Bourne Select Board Meeting - August 30, 2025: Cannabis Retail License Host Community Agreement Presentations
Bourne Select Board Meeting - August 30, 2025: Cannabis Retail License Host Community Agreement Presentations
The Bourne Select Board convened on August 30, 2025, to hear presentations from four candidates seeking a Host Community Agreement (HCA) for adult-use marijuana retail establishments. The meeting, which was televised and not streamed on Zoom, featured detailed proposals from each applicant, including business plans, site specifics, security measures, community impact, and social equity credentials. The board also set a timeline for deliberation and scoring.
Discussion Items
Bourne Cannabis LLC (694–698 MacArthur Boulevard)
- Presented by Michael Kinnihan (co-founder, with cultivation experience), Jenish Patel (retail experience), and Anna Stroni (local educator and community engagement lead).
- Proposed a vertically integrated operation combining cultivation, retail, and medical marijuana (once vertically integrated).
- Highlighted a fully funded, debt-free project with $800,000 build-out, 43 parking spaces (zoned requirement 25), and a fulfillment model similar to an Apple store.
- Emphasized sustainability (organic living soil, worm beds, glass jars), employee ownership (ESOP), 401k with 3% match, 75% health/dental coverage, and wages $2–$4 above state average.
- Partnered with Johnny Adams to provide housing: 4 of 7 new units at 340 Main Street reserved for staff, with a housing assistance program.
- Traffic analysis: peak hour 180 trips (one vehicle every 45 seconds), with most being pass-by travelers. Location near Otis Rotary with right-in/right-out and U-turn access.
- Projected revenue: $3.2M in 2026 (partial year), $11.5M in 2027, $11.8M in 2028.
- Medical potential: Would apply for medical license immediately after vertical integration, noting ability to serve medical cardholders.
- Diversion and education: Anna Stroni plans to create community education programs on responsible use and keeping cannabis from minors.
- Security: state-of-the-art ID verification, 24/7 surveillance, 100-day video retention.
- Answering board questions: 60% of sales expected online pre-order; social equity participant (Michael lived in Roxbury, area of disproportionate impact); diversity plan targeting 50%+ women and 35% minorities; second-chance hiring considered.
Canna Retail LLC (Location Not Yet Submitted)
- Presented by Jordan Gomes (principal, social equity participant) and David Rabinovitz (advisor).
- Emphasized local roots: Gomes is a lifelong East Wareham resident with Wareham and Bourne connections.
- Focus on small, efficient store to survive market conditions (prices down 70% over four years, average store revenue dropping to ~$4M).
- Market analysis: Bourne’s market opportunity estimated at $7.5–$10.5M; a small store with low build-out costs is more viable than large, expensive operations.
- Proposed delivery license (pre-certified) and future medical retail once state allows standalone medical licenses.
- Social equity: 100% social equity business; Gomes completed over 58 courses and 350 hours of training through the CCC’s Social Equity Program.
- Security: Going above regulations with national/international ID manual, electronic ID scanners, and 90-day video storage (aiming for higher resolution and additional cameras).
- Hiring: Emphasis on diversity and local hiring; no specific second-chance program mentioned but commitment to equity.
- Community impact: Planned positive impact plan, but cautious about promises; willing to do clean-ups and support local causes.
- During Q&A, board members praised the thoughtful application and understanding of market realities.
Cape Cod Dispensary (NLM, LLC) – 304 Main Street
- Presented by Attorney Valerio Romano (compliance officer), Chris Vining (owner of The Goods Community Cannabis in Somerville), Steve Perkins (CEO of Atlantic Medicinal Partners), Nicole McCarthy (local franchise owner), and Dennis Woodside (retired police chief as security consultant).
- Location: 304 Main Street (Buzzards Bay), a former restaurant; site plan includes separate entrance/exit, 40 parking spots, and interior renovation.
- Financing: $1.25 million in committed funds, debt-free.
- Experience: Vining operates a successful Somerville dispensary; Perkins brothers run vertically integrated medical and adult-use operations in Fitchburg, Brockton, and Salem. They embrace medical marijuana (AMP produces medical products) and will apply for medical retail license when allowed.
- Projected revenue: ~$4 million annually; conservative projections based on operating experience and ITE traffic data.
- Security: Former police chief Dennis Woodside reviewed plans; state-of-the-art cameras tied to police, 50-state ID scanner, de-escalation training.
- Community: Hyper-local team (McCarthy family well-known in Bourne); philanthropic giving planned (Bourne Food Pantry mentioned); commitment to hiring locally, job fairs.
- Diversion: Employee training, packaging tracking, and cooperation with police.
- Social equity: Chris Vining is a verified social equity participant (51% ownership).
- Board noted the strength of the local team and the retired chief’s endorsement.
Medicine Man Solutions, LLC (dba Medicine Man Cannabis) – 4 Bourne Bridge Approach
- Presented by Haskell Kennedy (founder, construction supervisor, real estate appraiser), Philip Smith (Iraq War veteran, co-founder of Freshly Baked), and Jenny Roseman (Air Force veteran).
- Location: 4 Bourne Bridge Approach (former TJ’s restaurant), in the marijuana overlay district. Plans include interior/exterior renovation, landscaping to improve visibility from the rotary.
- Fully debt-free, 100% privately funded; no loans. Received $500,000 from the state’s Social Equity Grant Fund.
- Experience: Kennedy has over 20 years in retail (Elite Sportswear) and real estate; Smith and Roseman run Freshly Baked, a veteran-owned manufacturing and home delivery company (first licensed home delivery in MA).
- Social equity: 100% minority and veteran-owned; both Kennedy and Smith are social equity certified. Emphasized authentic equity (actual control, not passive 51% ownership).
- Security: 50-state ID scanner, video coverage, security guard at entrance, metric tracking, zero tolerance for theft.
- Community: Plan to partner with VFW and other local organizations in Bourne; aim to hire 50% local.
- Budget and timeline: Six to nine months to open; Kennedy will act as general contractor.
- Financial incentives: Town would receive 3% community impact fee, 3% local tax, plus additional state incentives for hosting a social equity applicant.
- Board discussion acknowledged the location’s challenges (rotary traffic) but noted the business could be a destination; Kennedy countered that cannabis is a destination purchase and traffic is manageable.
Key Outcomes
- No decisions were made during the meeting; the board will deliberate and vote at a future meeting.
- Deliberation schedule:
- Individual score sheets to be emailed or dropped off by 4:00 PM on Monday, September 8, 2025.
- A special meeting for deliberation and discussion will be held Thursday, September 11, 2025, at 9:30 AM with a hard stop at 11:00 AM (hybrid or in-person, to be confirmed).
- The board will use the Cannabis Control Commission’s standard scoring rubric.
- All presentation materials were distributed to board members electronically.
Meeting Transcript
We'll call the public session to order and open session. Neat note this meeting is being televised, streamed, or recorded by Bourne TV. If anyone in the audience is recording or videotaping, they need to acknowledge such at this time. Oh, I think oh, and okay. Thank you. And please refrain from using any flash photography. This meeting obviously is not being streamed on Zoom this evening this afternoon. I'm so used to being here in the evening. And we can get started. I know Marlene's working on the presentation for our first candidate. And uh large file, so it's taking some time to load, but I have another file without a video link. Oh, we have a video. Yes. Okay, why don't we tie that one? All right, no worries, no worries at all. Our first candidate, just so you know, is um scheduled for one and it is Bourne Cannabis LLC, 694 to 698 Macartha Boulevard for adult use marijuana retail establishment when ready. All right. I'll do the best. If I need to try to advance it manually, I can by um started. Okay, I just like it's more. Um just point it here. If you need me to do it manually, I can do that. Okay. Hello everyone. All right, thank you, sir. Introduce yourself. Yes, thank you. Uh my name is Michael Kinnihan. I'm one of the um co-founders of Born Cannabis. Thank you for having me. Uh before I jump into an introduction of myself, here's a quick overview of what we wanted to discuss today. Uh so some brief information on the company, proposed location, uh, some operational information, a proposed timeline, some financial projections, and just an overall vision for the company. Uh since it's the first time we're all meeting here, I'd love to start with a quick introduction of myself, uh, my journey into cannabis and uh the cultivation facility that I started and currently operated. Uh so I grew up in Westbridgewater. Um, although I never lived in Bourne, I actually spend my summers on Big Sandy Pond. I still do to this day. Um I worked at Waterworth back in the day, uh, went to the Mass Maritime basketball camps. So I do have some ties to the uh to the neighborhood. Um after high school, I went to the University of Rhode Island where I got a civil uh engineering degree. Uh then I moved to Roxbury and I'm currently in Dorchester with my family now. Um although I don't do too much on the engineering side of things, I do still have an active CSL license. Uh this brings me to the um professional side of things. Uh in 2019, I started a cannabis cultivation facility. It's located in Taunton, Massachusetts. Um we're currently in our third year of operations. Um we're in the final stages of receiving manufacturing, so we'll have cultivation and manufacturing. We're on our final inspection with the CCC hoping to have that in the next two to three months. I'm part of that when we raised, uh we had to raise 4.5 million dollars. Uh fortunately, we don't have to go through that again. Um that was not fun, and it's not as easy to raise cannabis funding right now.
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