Community Development.
Many more are on the way, including at a sprawling brick mill building at 431 Westminster St. that, at full build-out, would include 205,000 square feet of cultivation space. The site sold in April for $2.8 million to a limited liability corporation registered in Spokane Valley, Wash.
Apical, a firm that's won provisional licenses from the state Cannabis Control Commission for retail locations in Chicopee and Easthampton, obtained approval from the city for a 54,000-square-foot production facility in a first phase at the site. Eventually, Apical wants to use the building's 205,000 total square feet, according to permitting documents.
The operation would employ 35 people in the first phase and 115 once at full capacity. The city's special permit approval waived some nearby residential properties and a church from a typical 300-foot zone that buffers such properties from a cannabis business.
The 9-acre site last changed owners for just over $200,000 in 2016 when Matt Fournier, Peter Hatalyk and Justin Tousignant, the co-owners of the site, bought it.
The site would be the latest such cannabis-producing use in Fitchburg, which has an abundance of industrial space and relatively cheaper costs. All eight of its potential cannabis retail licenses, which is calculated by existing alcohol licenses, have been issued. The city received lots of inquiries for those licenses since the City Council approved an ordinance allowing for adult-use retail, O'Hara said.
Revolutionary Clinics and Garden Remedies already have production facilities in the city. Others have recently sought final approval from the Cannabis Control Commission: Atlantic Medicinal Partners, which plans a production and retail facility at 774 Crawford St.; Blue Collar Botany Corp., which proposes a cultivation facility at 644 River St.; Apothca, which proposes a manufacturing site at 99 Development Road; Native Sun Wellness, which would build a growing facility at 140 Industrial Road; and Ethos, which wants to build a retail and production site at 20 Authority Drive.
Atlantic Medicinal Partners has a certificate of occupancy from the city, and Ethos and Apical are working on their facilities. Others are in various stages of development.
Large industrial properties like Apical's Westminster Street site that have cannabis uses in place or planned have also sold for significant sums.
A similar large site that's now used for cannabis production in Athol sold in April for nearly $27 million. That site, the former Union Twist Drill Co. mill at 134 Chestnut Hill Ave., was bought by Innovative Industrial Properties, a San Diego real estate investment trust serving the cannabis industry. Another potential cannabis cultivation facility sold in June for $10 million at 179 Brook St. in Clinton.
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