One of the country’s biggest legal marijuana companies is ready to open a pot supermarket in downtown Boston — possibly as soon as later this week, the Herald has learned.
Ascend is preparing a “soft opening” with a target date of Thursday for a 16,000-square-foot dispensary on Friend Street across from North Station and TD Garden. The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has backed the shop.
It will be the city’s biggest dispensary and wary West End neighbors say they’ll be keeping an eye on how it all rolls out.
“We’ll be watching,” said Jane Wilson, a former president of the West End Civic Association.
“We have a good neighbor agreement and that includes no lines outside the shop,” Wilson told the Herald Monday. “They agreed to make it the most safe, most monitored and agreed upon the rules.”
Andrea Cabral, the former Suffolk Sheriff, is CEO of Massachusetts Ascend Wellness Holdings and, according to Wilson, has worked with the West End neighbors on how the pot shop will operate.
Ascend’s website promises “a wide selection of high-quality cannabis products, a digital ordering experience, and knowledgeable budtenders in a safe environment.” The website also states the company will open two more retail stores, in Newton and New Bedford.
The company operates similar stores in Illinois and New Jersey, catering to both medical patients and legal recreational pot users.
Three other recreational dispensaries have opened in the city’s outer neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain, Roxbury and East Boston.
“Boston is way behind, even though voters overwhelmingly OK’d legal marijuana,” said Jim Borghesani, president at PrimePoint Media and a longtime pot proponent. “Consumers are finally going to be well-served.”
Massachusetts voters approved recreational marijuana use and sales in 2016.
Wilson said the West End didn’t have much to object to because pot is legal, but they do intend to hold Cabral to her word on controlling customers.
“Andrea Cabral knows everything that can go wrong,” Wilson said. “The problems will come during events at the Garden. That’s when they’ll need more security.”
She added now that pot shops are all over, demand may no longer be that high.
Some West End residents are worried about what one called the “zombies” who hang out all night on Causeway Street. That and a methadone clinic not too far away continue to tax both residents and police who keep a close eye on the area.
The pot shop opening comes as both the Bruins and Celtics are welcoming back some fans to the TD Garden. Concerts, however, won’t be packing them in the near future.
Last week @MA_Cannabis issued a notice authorizing Ascend Mass, LLC in Boston to commence adult-use retail operations in three calendar days (Monday, April 26) or later. https://t.co/qJ54fXM9jJ
— Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (@MA_Cannabis) April 26, 2021
