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Date: 8/3/2021
EASTHAMPTON – After two straight weeks of public hearings, the Easthampton Planning Board unanimously approved a special permit for Clovercraft, doing business as Budzee on 17 East St., to operate as a marijuana delivery operator.
Kevin Perrier, the applicant and CEO of Five Star Building Corp., presented the overall business plan during the first public hearing on July 20. The operator business will be conducted inside the existing property on 17 East St. with very few modifications. Perrier already owned the property through Norwich Properties.
Under the most recent ordinance passed by the Easthampton City Council, marijuana delivery operators are now allowed in the city as a warehouse-type business. Operators purchase and store wholesale marijuana in this warehouse-type location under the guidance of several rules and regulations.
The existing structure includes parking areas for staff and operator vehicles. “There’s really zero changes to the exterior other than changing the logo on those two signs,” said Perrier, regarding the two exterior signs that display the business name.
The interior will feature a warehouse area where operator vehicles would enter, the garage door would close, and the product can be loaded onto the operator trucks through an existing vault, much like a sally port.
When the company receives full sale products from suppliers, those vehicles delivering them will also go through the garage door and drop them off in sealed containers. Those containers are then brought into the receiving area of the building and then stored in the vault. Once the product is in, delivery orders will be fulfilled in the vault. The order is then put in a locked and sealed container, and that container goes into another sealed room for driver pickup. The drivers then head out for the deliveries for the day.
“We can carry up to $10,000 of product so they’ll be taking a day’s worth of orders,” said Perrier. “It’s not a lot of in and out … it’s more leave, and you’re out for your shift.”
The warehouse will not be open to the public, but there is a side entry that will go to a secure vestibule if for some odd reason someone does visit. There is also a driver training room, as well as ancillary offices and a security room. The camera locations were verified by the city’s Police Department.
“For $10,000, you would probably see that as an average of 100 patrons…we’re going to have one vehicle leave,” said Perrier, who added that an odor will not be present since the vault where the product is stored will be sealed. The immediate neighbors do not have any opposition to this, according to Perrier.
There are 31 parking spaces, and Perrier expects that there will be three staff per shift. Two shifts will be operated per day within the 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. hours allowed by the city ordinance. There is full-time security between operation hours, and they will open the garage door when they see one of their drivers come in. Each driver will also have key card access if security is tied up.
Under the current ordinance, if a marijuana operator fleet has six or more vehicles, then at least a third of that fleet needs to be electric vehicles. Perrier said during the July 20 meeting that the initial plan is to purchase five and see how the operations progress. He plans on increasing the fleet at some point in the future.
“What we’d like to ensure is that we fall within the 31 spaces, and we’re not parking all over the place,” said Perrier. “We’d like the option to have this facility accommodate 31 vehicles.”
As one of the owners of Dreamer Cannabis in Southampton, Perrier said that he has a general idea of what is popular and what is not when it comes to product.
The Planning Board could not vote on the topic during the July 20 meeting since they did not have a quorum, so they went over the guidelines and officially approved the operation during a July 27 special meeting. One of the major conditions is the operation cannot have more than 15 delivery vehicles on site at any point. Any change in owner must also be brought forth to the Planning Board. Other detailed conditions were agreed upon during the July 27 meeting.
A document of the plan can be found on the Easthampton website at https://www.easthamptonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2383/SPA-plans_17East.