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HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 3, 2023 13 Building Ideas That Work... Contact us at 860.482.7613 or visit us at BorghesiBuilding.com 2155 East Main Street Torrington, Connecticut 06790 © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing ™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. When looking to construct a new place of worship, Borghesi Building & Engineering Co., Inc. will guide you in defining your project using a balance of goals, budget and timeline. Providing quality and reliability with design and energy efficient construction. With over 80 years of experience our processes will help your dream to be realized. JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, WEST HARTFORD GRACE CHURCH, NEWTOWN SIKH TEMPLE, SOUTHINGTON uals that meet social equity criteria, including having an average house- hold income of less than 300% of the state median household income over the last three tax years, and living in an area disproportionately impacted by drug-related convictions. Such entities can be created by existing medical marijuana producers and dispensaries, which is why Budr partnered with Green Thumb. Gibbs isn't a social equity appli- cant himself — his income is too high to qualify — so at least one of Budr Cannabis' social equity part- ners will have a 50% stake in each dispensary the company opens. Gibbs, Tirella and GTI will make up the rest of the ownership. Nancine Crump is the social equity partner for the West Hartford dispensary. "I came in with the industry exper- tise to interact with our medical partner Green Thumb Industries and really hit the ground running in terms of helping with municipality approvals, state approvals and the right connec- tions in place to start building the company," Tirella said. "Having the opportunity to work with someone like Derrick who's an entrepreneur at heart and build something from the ground up is really exciting for me." Exponential growth The West Hartford dispensary is expected to open in June or July, with locations in Danbury and Westbrook to follow later this year. Gibbs said he's hoping to overcome legal hurdles in Westbrook, where the town gave him more than a dozen conditions to meet before approving the business, including tweaks to parking lot and traffic plans and hours of operation. "We feel confident enough that it's going to be upheld through the legal process and it's all gonna work out, so that's why we are still continuing with the normal course of business and meeting with the town," Gibbs said. "Even though there's a lawsuit and we do take a risk of it being denied, in this scenario, chances are very high it will be approved because it meets all the zoning requirements." The company is still honing in on locations for its other two planned retail stores; the goal is to open five dispensaries by the end of 2024. Gibbs said the company has hired a marketing firm to help build the brand and launch a new website. "We plan to obviously grow expo- nentially in the next few months and hopefully really make an impact in each of the local communities we're in," Tirella said. Budr Cannabis' West Hartford dispensary will be located at this retail building at 1037 Boulevard. HBJ PHOTO | SKYLER FRAZER