Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 21, 2025 17 dropped significantly. "After everything shakes out, you're still going to be left with the need for more cultivation space in the state of Connecticut," Glassman said. There are currently six full-size cultivation facilities operating in the state, including four that were up and running before Connecticut legalized the recreational use of cannabis. Those grow facilities were originally established to serve the medical marijuana market, and then were allowed to expand production to serve the adult-use industry. Glassman said while regulators are doing their best to shepherd a complex set of rules and an emerging industry, it can still be frustrating for licensees who need answers to specific questions. "The DCP would be the first to tell you that they do have a need for more personnel given the many tasks they undertake, including the high demand for answers to questions asked by licensees and applicants," he said. "This means that while the regulators try to respond as fast as they can to licensee and applicant questions, these businesses would like faster answers to their questions as they try to make critical business decisions." Because Connecticut's adult-use market has so far remained small and has grown much more slowly than expected, Glassman says the large, multistate operators are becoming less interested in the state. "They're making the decision to take their existing capital or invest- ment dollars elsewhere," he said. "The capital is still there, if the capital partner can control the destiny of the business they're investing in." 'Messy history' That's making life complicated for those social equity license holders who are looking for partnerships with well-capitalized and experienced businesses to bring their vision to life. Fine Fettle's Ray is one of those who believes not enough attention is being paid to the experience of social equity entrepreneurs like him who were early into the market and may now have valuable feedback for lawmakers. "Now that the industry is a real thing in Connecticut, I think we need to review some of those things that are on the books in earnest and maybe slow down on introducing new concepts," he said. For instance, he says the current push in the legislature to license hemp growers to produce cannabis outside of disproportionately impacted areas doesn't sit well with him as a way to expand the industry, after his company has spent millions of dollars on a new facility under the old rules. On the other hand, he's fully behind another change under consideration. The initial law built in protections for social equity entrepreneurs, one of which prohibited other businesses from buying out their licenses for seven years. A bill in the legislature would reduce that to three years. Ray says that change would resolve a tricky aspect of a partnership enter- prise such as his with Fine Fettle. "If we decided to sell today, my partners can sell, but I have to go along with the building," he said. "So, I get sold too. America has a messy history with that." TOTAL PROJECT SIZE: 25,000 SF Building For Your Success ABLE COIL BOLTON, CT For over 55 years, metal buildings have been a staple of PDS. For this project, we were tasked by Able Coil to build a new state of the art pre-engineered metal office building and renovate their existing 20,000 square foot building into a new manufacturing facility in Bolton CT. Complete with multiple new offices and several specialty rooms, the exterior finish is a multifaceted design complete with Nichiha Vintage Cement siding and ACM paneling, full length store front windows and stone veneer. Structural upgrades to the existing building were necessary to bring it up to code and to support the new solar panel system. With in-house engineering, PDS can design the right building to fit your budget and timeline. SPOTLIGHT ON: PRE-ENGINEERED METAL BUILDINGS 107 Old Windsor Road, Bloomfield, CT 06002 | 860.242.8586 | pdsec.com THINK • PLAN • BUILD CONSTRUCTING EXCELLENCE Andrew Glassman *Total sales include medical and recreational cannabis products. | Source: Dept. of Consumer Protection CANNABIS RETAIL SALES IN CT $30M $25M $20M $15M $10M JAN/23 OCT/23 APR/23 JAN/24 SEP/24 JULY/23 APR/24 DEC/24 FEB/23 NOV/23 JUL/24 MAY/23 FEB/24 OCT/24 AUG/23 MAY/24 JAN/25 MAR/23 DEC/23 AUG/24 JUN/23 MAR/24 NOV/24 SEP/23 JUN/24 FEB/25 TOTAL RETAIL SALES*

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