Marijuana Establishment Eyes Waltham, To Hold Public Meeting

WALTHAM, MA — An industrial building in the area between the Highlands and Cedarwood near Route 95, may become a marijuana establishment. The owners of Royalston Farm are looking to open at 1256 Main St., and are holding a Community Meeting, Thursday, according to the city.

City officials expect the prospective business owners will apply for a special permit for retail marijuana facility in the weeks ahead. The owners went before the traffic commission and the historic commission earlier this year.

Damon Schmidt owns and is the director of Royalston Farm LLC, which is based out of Royalston, according to the Cannabis Commission. He and his business partners are also behind Tempest Inc, a proposed marijuana retail shop in Tempelton. According to an email from Damon the company planning to open on Main Street would be called Waltham Cannabis Inc. and it will be a recreational marijuana retail store.

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 28, the proposed retail marijuana business is holding a public meeting on Zoom, according to city documents filed with the City Council.

There will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions, and the establishment is also accepting questions ahead of time, that they say they plan to answer during the meeting. If you have a question you'd like answered early, email: questions@1256MainSt.com

Although the website was not up and running as of Tuesday, officials said meeting materials would be found at 1256MainSt.com by the time of the meeting.

Meeting details:
6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 28
Join Zoom Meeting by clicking: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8211...
Meeting ID: 821 1627 6920
Password: 031292
All participants are required to enter their first and last name as their screen name in order to beadmitted to the meeting. Once the meeting starts all participants except for the speaker will be on mute.

If you would like to ask a question, please use the "Raise Hand" feature or post it in the chat room.

Since 2015, the property has been listed as belonging to 1256 LLC which is owned by Michael Colomba, according to state records. The city database listed that llc as the current owner as of May 28.

However, earlier this year Boston Real Estate Times and other real estate outlets reported someone bought the 4,600 square-foot property at 1254-1256 Main St., from for $2,050,000. Someone familiar with that trust, Shapiro Family Realty Trust, later told Patch it was quickly sold to another trust. It's not immediately clear who owns the building.

Schmidt told Patch he is renting the property.

Waltham voted to support medical marijuana back in 2012, with 60 percent of voters in favor, making medical marijuana dispensaries allowed. In 2015, several businesses sought to set up medicinal marijuana establishments in the city, but neither the mayor nor the city council would take responsibility approving it. At the time a Wicked Local editorial criticized the public bodies for this. Then in 2016, 55 percent of Waltham's voters supported legalizing recreational marijuana. Despite a number of companies eyeing Waltham, the city, stuck as to how to handle them, passed two moratoriums on issuing licenses. On June 30, the moratorium lifted last year.

In November 2019 the city approved a new ordinance that puts the responsibility for negotiating and executing host agreements in the hands of the mayor, eliminating any confusion. It is common for a mayor's office to negotiate a community host agreement and then send it to a City Council for approval.

Related:

Marijuana In Waltham: Public Hearing Kicks Up Debate ...
Marijuana In Waltham: Public Hearing Brings Out Dozens

Waltham City Council Approves New Marijuana Ordinance (Nov. 2019)

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).