Currently vacant, future dispensary? Hi! People’s David Salinas: “I think it’s important to understand that a dispensary is not a bad business.” The owner of a long-planned cannabis dispensary at 1041 State St. said that construction is now underway, and that the shop could open in th e next few months. David Salinas, a principal of Let’s Grow Hartford LLC, laid out that timeline at Monday night’s latest monthly East Rock Community Management Team meeting on Zoom. He said exploratory demolition began a couple of weeks ago, and masonry work started Monday. “In a perfect world, I’d say that our construction timeline is 120 days or less,” Salinas said, a window that includes getting a final license from the state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP). With the holidays approaching, he said, “I think it would be a winter open.” Salinas, who also founded the DISTRICT co-working hub nearby in Fair Haven, said his cannabis business currently holds a provisional state license. The City Plan Commission approved the dispensary — planned to operate under the name Hi! People — in 2023. At the time, Salinas said it could open as early as January 2024. His company later bought the former industrial building for $3.15 million, scrapping a previous developer’s plan for 75 apartments across the street from the Corsair. It is the only dispensary slated to open in East Rock, and one of five allowed under the city’s cap. The discussion was added to Monday’s agenda at the request of Irma Cordero, who lives directly across the street from the site. She described her block as a small dead-end street with three two-family homes, “very limited parking, and an auto repair shop already competing for space.” “I’m asking for specific documented protections for residents regarding parking,” she said. Salinas said the dispensary will have its own parking lot, with somewhere between 16 and 19 spaces, on the opposite side of the building, where the store’s entrance will also be. That means that customers won’t come or go from Cordero’s street, Mill River Street. He estimated the store would see three to five customers an hour, with about three employees working per shift. He said he hopes to hire locally so that some workers can walk or bike to work.  Cordero pressed further: “What happens when your parking lot is full, and how will you guarantee that your customers won’t take our limited parking spaces?” Salinas said the street’s parking problems predate his business, and urged residents to file complaints with parking enforcement about cars that sit there without permits. Cordero also asked for official measurements showing the site meets the required distance from a school, noting that East Rock School is a block away. Salinas said he didn’t have them on hand. “Ms. Cordero, just so you know, my special permit was granted to me two-and-a-half years ago,” he said, adding that the required distance is measured in feet, not blocks, and that the city found the site in compliance. “You can call the city.” Salinas said he already runs two Hi! People stores: one in Derby, open for about two years, and one in Hartford, open for nearly a year. “I think it’s important to understand that a dispensary is not a bad business,” Salinas said. He drew a contrast with smoke shops, which he said are not regulated and “serve minors.” At his store, “you cannot walk into my facility, not even through the door, without showing your ID, to even see the product,” he said. “It is a very highly regulated thing that we’re doing here.” Products leave the store in a stapled paper bag, and customers aren’t allowed to consume cannabis on the property, “which includes your sidewalk and street,” Salinas said. “So we would be very much policing that.” He said the store’s camera and security system costs about $250,000 and is required to have “double redundancy to the police department and to DCP.” He has already installed cameras on the building, which he said was broken into after a deteriorating fence was removed. The cameras flag activity to a central system that can dispatch help or warn off intruders, he said. Product will be stored in a vault with a charcoal filter, so any odor is cleaned before it leaves the room. “Our customers are transient, they come in and out,” Salinas said, adding that most are “north of 40 years old.” In an interview after the meeting, Salinas told the Independent that his business received a provisional license from the state, effective Aug. 5 of this year. It will remain provisional until the business completes the building requirements and receives its final license. He said the 1041 State St. store plans to open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. He expects to employ 16 to 19 people, and said that with part-time hires, the total could reach 35 to 40. Salinas also said the business plans to donate to the Police Athletic League and an anti-recidivism program as part of its social equity plan.  “Our goal is to be good citizens of East Rock as we are in Fair Haven,” he said. Cordero said about 20 people live on her street alone, and asked for “some accountability and some things in writing.”  East Rock/Fair Haven Alder Maria-Threese D. Serana said she would bring residents’ questions to City Plan officials. “I know this is not the end,” said management team chair Jamaal Thomas. “I know there will be more questions.” Local zoning laws currently limit the number of recreational cannabis dispensaries in New Haven to five. While the City Plan Commission has issued requisite special permits to five such businesses, including Salinas’s, only three retail dispensaries are currently open: INSA’s at 222 Sargent Dr., Affinity Health Wellness at 1351 Whalley Ave., and Lit New Haven at 169 East St. The post State Street Cannabiz Aims For Winter Opening appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less