WHATELY — Despite one marijuana dispensary receiving approval to operate in 2019 and another store in the neighboring unit getting the go-ahead in October 2021, the former Sugarloaf Shoppes remain empty at the intersections of Routes 5, 10 and 116.
ToroVerde and Debilitating Medical Condition Treatment Centers (DMCTC) both received site plan and special permit approval from the Whately Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, and yet, neither store has opened in the vacant shopping plaza.
Over the course of the last year, ToroVerde has laid out several opening dates for the dispensary. ToroVerde President William Beetz and CEO John Bonavita wrote a letter to the editor in August 2021 stating they expected the store “to open this fall.” Then in January, Attorney Richard Evans, who has represented the company, said ToroVerde expected to open the store at some point this year during a Whately Selectboard meeting that saw the board grant an extension to the company’s host community agreement.
“ToroVerde hopes to open this spring or summer. … By this time, we’re confident the company will be up and operating,” Evans told the board at the January meeting. “Everything is going forward. They’ve made a big investment in the facility.”
Multiple attempts to contact Beetz about the store’s plans were unsuccessful.
For DMCTC, which ToroVerde opposed throughout the permitting process, progress is happening at the former Sugarloaf Shoppes, but at a slower rate because it is a home-grown company with all of its assets based in Whately, according to company Director Jared Glanz-Berger. DMCTC also operates a cultivation and manufacturing facility on River Road.
“We’re kind of feeling the stones to cross the river. As we go along, we’ll figure out what works,” Glanz-Berger said. “We’re a vertically-integrated company within the four walls of Whately … which I think is pretty cool. We’ve been really successful at getting operational on the wholesale side and that’s where we’ve focused our efforts for now.”
He said DMCTC had a “successful crop last year,” and the growing and manufacturing season is underway for this year’s crop. Currently, the company sells its product wholesale. The location at the former Sugarloaf Shoppes would be DMCTC’s first retail operation.
“We want to get the store open as soon as we can so we can serve the Whately, Hatfield, Deerfield, Sunderland, etcetera community,” Glanz-Berger said. “We hope to open before the end of the year.”
Glanz-Berger said he is hopeful DMCTC can work with both ToroVerde and Whately to build up the “dormant” Sugarloaf Shoppes plaza, which town officials have noted is a prime economic development opportunity because of its proximity to Exit 35 on Interstate 91 and its location at the intersection of three state routes.
“This isn’t unprecedented, Holyoke has (dispensaries) next door to each other. To me, it’s, ‘Let us cooperate,’” he said. “We’ve got to get people to come up to Whately. We have to entice people to come up to us, and that’s not a light lift. Having another store, in my mind, is advantageous. … Our competition isn’t each other, it’s Greenfield and Northampton.”