WESTFIELD — With a host community agreement from the city in hand, Canna Ultra Premium Westfield, which is planning to open in the former Heka facility, was granted three provisional licenses by the Cannabis Control Commission during its meeting in Worcester on Thursday.
The three provisional licenses the CCC approved were for the business operating as a marijuana retailer, a manufacturer of marijuana products, and a Tier 4 Indoor license to cultivate marijuana at its facility at 98 TM Dion Way.
At the meeting, the CCC’s Licensing Manager Tsuko Defoe said the business was on an expedited review process because one of its owners is a social equity applicant.
Last May, the business group led by Adenike “Nike” John and partners Wayne Shaffer and Stephen Berardino approached the city to ask about entering into a community host agreement before it sought the licensing for the operation by the CCC.
In October, after hosting the required Community Outreach Meeting, the City Council approved the host agreement by a vote of 8-3.
The city will receive 3% of retail sales as part of the Host Community Agreement. The company included in its CCC application that it would donate $5,000 each year to the West Springfield Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6714.
During that council meeting, Legislative & Ordinance Committee Chair William Onyski said the business had met all city and state standards, and added that its primary principal, John, owns a cannabis retail shop, The Heritage Club, in Boston, which has had no violations since it opened.
According to LinkedIn, John is the founder and owner of The Heritage Club, which operates as a retail marijuana dispensary opening in 2022.
At that time, Phil Silverman, an attorney with Boston-based Vincente LLC representing Westfield Ultra Premium LLC, which will do business as Canna Ultra Premium Westfield, said the company is planning on installing equipment needed to extract the oils from marijuana flower used in edibles like gummies, chocolate bars, and cannabis-infused beverages, which was the reason for the license for marijuana product manufacturing.
It typically takes between 12 and 14 months for a new facility to be built from the ground up and secure the licenses needed from the CCC to open.
Because the facility was built for one purpose, Silverman said the CCC required architectural review process should take less time.
Also in the CCC application, Westfield Ultra proposed goals for its diversity plan.
The number one goal is to hire women to fill at least 50% of its workforce, 20% with people of color, 10% with veterans, 10% with persons with disabilities and 10% with LGBTQ+ people.
It also proposed having at least one cultural training each year on cultural sensitivity and recognizing unconscious bias, and having all of its contractors 20% women, 30% people of color, and 50% veterans, LGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities-owned businesses.
In March 2023, Shaffer and Berardino were the two managers of Tier II Holdings LLC, which tried, but was unsuccessful, in purchasing the former Chez Josef to use as a cannabis dispensary.
Last August, Heka abruptly closed its doors, but even before it opened in October 2021, it was already embroiled in several lawsuits filed against it by its early investors, one contractor and its former legal counsel for nonpayment.
Alden Credit Union now owns the building, having bought it in 2022 from Heka’s former CEO for $6.4 million after having been a mortgage lender for the project.
Peter J. Miller, director of community development and planning for Westfield, said he was not informed of the shutdown by either Heka or by the state Cannabis Control Commission.
After Heka closed, it left only two marijuana retailers in the city — Cannabis Connection and Pioneer Valley Trading Co. The city has four licenses it can grant for recreational marijuana operations.
Attempts to speak with Silverman before press time were unsuccessful.
