Government officials and representatives from EMBR celebrate the opening of the new dispsenary on 461 Boston Rd. with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Reminder Publishing photo by Ryan Feyre
SPRINGFIELD — After being vacant for roughly two decades, 461 Boston Rd. is now home to a new retail cannabis dispensary.
Government officials and members of the community gathered on Nov. 27 to celebrate the grand opening of EMBR, the only dispensary in Springfield that was built from scratch.
“This project is a building contractor’s dream,” said Patricia Sweitzer, the operations manager from Sweitzer Construction, the Monson-based contractor on the project. “The city was supportive, the building commissioners are here, the mayor, the elected officials, the city was supportive, the neighborhood was supportive, and then the team of contractors, architects, engineers who really put this project together with us really made the difference.”
The opening of the new dispensary finishes the long journey the city took in finding a new use on the Boston Road parcel, which used to hold Russell’s Restaurant. The lot was vacant after the restaurant closed in 2005, and the restaurant’s building was demolished in 2014.
Now, the city hopes that EMBR will be an economic boon for the area it is surrounded by.
“We’re mostly happy to have economic development in the city,” said City Councilor Tim Allen, who was present at the ribbon cutting ceremony. “It’s a good location for EMBR, center of the city, a lot of traffic going every which way … we wish of them the best and thank them for the investment in our city.”
According to Mayor Domenic Sarno, the project, which broke ground just under a year ago, included a $2 million investment to build the dispensary, and has brought 25-30 jobs to the area.
“We’re very business-friendly here,” Sarno said.
The dispensary will be the second under the EMBR moniker, a brand associated with Phat Panda, a national cannabis retailer with operations in Washington and California in addition to Massachusetts. The other EMBR location is in Northampton.
According to representatives from EMBR, the dispensary also includes a new urban pocket park for the community to access.
“When you look at a corner, and you look at kind of across the street at the empty lots, this is what revolutionizing the neighborhood and bringing economic development to it is,” said state Sen. Adam Gomez (D-Springfield), chairman on the Senate side for the state’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy. “This industry, if done correctly, can have major impacts to our community with investments within our community and also investments within our state to be able to fund separate things.”
During the ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 27, state Rep. Orlando Ramos (D-Springfield) reminisced about the time he and Gomez took a trip to Denver a few years ago when they were city councilors to study their marijuana zoning ordinances. Ramos said they learned that dispensaries are best suited for main roads.
“That’s one of the things that we took back to the city of Springfield and out into a zoning ordinance,” Ramos said. “[EMBR] is exactly what we envisioned. “It’s on a main road, good lighting, safe location, easily accessible [and] plenty of parking.”
The 461 Boston Rd. parcel went through a turbulent path prior to becoming home to EMBR.
According to previous Reminder Publishing reporting, the Russell family operated Russell’s Restaurant on the site until 2005. In 2008, Owner Robert Russell took out a $220,000 mortgage on the property as his other business, 60 Minute Photo, fell victim to the digital age, and a proposed sale of the property to the abutting Cumberland Farms, which sought to expand, was blocked by the City Council. Russell filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and People’s United Bank, now part of M&T Bank, repossessed the land in July 2012.
Developer Nick Graham purchased the property from the bank in November 2014 for $100,000 and proposed the development of new two-story townhouse-style apartments. He gained initial approval for a 14-unit development from the Planning Board and the city in hopes of having the units ready for rent in 2015. However, the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission balked at his plans before ultimately approving them in 2016. At one time, he sought to increase to 16 units but was unable to gain support from the Pine Point Community Council or the City Council for the necessary zone change.
After that, the city’s zoning regulations changed, requiring a special permit for the 14-unit development, which was also denied by the City Council after the neighborhood council declined to support it.
Graham ultimately sold the property to Phat Panda in June 2023 for $400,000, and now, EMBR is born a year and a half later.
“I’m very proud to be one of the consultants working on this wonderful dispensary in the city of Springfield,” said Ryan McCollum, principal at RMC Strategies. “Turning an old vacant lot, we’re just reminiscing about Russell’s that used to be here, into a job creator, into a place that’s going to bring some taxes to the city.”
