DUDLEY – A company seeking to site a marijuana cultivating, processing and retail sales operation is holding a community outreach meeting for residents 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Dudley Municipal Complex.
Selectmen recently met with representatives of DMA Holdings (MA) LLC, who seek a host community agreement to develop the marijuana business at 35 and 37 Chase Ave.
Joseph Villatico, founding member of DMA, told the board he is a Webster native and was therefore drawn to this area to establish the business.
“To come here and try to employ 250 jobs or more I think is something that could really bring something good to the community and to the town,” he said.
The plan is to first open a retail store in the 37 Chase Ave. building and generate revenue while renovating the 35 Chase Ave. building for the cultivation and processing operation.
“Philosophically, I’m not opposed to it but I’m not in favor of it unless and until you can prove to me personally that it’s in Dudley’s decent, good profitable interest, and still allows you folks to certainly make a living in what you are proposing to do,” Selectman Paul M. Joseph said. “But, in my mind, that’s a high bar because if I sense an inkling that it’s not good for Dudley, you’ll hear about it.”
DMA attorney Nicholas Adamopoulos of Lake Shore Legal LLC said the town would benefit from receiving 3 percent of the retail sales, the addition of 200-300 new jobs with hiring preference given to Dudley residents, the use of local contractors in the building renovations, and company support of charitable endeavors in town.
Adamopoulos said the site is properly zoned for the proposed business. The company’s application to the state Cannabis Control Commission will be for recreational marijuana business licenses; no medicinal.
The plan includes 100,000 square feet of indoor growing in the larger building and a 5,000 square foot retail space in the smaller building at 35 Chase Ave.
The growing and processing would operate in a self-contained environment with carbon scrubbers on the exhaust system to mitigate odor.
“There will be minimum to no odor put outside,” Adamopoulos said.
Villatico said DMA Holdings operates a similar business in Colorado, where about 250 people are employed and therefore brings industry experience to the enterprise.
The owner of record for the site is Chase Mill Realty LLC of Webster, whose principal agent is Theodore R. Kistner.
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