FITCHBURG — The Caregiver-Patient Foundation, a Barre-based cannabis company, is seeking a recreational-only cannabis dispensary at 373 Lunenburg St.
The company’s vice president, Dean Iandoli, is from the family that operated the Iandoli supermarket chain across Worcester County before selling to Shaw’s in the late 1980s. Iandoli’s grandfather started Honey Farms, the convenience stores that last year sold to Global Partners LP for $36 million.
Entering the retail cannabis industry was a natural fit, he said.
“Retail has been in the family for a long time, and the thing is this is still ultimately retail. It’s providing good service and good product to customers,” he said.
Iandoli also co-founded Quabbin Solar, which operates several ground-mounted solar arrays in Barre.
He said the Fitchburg marijuana dispensary will be business under the name Solcanna. It will cater to what he says is the industry’s fastest-growing demographic, those over the age of 45.
“They were right in the middle of that whole reefer madness generation, where it was really taboo. Now, it’s not so much anymore,” said Iandoli.
The Caregiver-Patient Foundation is the parent company of a growing cannabis business that Iandoli is building with his wife, Catherine Trifilo. It is building a 10,000 square-foot cannabis cultivation center in Barre that when completed will supply marijuana to the three dispensaries the company hopes to open in North Central Massachusetts, said Iandoli.
The first of those dispensaries will be in Fitchburg, he said. It will be called Solcanna, and it projected to open at 373 Lunenburg St. in March 2019, he said.
Solcanna will sell only recreational marijuana, and won’t sell medical marijuana.
Iandoli said while all people over 21 years old are welcome at the dispensary, it will cater to those of 45 by creating an “intimate” space that will “feel like walking into the lobby of a nice hotel.”
Solcanna will have a valet service to park customers’ cars and retrieve them after they shop, Iandoli said. The service reduces the chance customers will consume the product in the parking lot, a public safety concern.
“This satisfies a lot of concerns that people might have, it improves the security,” he said, adding that customers without a car won’t be turned away.
Security is one aspect of the business Iandoli will discuss at a community outreach meeting at 10:45 a.m. Saturday at the Fitchburg Public Library.
The Cannabis Control Commission requires cannabis companies convene these meetings, where members of the public are invited to ask questions and learn more about the company’s plans.
The Caregiver-Patient Foundation has already been licensed as a Registered Marijuana Dispensary through the Department of Public Heath, according to Iandoli.
The DPH license means the Cannabis Control Commission will review the company’s applications for recreational cannabis businesses on a priority basis.
Iandoli said he is under contract to purchase the about 9,000 square-foot building at 373 Lunenburg St. from Beyond Perfection beauty salon, he said.
