New Día reopens as outpost of California cannabis company Cookies
Photo | Sloane Perron
The Cookies cannabis dispensary in Worcester
Less than six months after opening its doors, adult-use Worcester cannabis dispensary and economic empowerment applicant New Día’s flagship location reopened as an outpost of the California-based cannabis company Cookies on Saturday.
Ross Bradshaw, founder, CEO and 93% majority owner of New Día, confirmed on Wednesday that the company had formed a new partnership with Cookies. He said the partnership would include the same New Día team with a new brand, and that the dispensary would carry “all of the exclusive flower and local Worcester merchandise,” marking the first Cookies to open on the East Coast.
A spokesperson for the Cannabis Control Commission said on Tuesday the commission approved the name change for New Día in July, but has not yet approved a change of ownership or control for the business.
The CCC did also receive a change of ownership application related to New Día, the spokesperson said, which is now required to be reviewed and approved by the commission.
Bradshaw did not immediately clarify how the change in ownership would impact his 93% ownership of New Día, or whether the rebranding would make New Día an official Cookies franchise.
Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr., a Bay Area rapper and entrepreneur known more commonly as Berner, founded the Cookies company in 2008 with his partner Jai “Jigga” Chang, a cannabis breeder, according to the Cookies LinkedIn page.
Cookies has promoted the opening at 118 Cambridge St. across its social media platforms, including a video tour of the Worcester shop, posted to Instagram, showing a fully renovated storefront with iconic blue Cookies branding.
New Día, which opened to the public on March 1, was the first state-licensed economic empowerment cannabis applicant to open in Central Massachusetts, and only the fourth to receive final licensure in the state.
Economic empowerment applicants receive priority license review from the CCC. To be eligible to qualify, applicants must meet at least three of following six criteria, according to the CCC website:
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Majority ownership of the company belongs to people who have lived in designated areas of disproportionate impact for five of the last 10 years;
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Majority of ownership has held one or more previous positions where the primary population served were disproportionately impacted, or where primary responsibilities were related to serving such individuals or communities;
At least 51% of employees and subcontractors reside in areas of disproportionate impact, with that number reaching 71% by the company’s opening day;
At least 51% of employees or subcontractors have a drug-related criminal offender record but are otherwise legally employable in the cannabis industry;
A majority of the ownership is made up of people who are of Black, African-American, Hispanic or Latino descent;
Or, owners can demonstrate their past experience or business practices that promote economic empowerment in areas of disproportionate impact.
In order to benefit from their status as an economic empowerment applicant, an individual or group of individuals associated with an approved economic empowerment application must be listed on the license as a person having direct or indirect control, and that person or group must maintain at least a majority ownership of the cannabis establishment in question, per CCC regulations.
Bradshaw, who has made community involvement a priority in his business model, previously told WBJ that he worked with a small circle of family and friends to demolish and build out the original New Día location. A key tenet of New Día’s story was Bradshaw’s history of turning down large investors in exchange for maintaining majority ownership of his company.
Shortly after opening in Worcester, Bradshaw announced plans to open a second New Día location next to Fenway Park in Boston.
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