West Tisbury’s first marijuana business is changing hands, under an agreement between Patient Centric owner Geoff Rose and FFD Enterprises, doing business as Fine Fettle.
West Tisbury selectmen voted Wednesday night to support the transfer of Patient Centric’s community-host agreements with the town.
The license transfers still need to clear the town zoning board of appeals, which issues special permits for the business and its grow facility.
A three-generation family firm based in Connecticut, FFD has been in existence for more than 50 years in the telecommunications, medical and addiction-treatment fields, company president Benjamin Zachs told the selectmen at their regular meeting.
Fine Fettle currently has medical dispensaries in Connecticut, an outdoor cultivation facility in western Massachusetts and a processing plant in Rhode Island that makes products with marijuana extracts, Mr. Zachs said,
“We’ve worked across the three levels of the supply chain,” he said.
The agreement with Mr. Rose includes all of Patient Centric’s West Tisbury assets, including all the current state licenses for operations, cultivation, processing, testing and dispensing cannabis as well as leased property at 90 Dr. Fisher Road.
“We’re currently expanding our cultivation operation there to meet more of the market demand,” Mr. Rose said.
Fine Fettle plans to keep Patient Centric’s current staff, Mr. Zachs told selectmen. Mr. Rose said approximately half a dozen people currently work for the company.
Mr. Rose, who formed Patient Centric in 2013 following statewide vote approving medical marijuana in Massachusetts, said it’s not clear when the West Tisbury retail operation will be cleared to open to the public.
“Nobody has a clear sense of when the state may approve [it]. It could be in the April time period, could be May, but that’s speculation,” he said, speaking to the Gazette by phone Thursday morning.
He said the buyer first contacted him last summer.
“It was an opportunity that really served both of us,” Mr. Rose said.
Meanwhile, Patient Centric continues to move forward with plans for a retail cannabis dispensary on Mechanic street in Vineyard Haven, Mr. Rose said. The shop plans to purchase its products from Fine Fettle.
“We’re hopeful that we will be able to serve the adult use market in the summer,” Mr. Rose said, adding that he anticipates that the Vineyard Haven dispensary will be able to provide medical marijuana before it opens for adult use.
Under permits issued by their host towns, both the Patient Centric and Fine Fettle dispensaries will be appointment only, he also said.
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