MERIDEN, CT — Curaleaf will mark the grand opening of its Meriden dispensary at 443 South Broad Street on Friday, September 25, with games, giveaways and a food truck, a week after the store began serving customers.
The store, which sits behind the Edge Fitness Club on the South Broad Street corridor, opened on September 18 as the relocation of Curaleaf’s Hartford dispensary, the company said in a September 16 announcement. The celebration runs all day Friday, Joe, the store’s supervisor, told The Quinnipiac Post during a visit on Wednesday. He said he was just excited for the opportunity to serve the community.
The Meriden store replaces Curaleaf’s Hartford location
Curaleaf, which operates 179 dispensaries nationwide, said the move keeps its Connecticut footprint at four stores. The others are in Manchester, Groton and Stamford, and the company runs a cultivation and production facility in Simsbury, according to the Hartford Business Journal.
“The relocation to Meriden puts Curaleaf right where our consumers and patients need us to be,” Boris Jordan, Curaleaf’s chair and chief executive, said in the announcement. “New Haven County is one of Connecticut’s most densely populated regions and Curaleaf Meriden gives us a stronger, more central presence to serve this community.”
The store is a hybrid retailer under Connecticut’s cannabis law, serving adults 21 and older as well as patients registered in the state’s medical marijuana program. It has a pharmacist on staff, which the Post confirmed on its visit. Department of Consumer Protection policies require a dispensary’s licensed pharmacist to be available for a private consultation when a patient asks for one.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The company’s announcement lists “brand activations, in-store promotions, and giveaways while supplies last” for Friday. Joe described games and a food truck as well.
Meriden’s third dispensary, and its last under the current cap
The store is the third retail cannabis establishment in Meriden, after Rejoice Dispensary and Zen Leaf, and the city’s zoning regulations cap the number at three. Those regulations also keep a dispensary at least 500 feet from a school or playground and 2,500 feet from another cannabis retailer, distances the application says the South Broad Street site meets. Economic Development Director Joseph Feest told the Record-Journal when the application was filed that the first two dispensaries drew no opposition and that he expected none for this one.
Inside, the build-out is entirely new behind the diner’s old walls, the Post found on its visit.
The grand opening runs during regular hours on Friday, September 25, at 443 South Broad Street. Adult customers need a government-issued ID showing they are 21 or older; medical patients need their state registration.
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