WHATELY — The Select Board voted this week to extend ToroVerde’s host community agreement through the end of 2023 as the company undergoes a third-party sale.

With long-standing plans to open a marijuana dispensary at the former Sugarloaf Shoppes at the intersections of Routes 5, 10 and 116, ToroVerde requested an extension to its host community agreement. The company had received a special permit to operate a store on the site in 2019. In January, the Select Board extended the expiration date to Dec. 31 of this year, but signaled it would extend it to the end of 2023 if necessary.

The second extension came Tuesday night, when the company’s attorney, Taylor Lovejoy, requested the board push the expiration date out to Dec. 31, 2023. Lovejoy explained ToroVerde was in the process of being sold, but that the deal fell through. The company is now being sold to a different one, which he said is based in Maryland.

Attempts to contact Lovejoy for further information were unsuccessful.

“The host community agreement is set to lapse at the end of this year, so we are looking for an extension to kick that out another year,” Lovejoy said. “ToroVerde is just looking to pass along the entity, as was the plan all along, but the prior sale fell through and now we’re going through this one.”

Following a brief conversation, the board opted to extend the host community agreement through next year.

“Extending it another year doesn’t seem to be a problem,” said Selectboard Chair Joyce Palmer-Fortune.

The extension gives ToroVerde another year to open up the store at the former Sugarloaf Shoppes. If it opens, it will be one of two dispensaries at the site. ToroVerde is licensed to operate in Unit A while Debilitating Medical Condition Treatment Centers (DMCTC) was approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals in October to operate in Unit B. Neither dispensary has opened yet.

During DMCTC’s permit process in 2021, ToroVerde opposed the licensing because of concerns about traffic and future leasing opportunities being affected by a neighboring dispensary. Members of the ZBA, however, said potential future leases were irrelevant to DMCTC’s application in front of them and unanimously approved the permit.

Any potential opening date for the dispensary is unknown, but representatives in the past have given several dates that have passed by. In an Aug. 8, 2021 letter to the editor that was printed in the Greenfield Recorder, ToroVerde President William Beetz and CEO John Bonavita said they expected the store to open in fall 2021. In January 2022, attorney Richard Evans told the Selectboard that the company was eyeing a spring or summer opening date.

“ToroVerde hopes to open this spring or summer. … By this time, we’re confident the company will be up and operating,” Evans said in January. “Everything is going forward. They’ve made a big investment in the facility.”

At that time, the board approved the first extension and showed support for extending the host community agreement to 2023, but then-Selectboard Chair Jonathan Edwards noted town officials believed the store would have already been open.

“It strikes me that we all assumed that this would be up and running before now,” Edwards said in January.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.

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