TAUNTON — A onetime NFL linebacker is now playing a major role in the latest recreational marijuana business to open in Taunton.
A former linebacker for the Miami Dophins and Baltimore Ravens, James Crawford of Atlanta, is the majority owner of Y Cannabis — the city’s fourth fully-licensed retail marijuana store, which is officially open for business.
The ribbon cutting for the new Y Cannabis dispensary at 83 County St. was held on Saturday, June 15.
“I’m thrilled to have a new business and family here in Taunton,” Mayor Shaunna O’Connell told about 20 well-wishers, who had assembled inside the single-story building with its elevated, decorative, dormer-style windows.
Taunton currently has a cap of nine cannabis-related businesses allowed to operate within city limits.
The mayor said the newest addition to the local recreational, retail marijuana landscape will prove to be beneficial to everyone involved: “It will create jobs and economic activity,” she said.
What’s on the menu?
The new pot shop sells traditional leaf-and-bud marijuana starting at $18 for an eighth of an ounce and $35 per quarter ounce.
Other retail industry staples include disposable vape pens; pre-rolled smokable cannabis cigarettes; edibles including cannabis-infused gummies and chocolate bars; high-potency concentrates; a topical muscle salve; liquid tinctures; and accessories including single-toke glass pipes, larger capacity water bongs and rolling papers.
Y Cannabis also has its own apparel line of caps, skirts, shirts and pants.
One of the disposable vape pens being sold in the store — as well as being listed on the ycannabis.com website — is manufactured by Taunton-based Freshly Baked Company, which is also known for its line of chewable gummies.
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Same plaza as new gas station and convenience store
The Y Cannabis building is tucked away behind a new convenience store and Gulf gas station now in its final stages of construction. A representative of the Texas company that has been developing the 93 County St. site said it should be open for business by mid-July.
Fulfilling a dream after personal tragedy
The limited liability company under which Y Cannabis operates is LMCC (short for Local Motion Cannabis Company) LLC.
Initially called LMC&C, LLC, the marijuana business venture was created by Belmont couple Flavia Hungaro and her late husband Louis Hicks, who died last year at age 39, and Hungaro’s mother-in-law Irene Hicks.
During the recent grand opening Irene Hicks paid tribute to her son: “It was his vision that brought us all together,” she said.
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Flavia Hungaro previously had been granted a “host community agreement” by the Taunton City Council to grow recreational marijuana in an industrial building at 30 Sherwood Drive. She eventually abandoned the idea.
Since then two separate entities have proposed opening both a cultivation facility and sales dispensary in the building.
Hungaro also at one point considered ceding control of the future dispensary at 83 County St. to local real estate agent and aspiring marijuana entrepreneur Kyra Fernandez.
Fernandez, however, is not involved in the Y Cannabis project and instead is building her own large building at 354 Winthrop St. to accommodate both a retail store and cultivation operation as well as a separate office for her real estate business.
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Former NFL linebacker steps in
LMCC LLC, doing business as Y Cannabis, now has three investment partners.
Hungaro says she owns just under 10% of the company and that her mother-in-law Irene Hicks owns 15%.
The majority owner, she said, is Crawford and the investor partnership between him and the Hungaros is known as The Crawford Legacy group. Crawford, 29, is a native of Deerfield Beach, Florida.
His career as an NFL linebacker was cut short in 2022 as result of a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) injury.
Crawford was signed as a free agent in 2018 with the Green Bay Packers and got playing time as a linebacker in all 16 games that season. He subsequently, in 2019, signed with the Miami Dolphins and played in three games before being placed on the injured reserve list. He next signed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2020 as part of the team’s practice squad and finished his football career the following year with US Football League’s Philadelphia Stars.
“I already had a love of cannabis,” Crawford said, adding that “we want to be a one-stop shop with the best quality for each category (of cannabis product).”
He says he got involved in the Taunton business venture through an attorney and family friend named Sheena Sullivan — who has her own law practice in Boca Raton and who once worked for Chicago-based, multinational law firm Sidley Austin LLP.
Sullivan, 38, describes herself as the “general counsel” for Y Cannabis. She said she has a handful of other clients, all of whom work in the “entertainment industry.” But she says she’s been especially busy during the past year traveling back and forth from Florida to Taunton.
“It’s a complicated business,” Sullivan said. “I don’t think people realize the amount of capital that’s invested with no expectation of (an immediate) return.”
“It takes a couple years to get through the licensing process and then to build the store from the ground up,” she said, adding that LMCC, LLC will have spent as much as $2 million in capital investment to get Y Cannabis up and running.
Sullivan said the capital investment included paying for a traffic study, architectural plan, the store’s security system and the interior design of the building.
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Competitive playing field
The average profit margin for a marijuana dispensary is between 10% and 20%, according to a report published by Korona POS.
And according to Cannabis Business Times, sales from licensed dispensaries of adult-use and medical marijuana increased by only 1.8% between 2022 and 2023, from $1.76 billion to $1.79 billion.
Another cannabis shop in Berkley?
Despite the challenges, Hungaro, who lives in Belmont with her four children, says that she, her mother-in-law and Crawford eventually want to open retail cannabis shops in the towns of Maynard and nearby Berkley.
Berkley, which previously granted Hungaro a local license to operate a dispensary, already has a marijuana shop on County Street.
Still a few job openings
Sullivan said she hired Jeff Pietrefesa, who has previous work experience at other dispensaries, to be general manager of Y Cannabis. She says they consult each other when it comes to hiring employees.
Sullivan said there currently are 13 employees and that there is room for “a few more.”
She said base salary for someone with no prior experience as a budtender is $17, which also includes an offer of a health insurance plan and paid time off when it is warranted.
According to ZipRecruiter, the average hourly pay for a budtender in Massachusetts is $15.44.
Sullivan said nearly all the hiring has so far been done through the Indeed, Inc. employment website.
Drawing from multiple vendors
Pietrefesa said he gets products from as many as 20 vendors, most of whom he describes as “local mom and pop craft vendors.”
During the grand opening day, representatives of a handful of Bay State pot-related vendors were on scene promoting their product lines at display tables. These included Bountiful Farms; Mass Yield Cultivation; Insa; and Impressed Cannabis.
Plans for cannabis lounge — if state OKs them
Y Cannabis occupies just over half the building at 83 County St. in a space designated as Suite A. The unoccupied Suite B, according to Sullivan, was initially intended to be used as a “social consumption” or cannabis lounge, but the state’s Cannabis Control Commission has yet to decide whether to legalize any such facility.
As a result, Sullivan says, The Crawford Legacy group is looking for a tenant to occupy Suite B.
“Anything but tobacco,” she said with a smile.
New public safety complex across street
Sullivan also said it’s reassuring to know that a new public safety complex is being built directly across the street to house headquarters for both the police and fire departments.
“We’ll have the safety and protection of police so that our customers can shop in peace,” she said.
No credit cards yet
Until the federal government decriminalizes marijuana, credit card companies will not allow cannabis purchases.
In addition to cash, which is available from an ATM in the showroom, Sullivan says Y Cannabis accepts payments via both the Automated Clearing House Network (ACH) and Dutchie Pay platform, the latter of which is tailored for cannabis purchases.
Property owner ready to sign new lease
Tony Abreau, who works as assistant commissioner for Taunton’s department of public works, and his brother Joseph Abreau are the property owners of 83 County St.
They also, as part of the deal with Y Cannabis, constructed the building but were not directly involved in the interior layout.
The address, which comprises three business condominium parcels, includes both the real estate and building that Tony and his brother constructed for Y Cannabis, Tony said. The address also includes Putnam Pipe Corporation located closer to the street.
Abreau says the current five-year lease period on the Y Cannabis site is nearing its end and that he hopes to renew for at least another five years.
Abreau said there’s now an overabundance of parking spaces — as many as a total of 100 — adjacent to the marijuana store. He said if the opportunity were to present itself some of the spaces could be replaced by yet another building on 6,000 square feet of space.
But for the time being he’s grateful for how things have turned out with Y Cannabis.
“I’m just happy that the thing is open,” Abreau said.
Hours of operation
Y Cannabis is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.