By Laura Hayes

After a multi-year process, Green River Cannabis held a soft opening for its new Hopedale location on Feb. 21. 

Green River Cannabis is a family-owned business run by the father-son duo of Constant and Ryan Poholek with assistance from Ann Poholek as administrative coordinator of both facilities. Constant Poholek said they were “extremely excited” to open the new dispensary. 

“We’re going to have exclusive hours with exceptional deals,” he said.

Green River Cannabis opened its first store in Greenfield at the former Meadows Golf Course building in 2023. The dispensary is named after the nearby Green River, according to Poholek. They also have the Green River Disc Golf Course at the Meadows on the former golf course.

“That was the concept. We’re in the recreation business and cannabis was a natural flow from repurposing a golf course into a cannabis retail facility on 50 acres of land in Greenfield,” said Poholek. 

 

Green River Cannabis is unique because it is a boutique-style dispensary. 

“We deal with smaller distributors. We have a lower overhead than most of the cannabis dispensaries, so we’re able to bring in new, innovative, or different products than some of the larger dispensaries bring to the table because of the fact that there are more corporate restrictions on the larger dispensaries which limit diverse buying power,” said Poholek. 

He continued, “We’re more open-minded. We’re able to deal with most of the distributors in Massachusetts for cannabis products.”

Green River Cannabis has competitive prices for flowers along with its pre-rolls, edibles and tinctures. Make sure to keep an eye on Green River’s website for deals – they offer bundle prices along with early, late-night and daily specials. 

According to Poholek, Green River Cannabis is opening another location for several reasons, including expanding its buying power and brand to Central Mass. The company had conducted research into cities and towns with host agreements, and one was available in Hopedale.

Originally from the North Attleboro area, Poholek said they were familiar with Hopedale. They were hoping to draw from their customers and contacts from their non-cannabis business in Plainville.

“We picked Hopedale because of its quaint character, and, frankly, because of the receptiveness of the town to our facility,” said Poholek. 

Green River Cannabis began the process of bringing a location to Hopedale in 2019. Its home at 150 Hartford Avenue was the third proposed site for the business.

Poholek, who is also an attorney, worked to rezone the plaza for commercial use to clear the way for the dispensary.

“We went through a long process with a zoning change and eventually going before the Zoning Board for a special permit. It was an over three-year process before we could actually end up where we are today,” said Poholek. 

Poholek said the sales in this second location will be different than those in Western Mass. Green River plans to bring its distributors from Western Mass. to Hopedale, meaning that customers will see many products that they wouldn’t see elsewhere.

“Our feeling is if we’re able to sustain in Western Mass., especially where we are in Greenfield, we feel there’s more opportunity in Hopedale. We want to bring our products down to Hopedale to see if we can capitalize on that and to allow our customers in the Hopedale area to be able to enjoy the savings that they are dealing in Western Mass.,” said Poholek.

During the soft opening, Green River Cannabis will be open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. As the soft opening progresses, the dispensary will eventually be open seven days a week. Poholek said this model gives their employees time to acclimate to the new business. 

Green River Cannabis is a dog-friendly business and encourages customers to bring their pets to the store.

For more information and to order online, visit greenrivercannabiscompany.com.

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