By Theresa Knapp

Green River Cannabis Company held a community outreach meeting on March 21 as it continues its quest to open a boutique retail marijuana shop at 150 Hartford Avenue, near the corner of Charlesview Road. 

The proposed unit is in the center of the plaza and was previously occupied by an “Asian medical spa” and is approximately 1,500 square feet in area. Green River would be the third retail marijuana store in Hopedale. 

“I just feel that Hopedale is in a very unique location [with its] traffic flow; I just feel that there’s plenty of retail customers to go around,” said owner and applicant Constant Poholek, Jr., who is based in Attleboro and who opened his first shop in Greenfield in February. 

Poholek said the Hopedale store would be small and offer a boutique experience. The design will have a “rustic upbeat feel” with farm-style architecture. It will sell high-quality goods from Massachusetts-based growers and wholesalers. 

“Our motto is to carry a variety of products from smaller growers, a unique variety” he said.  

There will be no cultivating or on-site consumption so there will be no odor, he said. Safety measures include security personnel, cameras, alarms, panic buttons, a vault, and steel doors. Poholek said the store will be “more secure than your local bank.” 

Poholek hopes to be open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with the average customer being in the store 10 to 12 minutes. He estimates they will have six customers, or fewer, per hour. He will offer pre-ordering for pickup. The site offers 74 parking spaces for the two small plazas on the site. 

“We have more than adequate parking,” he said, adding his shop will bring customers to the site who might then spend money at neighboring businesses. 

Green River, like the other two cannabis retailers in town, will pay a three percent state tax and an additional three percent local tax to the town. 

The one-hour Zoom meeting was attended by four people including his potential landlord, one town official, and two competitors. All questions came from one competitor who personally acknowledged the questions were “hostile.” 

Poholek did address an ongoing question in the community at large: ‘Are there enough customers to warrant a third marijuana joint in town?’ He restated that Green River is different from the two facilities already established in town. Theirs will be a smaller facility, which some people prefer, and he restated they will offer mostly unique items. 

Poholek added, “We don’t want to locate ourselves in Hopedale to hurt [the questioner’s business] or to hurt [a second marijuana business]. We don’t want to cut anyone’s throat from a business standpoint.” 

There are several steps left, at the local and state levels, before the doors of Green River Cannabis could open to the public, including obtaining a Special Permit from the Planning Board and obtaining a final license from the state.