A marijuana company with a state license in hand is looking for a storefront on Martha’s Vineyard after its competitor signed a lease on its planned location. But it is also facing challenges because of the Island’s limiting zoning for the industry.
Black Harbor Group, which purchased the business and growing operation from Fine Fettle last year, was hoping to open its own dispensary at 510 State Road in West Tisbury. However, the owner of Island Time, the only dispensary on the Vineyard, signed the lease on that property instead.
While Black Harbor Group has already completed its state and local permitting for a growing facility in West Tisbury, it has been looking across the Island for a location to sell its product.
Geoff Rose, Patient Centric CEO and owner of Island Time in Tisbury, signed a lease for the State Road property in July, even though he isn’t setting up another marijuana venture in West Tisbury.
“The plan is to sublet the operation to a Pilates studio that is currently in another location in West Tisbury,” Rose said. Additionally, an apartment in the building will be used for one of his managers.
Rose said he signed the lease in July — the same month state records show Black Harbor Group was established; the lease wasn’t officially finalized until January.
Rose, in an interview with The Times, denied any notion that he acquired the lease to block competitors from entering the Vineyard cannabis market.
“I just decided the lease was available, and it was prudent to do that,” Rose said, underscoring the workforce housing aspect of his lease acquisition.
Now, taped to the front doors of the wooden State Road building that formerly housed the Fine Fettle dispensary, is a laminated flyer directing visitors to Island Time in Tisbury.
Representatives of Cedar Box MV LLC, the landlords of 510 State Road, were not immediately available for comment.
Jamahrl Crawford, a partner with the newcomers Black Harbor Group, told The Times the landlords, Cedar Box MV LLC, decided not to seal a lease with the company in January. That forced Black Harbor Group to vacate 510 State Road of its contents and store them.
“We’re looking for another location,” Crawford said. “The Island is challenging for any business for available space … But we’re up for the challenge.”
Most Vineyard towns have zoning bylaws specifying locations where a marijuana dispensary can set up shop, and under what restrictions, with the exceptions of Aquinnah and Chilmark, which have no mention of marijuana in their zoning bylaws. Adam Petkus, building inspector for Aquinnah and Chilmark, said neither town has commercial zoning, and all of the towns’ business properties are operating under pre-existing nonconforming uses.
“We don’t allow new things without a special permit,” Petkus said.
The rest of the Island, even in the limited locations where a marijuana dispensary is allowed, has its challenges. Shops need to be located certain distances away from schools and playgrounds.
Crawford said the limited zoning, which is seen across Massachusetts, is based on a taboo that the businesses would attract negative impacts like loitering, or a spike in traffic. Many municipalities initially implemented cannabis laws as a result. But he says that’s an outdated fear.
“At this point, there hasn’t been any of the horror stories people may have thought,” Crawford said. He underscored that the cannabis industry has had time to prove itself, and it may be time to reassess regulations, pointing to the benefits a dispensary can have for the local economy and for patients.
Still, there has been little appetite to expand zoning, at least in Oak Bluffs.
Island Time owner Rose attempted to open an avenue for more marijuana businesses on the Island in 2023, pushing forward a citizens’ petition that would have expanded commercial areas where a marijuana dispensary could operate in Oak Bluffs. But that effort was rejected by voters during the annual town meeting last year in a 99-51 vote.
Not long after this vote, Rose spearheaded an effort to accelerate the state’s decision to allow the transportation of marijuana products over state waters between licensed cannabis establishments and treatment centers. Although the state was already considering the change, Rose filed a lawsuit, along with a dispensary on Nantucket, against the Cannabis Control Commission in May to speed up the process, saying his store was under threat of shutting down because of an unreliable cannabis supply chain on the Vineyard.
State officials greenlit the overwater cannabis transportation proposal in June, a week after hearing from marijuana proponents and patients at a meeting in Oak Bluffs. This gave Rose the flexibility to bring marijuana products from elsewhere, rather than relying on an on-Island growing operation, like the one Fine Fettle ran before it shuttered its Vineyard operations.
Despite challenges, representatives of Black Harbor Group say they are making progress on setting up shop on-Island. Cornell Mills, a manager of Black Harbor Group, said the company is also hoping to partner with local organizations to have a “participatory” presence on the Vineyard, like organizing neighborhood cleanups and working with Island Grown Initiative’s Food Pantry.
“We’re absolutely looking to make a splash,” Mills said.
As the search for a new location continues, Crawford underscored the company’s desire to foster positive relationships on the Island.
Through Crawford, a Roxbury native, Black Harbor Group holds Social Equity Program and Economic Empowerment Priority Applicant statuses from the state. These designations are meant to level the barrier to entry into the cannabis industry, and help individuals and communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
And for Crawford, establishing the business on the Vineyard is a return to his summertime childhood. Crawford grew up in Roxbury, but spent summers at his grandmother’s home in Tisbury, and continues to regularly come to the Island. Crawford reminisced to The Times the various experiences he had on the Island, seeing the filming of “Jaws” in 1974, finding out he was allergic to lobster at Menemsha, and hearing folksy tunes on the Vineyard radio station, different from what he heard in Roxbury.
“It expanded my horizons,” Crawford said.
It’s tough being in business and everyone loves a monopoly. It was a smart business move by Geoff and he knows exactly what he did. Reminds me of when Cronig’s bought up a building next to the Stop & Shop in VH to stop the Stop & Shop from expanding. Neither move by these businesses was good for the Island consumer, which is why I refuse to patronize their businesses.
I don’t think this is fair to Mr. Rose at all. According to this article, Rose signed the lease last July. In the second paragraph of this article there is a link to another article from last year which says 1)Fine Fettle didn’t request a transfer of ownership until August 19th, and 2)Black Harbor Group didn’t even exist until July 2nd of last year, and listed it’s address on state records as the 510 State Road property although it had apparently never held the lease on that address.
If anyone knows the difficulties in getting a dispensary approved on island it’s Geoff Rose, and that’s enough reason for him to secure an available lease on one of the only locations that has already been through that process in order to secure the continuity and future growth of his own business, regardless of any immediate plans for the use of the property. There’s nothing underhanded in his actions, and the reporting indicates that his interest in the lease predates any actions taken by the other parties.
This is just a POT block by Mr Rose. He’s a problem he wants a potopaly pure and simple. Nonsense I say.
Agreed.
Own it or you look dishonest.
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