Good afternoon. We're just going to let the waiting room clear. Please make sure you're muted as you enter and then we'll get started. All right. So, good afternoon. This is a hearing before the Boston Cannabis Board, the BCB. Today is July 16th, 2025. Please note that today will be
both the BCB's transactional and voting hearing. Today's hearing is being conducted pursuant to temporary amendments to the open meeting law. This is what allows us to meet virtually. This hearing is being recorded and will be posted to the city of Boston's website. Before I review some procedural matters, I will introduce Chairwoman
Kathleen Joyce. Thank you, Jasmine. Um, good afternoon. My name is Kathleen Joyce. I'm chair of the Boston Cannabis Board. Today I'm also joined by Commissioner John Smith, Commissioner Jack Kensley, Commissioner Sono Gandhi, Commissioner Raone Sodto,
and Commissioner Lisa Holmes. Thank you, Chairwoman Joyce. My name is Jasmine W. I am the Boston Cannabis W manager. We are also joined by Luke Santos, who is the cannabis licensing specialist. I will begin by calling each item in the order. They appear on the agenda. I will then ask who was present
on behalf of the proposal before us. For today's hearing, we have two amendments to already approved license establishments and no new license applications. Each proposal will have five minutes each to present to the BCB followed by questions and comments from the board members. We will then move to
public testimony beginning with elected officials or their representatives followed by the general public. If you wish to testify, please sign up via the link that was put in the chat. If you have already signed up, you don't have to do it again. Additionally, you may request to testify using the chat
function. Um, wait until the matter in which you would like to speak about is called. After we hear testimony, we will move to a vote. Each board member has the ability to grant, grant with conditions, defer, reject without prejudice, which means the applicant can return any time with an application at
the same location, or reject with prejudice, which means the applicant cannot reapply at the same location for one year. Just a quick housekeeping matter, due to scheduling conflict, we will start with item number two and then go back to item number one. So item number two we're going to start
with the lency is Mass Greenwords LLC DBA Prolific Cannabis. The license premise is 116 Harvard Avenue in Austin. The license type is a marijuana retailer. They are requesting to change their hours. The current hours are 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. 7 days a week. The
proposed hours of operation are 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 7 days a week. Who is present on behalf of the Lency? Hi, Maya GS here from Prolific Cannabis. Good afternoon. I'm Eric Lawrence from Prolific Cannabis.
All right, you guys will have five minutes. You may begin. Thank you. And good afternoon to the commissioner and all the board members. It's good to see everybody once again. Um, yes, as again, I'm Eric Lawrence.
I'm the CEO and owner of Prolific Cannabis at 116 Harvard Avenue, and we are requesting an extension of NR hours from 10 uh from 9:00 a.m. to uh 9 to 9 to 1:00 a.m.
Prolific Cannabis is a social equity, economic empowerment company. Um we our mission is to operate a premium establishment that makes a positive impact on the community. We offer living wage job opportunities with full benefits, career development and
entrepreneurial mentorship. Core values are to maintain an exclus an inclusive company culture and empower uh social equity and advocate for empowerment of social equity. Uh again myself, Eric Lawrence. Maya
Gaul is our current acting general manager and she is also an Alustin resident. Our current business operates from 10:00 a.m. to 900 pm. We h uh employ 12 employees of which uh eight of them are
um local uh residents in the Olson area. We're currently seeing anywhere between 75 and 100 uh customers a day. Um we've partnered with several local businesses and organizations to make a uh
contribution to the community. Um in our uh immediate area, it is somewhat of an entertainment district and there are many restaurants and venues that stay open beyond 11 uh some 24 hours. So
we're proposing again to stay open to 1 uh which we feel aligns with the neighborhood and the community. Basically, primarily, we have a huge customer demand. Uh I think on our next slide, we're going to show you where most of our business currently comes
between the hours of 7 to 9. And we always have people who are trying to get in after 900 p.m. Our area is also uh primarily uh strictly commercial area with no direct residential butters along that block. U
if you look at the last line of this chart, it shows you in the darkened shade there where the majority of our business comes between 7 and 900 p.m. Last year, Mayor Woo initiated a nightlife proposal uh to make Boston a
little bit more competitive with some of the other other major uh metropolitan cities and to create a thriving economy in Boston. and we feel that our proposal aligns with the mayor's uh proposal as well as the neighborhood which we're in.
This uh slide here shows some of the uh businesses that are all within uh 2 to 300 ft of us and the hours in which they're open. And in this chart, they're ranging from anywhere from 2 uh 11:00 a.m. excuse me, 11:00 p.m. through uh
2:00 a.m. Next slide, please. Uh yeah, so what what we've done since we've been open and um as of tomorrow, uh tomorrow will be our 90day anniversary, our three-month anniversary. Um, we've provided uh
gallery space to local artists to come and display their work and monetize their work through our location. All but four of our current employees are residents of Alolston. Um, we saw about 300 applicants during our um opening
hiring process. Um, and uh so there's big demand there for local local employment. Um we feel though also by staying open later uh because of uh the regulations around cannabis facilities
and security there will be more eyes and ears on the streets uh in Alustin that could provide additional security to the community since we've been open. Also we've partnered with uh B uh Alston Brighton Health Collaborative. We
donated 5% of our grand opening proceeds to them. We also during Pride Month, we um organized a pride artist market where we had about a dozen local uh artists come in and uh sell their crafts. Um and
5% of those proceeds went to Trans Resistance Pride Organization and we will continue to uh participate in local community events. uh two of which are coming up would be the taste of all sin and rat city arts festival.
Uh safety and security as we've mentioned uh we operate a safe and secure facility as required by the CCC. We have a compre comprehensive security system with cameras that uh monitor
every square inch of the interior as well as the exterior of the building with uh panic alarms throughout the facility as well as secure access doors. We also uh implement and and adhere to a very strict uh diversion prevention
plan. All guests must be 21 plus. We have uh ID scanners that check and make sure that uh everyone is 21 that enters the building. Uh customers are not allowed to divert product. If they do, they'll be banned from the building. We retain the right to deny any uh sales to
any individual. And um our product and cash pickup and delivery are random and discreet. All of our customers that uh visit our facility are required to comply with our nuisance prevention policy, which is there's no public consumption, no
diversion of products, no littering, and no littering are tolerated. Our security monitors our sidewalk, our front storefront, as well as parking areas. And we do have an inside queuing area, so no one waits outside the building. Pre pre-orders are available, and we do
not allow double parking in front of our facility. And that is the end of our uh presentation today. Thank you, Eric. We'll move to the board members starting with Chairwoman Joyce. Do we have any questions, comments?
Um thank you for your presentation. Uh so you've been open three months. Yes. Okay. So talk me through um the community process for the um original
application where it was for uh 10 to 9 and then what kind of outreach you did and community meetings you had for these new hours. It's just that you're coming back to us 3 months after opening and I want to make sure that the community
understands exactly what you're asking. um your graph that like the heat graph with the the dark blue that's helpful but I'm it I'm just wonder if three months is enough time to gather the information about whether or not you need this
extension of ours. I'm not necessarily opposed to it but um those are some of my thoughts right now and wanted to give you an opportunity to respond. Sure. So, you know, originally we were in front of this board uh to be approved
for our current hours. Um I think it goes back almost three years now. Um and a lot has changed since that time. Um particularly uh you know trying to operate a sustainable
business in the cannabis industry is very difficult. Uh we've entered into a very highly competitive uh uh area uh where we have on each side of us north, south, west, and east, we have a
cannabis dispensary within a half mile of us. There's Mayflower, there's Union Twist, there's Commana, there's um uh Castle Leaf. They're all within a half a mile in different directions of us. Uh we do feel that we
do because we are in this entertainment district and we have no direct residential abutters that we feel that our location is prime um because of the uh abutters that we do have that are commercial and stay open later. It's
prime for us to stay open uh and and maintain later hours. Um to your point in terms of the 3month time frame as I mentioned is basically because of the long delay that we've had in opening our business um we are now at
the point of really trying to dig out of a lot of debt um so not only is there customer demand for us to stay open later um and we find that um some of our competitors uh particularly on the weekends or where they close earlier we get we see a lot
of their their customers. A lot of that traffic coming. Um it's just, you know, it's pretty much is a combination of trying to survive in this industry and uh trying to satisfy customer demand and and by by staying open later.
So, go ahead, Maya. I was going to say uh talk about our community process. So when we initially opened uh we did um Austin open streets event and we saw a lot of residents come out and and express their interest in
having us open. We did flyer the 300 uh 300 butters 300 foot radius of butters. Uh when we opened for the our community meeting with the office office of neighborhood services we flydired again
when we had our BCB meeting. Um, and then we did have uh support um from the Alson Civic Association who is also here today. So I'll let an Tony speak more. Hello, good to see you. And I think Siggy also uh with our last
uh meeting um can speak to the level of support that we had from both customers, residents um and the butters. And we also flyd twice again once for our neighborhood uh meeting with the ONS and again for this
meeting we did flyer our butters within that 300 foot radius. Were the neighborhood meetings well attended? Uh yes and I think again Sigy uh you might want to jump in here because you have the numbers I believe and the data in terms of uh who you know what the
attendance was and what the level of support was. Yes, we we'll get to Sigi. He'll tell us though. That's fine. Yeah. So, the meeting was well attended. Um I don't know the numbers exactly uh but the meeting was well attended. there was no opposition
um that we heard. Uh it was all support and again it was primarily our customer base uh and uh some of our neighboring businesses as well as uh some of the uh local uh community organizations
that supported the proposal. Any additional comments from the chair or else? Commissioner Smith, do you have any questions, comments? Thank you, Jasmine. Just quick question. So, you're thinking that this will help
in terms of competition and it may also increase your competition because everybody else will want to be open till 1:00 a.m. How are you? Well, yeah, to that point, uh, thanks for that comment, uh, Commissioner Smith. uh I don't think everybody as I
mentioned is in an area that they will benefit from the abuing businesses uh in and the business that we have. So like people come to a restaurant where we are a lot of those businesses they don't
have the um uh the the the the abuing type of businesses that we do. They don't have the restaurants. They don't have the Brighton Music Hall that's next to them. They don't have the liquor store that's across the street from them staying open till later. Most of them are isolated. Union Twist has nothing
around it. Um Mayflower has a CVS next door to it. Um where our location again is pretty much unique. We're kind of in the epicenter of the entertainment district surrounded by multiple restaurants, stage karaoke. It is a nightlife entertainment. So we figure
that we could feed off of some of that. And again, I think the the biggest point there is is that um as far as staying open late, we won't be a nuisance to anyone because they're already multiple business staying open that are staying open late and there are no residential
abutters at all. Additionally, 1.5 miles from us is New Dia, and they are open until 12:00 a.m. A lot of our customers say that after we close, they will drive or find a way to get down, and it'd be more convenient for us to be open because they don't have to find a way to
get transportation uh almost two miles away. Thank you. Permission to cancel. Thank you, Jasmine. Um you mentioned you have uh 12 current employees and this
would create um potentially 10 new positions. Um what type of engagement with your employees have you had about the uh application for this hours extension? Yes, there all of our employees are aware that we're proposing to stay open
later. Um some not all u you know based on you know lifestyle are willing to uh work during those later hours. Um but we do foresee having to hire like uh you indicated an additional 10 people. Um
our supervisors and management staff are all on board. Um so we don't see any issues there at all. Um okay. So, do the the employees you currently have work like set schedules or does it vary a lot week to week based
on business needs and stuff like that? It's pretty much based on business needs as well as their availability when they came in. Most of our employees we do require to work like at least one weekend day. The majority of them um will work some closing shifts and some opening shifts as well.
But you you do anticipate that with the additional positions you would bring on, you'd be able to have that level of flexibility. If some of your current employees say that, you know, when since they signed up to work till 9:00 p.m. and they tell you they don't want to work till 1:00 a.m., you anticipate being able to accommodate that as part
of your business plan? Yes. Um, we have, again, we've discussed this with all of our employees. Some of them based again on their uh personal situations can uh and some cannot and that's thus why we will be hiring uh
more people to accommodate the the hours. All right, those are all my questions. Thank you. You're welcome. Commissioner Gandhi, thanks so much as um and thank you both
for a really great um informative presentation. Mike, I have two questions. Um one, the no double parking allowed. Harvard AB is notorious for double parking. Um how do you enforce the no double parking allowed?
Well, we do have, you know, we have a security check-in personnel that kind of monitors that for us. Um, they also at the desk, they have cameras that, uh, cover the front side of the building. Um, and you're right, it is notorious
for that. You've got a lot of Uber Eat drivers that will pull up and, you know, park and leave and go into uh, pick up uh, an order for somebody. Um but the security personnel kind of monitor that and they'll go out and ask them not to
double park. It's a continuous battle. Okay. Um and then I super appreciate slide seven uh which shows the hours of operation of the other businesses around you. That was a really great slide. So thank you for including that. Um and we
want as part of um our role here I want to make sure you know we want to make sure the businesses succeed. Uh to Chairwoman Joyce's point, you've only been open for three months. Um and and uh you know, we want to again, you know, make sure our businesses that are open in the city are successful.
Um I'm I am concerned um about just setting precedent. You mentioned UDA open till midnight. There are and correct me if I'm wrong, uh Jasmine and Chairwoman Joyce. I do not believe there are other any other establishments uh that are open past midnight in the city.
So, um, if this is not a question, so I I'm going to amend my earlier statement. One question and one kind of concern. Um, I I I want to see businesses succeed and thrive. Uh, but I'm also concerned because our purview is not just certain
neighborhoods, but it's the entire city. Uh, I want to make sure that we're not setting a precedent here uh for for other businesses to come in to ask for similar hours. Um, especially when this business has only been open for a couple of months or a few months. So, I'll just make that comment uh that uh I'm very
not opposed to um extended hours operation, but I do I am concerned about setting a precedent for 1:00 a.m. whereas there's none um in the state that are currently open until 1:00 a.m. Uh yes. So again, I think even with um
to my knowledge, there is Nudia that is open to 12. Um and I believe um Apex Noir is open to 12 on the weekends. Uh some of this uh in
the request of ours and the hours that they're open also I think has to do with whether it's sustainable, whether there is enough customer traffic to support staying open to 12 or 1. And where we
are, I do believe that there is enough traffic. there's enough the area really doesn't liven up until like 900 PM. We saw so many people trying to enter our store and we have to close the doors. Um so because there's so much activity in
the area, we feel that from a sustainability standpoint, we have enough customer traffic and the area is busy enough to support it. you know, some of the, you know, when you speak to, uh, setting a precedent,
uh, some locations aren't suited for this because there's no traffic in those areas and they might stay open and not have the the business to support the hours. Um, if we weren't in an area that
supported it, we, you know, we don't want to stay open and pay employees and not have the business to support us. Um, but we feel confident that the business is there to support us because of that chart that you saw with all the other businesses that are open. McDonald's is
open at 3:00 a.m. down the street from us. 7-Eleven is 24 hours. Taco Bell is 3:00 a.m. There's just enough other uh businesses that are next to us that would support it um to support the hours
and the decision to stay open later. Thank you, Commissioner Holmes. Oh, Commissioner Garn, did you have followup? Sorry. No, I was just going to say thank you and no other questions or comments. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Holmes. Uh, just one because actually
Commissioner Gandhi asked just the same things. I was concerned about the double parking and the able to sustain the hours. But, um, the only other question I would have you said, so your security person, you
I I think this is what I heard, sir. Your your cameras from the front desk are what monitors the front of your building. You don't actually have a body outside in at night in front of the building. We don't. Yeah. Uh, Commissioner uh
Holmes, we don't keep a body outside, but periodically we do ask um as in our um presentation, they do monitor the sidewalk area. They do go out from time to time and make sure that there's no nuisance behavior going on. There's no
double parking going on, but they can also see that from the cameras at the desk. Okay, that that was my question. Would you well um with the later hours and uh listening
to your propo uh your proposal there is and there is a lot of activity along Harvard A at night. Would it be unconceivable to possibly put somebody in the later hours, you know, outside
or is that feasible? Uh, certainly definitely feasible. Um, and we certainly definitely would would have no issue with doing that. Okay. Yeah. All right. That that was that was the only difference. The only question that I had was would there be a physical
presence at the later hours in front of in front of the establishment? Yeah. So, from time to time, even currently the the check-in person will stand outside and actually prior to or they're if we're staffed properly, we'll have one person on the outside that will
do kind of like a preliminary check of the ID before it gets scanned through the ID scanner and then they'll come in. So from time to time even currently there is someone that's kind of standing outside the building and I've I've assumed that role on multiple occasions myself
and are you are your sound your employees across train you said the person at the front desk will sometime go out and assume the responsibility of security. So you do you have established security personnel or are people doing multiple things at work? Uh people
across train. Yeah. People across train to do security checkin to do you know security bud tenders, right? We're we're we're we're we're a small team and we're lean and and so cross trainining everybody keeps the budget down and makes things sustainable. Yeah.
Okay. I I get it. I understand. Thank you for that. You're welcome. Thank you, Commissioner Stole. Thank you, Jasmine. and uh and thank you for the um presentation. It was very
helpful in contextualizing the request. I have a couple of questions. So um I want to dovetail on something that Commissioner Gandhi had touched upon in regards to um the foot traffic and and
then your description of the area. Right. I I I I I tend to agree with her like I don't necessarily have a an issue with that in that space, but I do have a concern about the precedent it sets
generally. Right. We have heard from other folks in areas where there may not be directly a um a a residential place right next to it. um you know or maybe it's like an apartment building that's on top or next door or something to that
effect where they could potentially justify the same kind of um argument, right? And there may be a neighborhood that's you know diametrically opposed and then there's a you know a challenge
to what that would suggest and then we have to go back and say how are we looking at this? So, I guess what I'm thinking is whether or not um there is a way to sort of categorize this type of request. Um
and if not, because that wades into the policy side of things that I'm not familiar to the extent that the board can necessarily promulgate, but is there also potentially an option to to sort of phase this in in in levels, right? Because I think from the
business side of it, right, the concern is too big too fast or this kind of like all or nothing because of the the sort of like you want to have the biggest net to catch as many folks, right? And I I get that from the from like the business side of it. Um but there's also the
concern of like is it too big too fast and we actually set you up to fail, right? versus maybe looking at that weekend crowd which is particularly um active along all of those streets. I I went to school in the Boston area. I
know very well how how much things are open down there and and fun and etc. Um, which leads me to think that there's also to Commissioner Holm's point, not only the necessity of someone outdoors, but like
someone with like true deescalation skills and techniques because I don't know about you, but if I when I'm walking around at midnight, right, there's a few folks who've had too many and there's, you know, issues that, you know, what do you mean I can't come in? Right? And when you got someone who's
crossrained and maybe 100 lb soaking wet, it might not be the right sort of like uh uh uh um face for the individual who feels wronged in that moment, right? And so I just think like if there's a way to phase it in with like you know
and then if you come back and say to us listen we've been doing this for three months 6 months whatever we've done this amount and we are you know looking at a whole because of the four days we haven't been able to open we could have made this much more right then it's sort of like behooves us to to to then look
at it from from that lens but I just feel like as of right now I have that one concern about the president and a and then also the the speed of it. That being said, I I don't necessarily disagree with your contention that it is
a very viable uh uh um you know uh and and reasonable and responsible request. Uh yes. So um just to speak to precedent at at some point um this commission um and this board has had to set precedent.
Um, if you look obviously with the 12 a.m. openings, um, and you know, obviously, you know, those were decisions that were made. Um, and I'm sure they were made based on the level of support. Um, they were made based on
potentially the location in the area in which they are. Um, and maybe also like you're indicating, uh, security and safety issues. Um, you know, to that point around security and safety, we do have a uh safety director, he was on
our, I think, second or third screen, uh, Chris Fau, who has multiple years in light life, um, in club life and and bar, you know, bars and so forth and and being a bouncer. Um so we would you know
utilize his expertise in potentially hiring additional staff that as you say and I and I take your point uh very well in terms of you know not everybody who may be cross trainined to do security might not be suitable to deescalate a
situation. Um, so we take that that's a point well taken and it's something that you know in the later hours um uh that we we we would make sure that we have the right personnel in the right places to to to make sure that uh everybody is
safe and secure. We also just hired an additional personnel and they have about four years experience of cannabis dispensary security specifically. So, just one last uh question. Have you reached out
directly to your um state rep or city counselor in regards to this request? Um we uh have not reach re reached out directly. We did uh reach out to um
uh councelor Julia Mahia. She's not our uh I think she's at large, but uh she was in support of it. Um but yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any additional comments from the board.
All right. We'll move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or other representatives. Madam Chair and board members, good afternoon. Sigy Johnson with the mayor's office of neighborhood services. This petitioner completed the ONS community process. Our office hosted an abutters meeting on the evening of June 30th
which was well attended with approximately 20 attendees. All that all that spoke at the meeting were supporting the application. Six supporters identified themselves as Alustin residents. Our office has received 19 letters of support from both Alustin Brighton residents as well as residents from other neighborhoods in
Boston and one letter of opposition from another neighborhood in Boston. Proponent presented to the Alustin Civic Association. I believe their president is on hand to testify as to their stance regarding the proposal. Questions were answered regarding the application at that meeting. With that background, our
office defers judgment to the board. Thank you. Thank you. Any other elected officials, other representatives? All right, we will move. I see you have your hand raised if you want to begin.
Thank you. Uh good afternoon everyone. And uh my name is Tony Doddoro. I'm president of the Austin Civic Association. The proponents uh came to us on our monthly meeting on June 18th
uh to present their proposal to extend hours of operation. Um Eric mentioned the lack of an abuing residential community. Uh and for that main reason
uh we are going to defer judgment to the board. Um I I do want to say that uh Prolific cannabis uh has been extremely uh accessible during the community review process for both the
establishment of the initial business and their latest request to extend uh hours of operations. I know the chair was interested in getting a sense of that. Um, as Eric has mentioned in his testimony, uh, they have, uh, really,
uh, uh, embedded themselves in the community, uh, participating in a number of events and fundraisers and, uh, giving back to the community. and I know they've made an effort to uh uh establish collaborative relationships
with their uh fellow business owners in in the Alustin Village area. So, um that has always been a very uh positive aspect of uh the proponents. I do want to say though that um you guys have
touched on a number of issues. those members that did express some concerns about this uh proposal uh pretty much evolve around what has already been discussed. But I'll real quick uh there are there were members
concerned about extending this privilege and they want to emphasize the word privilege uh for four additional hours um after only being open for 90 days. And um usually as the chair mentioned at
the beginning, usually um the there's usually a track record that gets established before um uh additional hours are extended beyond the initial request. Uh the parking congestion and general public safety issue was raised
by members as well. uh you discussed the double parking aspects, but the one thing that I think it's it's important uh to at least keep in mind is that and Eric mentioned it uh there there's a clear delineation between business
activity up to the 9:00 hour and then business activity uh from 9 to 1. Uh it's really two different worlds. Um and um you know the infrastructure to have in place, security and everything is one
thing leading up to that 9:00 hour, but then it's a whole different ball game uh if you want to compete in that 9 to1 a.m. space. So, uh there there was some uh concerns regarding that and as you
know it is an extremely busy area and double parking is a serious issue. Congestion just general uh people crossing the street and what have you, public safety issues. Um the president setting absolutely. Um I I am aware of
those two establishments that are open in the city till midnight. Uh we have uh a number of cannabis establishments already in Austin Bright. We have another one coming online. Uh there's another one in the pipeline for
community consideration. Uh certainly the precedent setting aspects of allowing granting this cannot be uh uh you know forgiven so to speak. It's it it would set a precedent. I wouldn't be surprised if other cannabis
establishments asked for the same considerations. And the final issue, and this has nothing to do with the proponent, but it needs to be mentioned. Uh in the last couple of months, we have had an uptick of some criminal activity
in the Austin Village uh area. Uh that is very uh concerning. uh uh some serious uh incidents that have occurred. Uh we just hope that it's not a trend that's uh being established uh in that
area because obviously as everybody mentioned, we want everybody uh even late into the night to go up to Alustin Village and have a great time with friends and family and enjoy themselves. We simply don't want it to u turn into a
wild west show where uh people are concerned about their their safety whether uh entering establishments or leaving establishments we certainly don't want that to occur. So again to just recap uh given that there there's
not a strong abuing residential community as Eric has mentioned uh we felt that it was best to simply defer judgment to the board. Thank you. Um, the next person we have is Alex from Austin Village Main Streets
that signed up too. Hey guys, uh, Alex Cornini, executive director of Alustin Village Main Streets here. Uh, I just wanted to jump on and say that agree with Tony that Eric and Maya have been incredibly um, welcoming into the neighborhood.
They've been very uh, easy to to work with. They've been very transparent with their process since they started uh the process three or four years ago. We've been in constant contact with them and their plans. And we were really happy to
see them open a few months ago. And since then I've done a number of uh projects with them, events, sponsorships, uh stuff like that, art art, um murals and and whatnot. Um and yeah, for the reasons of you know,
Alustin is a nightlife center and uh you know, business doesn't really pick up until the afternoon, evening into the night. um especially for you know restaurants, bars, cannabis stores and um you know Olson Village Main Streets
our whole mission is to support local business community and make sure we're a a thriving neighborhood center and um the success of our small business community is really what what makes that a reality and having uh the success of
Prolific top of mind uh lets us um support this this proposal. I think you know because they've been a great neighbor in the short time that they've been here because they've you know been a part of the neighborhood for three years now even though they've just opened a couple of months ago. Uh we
trust the owners. We trust Eric and Maya and uh Chris who's the security manager. He's on site all the time. Every time I go in, he knows exactly what's going on on the street in the store. Um he's he's a real a great worker and um if this is
what they need to be successful long term then Alson Village Main Street supports the proposal. Thank you Alex. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak on this matter? All right seeing no one. Chairwoman Joyce, do you have a motion?
Before before I have a motion, um is there a reason why you worked with council Mahia and not your district city councelor or your state rep? Um yes. Uh well, not particularly, but uh chairman chairwoman um we had uh
reached out to Liz Breeden. We understand what her position is on cannabis. uh when we first three four years ago she um her position is she doesn't take a position um and you know we had previously asked
for her support um and and she just didn't but you know we could have uh just to make her aware of what our proposal was but uh yeah we we we not got much feedback from her one way or the other when we have reached out and
I get that I understand that From my perspective as chair of the board, I want to make sure that we have a process in place where people are aware of what's going on in we take I take responsibility we take responsibility of not really having a process in place right now for this
extension of ours. To me, this feels like it the extension makes sense in some ways, but today because I think it has real business impacts, but today um I feel as if we've only been open three
three months. Um and I don't believe everyone that should be aware of it is aware of it. Even if council breeden takes no position, I think it's in your best interest as a business owner to have had that conversation. Um, I do
think I agree with my other commissioners that said this could be very much precedent setting. I envision tomorrow Jasmine getting a bunch of applications for other places to want to extend their hours. So, um, I think you have a good application. I
think it's persuasive in many ways. Um, I don't believe I three months is enough time to really see the business impacts of the of that additional four hours. I would probably support a more incremental increase, but I'm not prepared to support that now. Um, my vote would be
to defer this to our next meeting and ask that you have that conversation with your district city councelor andor and the state rep or at least your district city counselor and continue to give us some more information about those later hours. I think the security is a real
issue. I'm also chair the licensing board. So we I do deal with um security issues on the liquor side and it's not necessarily where people are purchasing and leaving, it's where people are actually consuming, but you know, you
paint a picture of people like having to rush to another part of the city because this place is closing at 9:00. I don't know if I am convinced of that right now. Um, so in in many ways I support this, but I
I would like more information. Um, and I'll work with you to let you know what I think I need, but my vote today would be to defer. So, it's to defer to our August hearing and you want them to reach out to the city councelor
August voting meeting. Yeah, is there a second? All in favor? All right. And none opposed. Right. So, this matter is deferred to our August
voting meeting. Um, we will be in touch with the lency as far as what exactly we need as far as security plan. Um, and reaching out to your city councelor. Um, with that, thank you for attending.
Thank you. All right. We'll move on to our next matter. The lency is Castle Leaf LLC doing business as Castle Leaf. The license premises 100 Birmingham Parkway in Brighton. The license type is a marijuana retailer and
product manufacturer license and this request is for a change of ownership interest. Green Brighton LLC proposes to acquire 100% of the equity of Castle Leaf LLC. Um this is a non-equity applicant. Who is present on behalf of the lency?
on behalf of the lency. I think is Frank. Is Glenn Frank? Glen Frank. Yeah, I see him. You just on mute or maybe he's frozen. Oh, I don't know. I think technically Glenn represents Castle Leaf.
Sorry. Can you hear me now? Sorry. Sorry, I was on mute. Yeah. Thank you, board. My name is Glenn Frank. I represent uh Castle Leaf. Uh we have uh entered into an agreement uh with Scott's client uh to transfer the membership interests of Castle Leaf to
Scott's client. Uh it's been a um interesting path for us uh in Castle Leaf. Um over the past several years as we've gone forward um uh the the uh process has not uh been completely
financial success financial success. Um the C uh inputs uh you know were kind of overwhelming. Uh we got behind with the landlord. Um and then Kesle decided that uh it was in their best interests that
they uh turn it over to an operator with more experience. Um and everyone seems to be um on board with Scott's client. Uh there is an agreement in place. It's been approved by the Cannabis Control Commission, the transfer. So, we're here uh today to ask for the board's uh
permission to uh complete this transfer uh to Scott's client. I'm going to let him talk about his client in more detail. Um but we are here if we there are any questions with regard to uh casual leave currently. All right, Scott, did you have any
additional or that was the end? Uh I try to keep these presentations relatively short. Uh we've uh we've been approved. Uh the parties have been uh parties with respect to Green Brighton have been uh background checked. Everything's been approved. I sent uh the board a copy of the CCC
approval. And so um you know they uh um Sunny has other interests in the in the in the state as I've provided to the board in our in our background document. Um, Susanna's been uh working in a number of different establishments. So,
she has a background in uh in operations as well and so we would we would uh we've been working on this for a while. So, we're obviously anxious to have the board uh hopefully approve this application. Thank you. We'll see if any of the board
members have any questions or comments. Chairwoman, um I'm just taking a look at the materials. um at the org chart. Maybe I'm missing something. Um
sorry, I just opened up the wrong thing. It would be Green Brighton would be the would be the equity owner. So I didn't necessarily put Castle above them in the or chart. Sure. But who is in um It's Susanna Catch Tran. She's on she's
on this call as well. Oh, she would use They are the They are the only two owners of Green Bright. Yes. Yep. 91% in change to Susanna and uh and trust and the other the other 9.9. Yep. But she would be the manager. Yes.
Okay. Um All right. Thank you. I have no questions. Commissioner Smith. Thank you, Jasmine. No Commissioner Kinsley. No questions for me. Commissioner
Holmes, no questions. Commissioner Sto, no questions. Commissioner Gotti, no questions. Thank you, Jasmine. Okay. Um, with no questions from the board, we'll move to public testimony. Is there anyone that would like to speak
on this matter? All right. Seeing no one, Chairman Joyce, is there a motion? I make a motion to approve the change of ownership interest. Is there a second? All in favor? And none opposed.
Change of ownership interest is granted as presented. All right, those are all the matters before the board today. Our next transactional hearing will take place on August 13th at 1 p.m. Thank you all for attending and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you very much. Can I ask you a
quick question? Oh, go ahead. What was the result of the vote from the I'm sorry, I was listen I was having another conversation. What was the result of the previous hearing? I didn't hear what the vote was of the last matter we just heard. Yes, it was deferred. It's deferred to our next meeting in August.
Okay. Just checking since it's our neighbor as well. Okay. So, thank you. Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. Yet.