SUNDERLAND — With a special permit amendment, a retail cannabis dispensary’s plans to open early next year at 267 Amherst Road are moving along. 

Altai Alternative Care Inc. received unanimous approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals on Oct. 23 to change the petitioner on the application from Gracious Greens, which had received the permit in 2022, following the business changing hands last year.

As a result of the change of ownership, Altai needed to amend the special permit. Additionally, regulatory changes from the state Cannabis Control Commission in the past year also required the company and Sunderland to renegotiate the host community agreement, according to Peter D’Agostino, who is serving as Altai’s consultant for the project.

“Over the last year, we actually had to do quite a bit,” D’Agostino said in an interview last Tuesday, adding, “everything’s going really well.”

Altai Alternative Care is run by the Townsend family, which has operated Danvers-based Townsend Energy for nearly a century. Matt and John Townsend are planning to open a 2,000-square-foot-store, with approximately 800 square feet of customer space. 

D’Agostino added the plans for the store haven’t really changed much since Gracious Greens applied and the special permit conditions have not changed, as the store must still close at 10 p.m. and the Townsends will have to meet with the Select Board, Police Chief Erik Demetropoulos and the town administrator to discuss traffic impacts on the site after three, six and 12 months of operation.

“There’s no change of use, there’s really no change to the floor plan, everything’s pretty much stayed the same,” he said.

Back in October 2023, John and Matt Townsend, who will be overseeing the operation, told the Selectb Bard they planned to be at the store four to five days a week, as Altai settles into the community. D’Agostino said the brothers are “doing a good job of building a relationship with the town” and he thanked town officials for their partnership in the negotiation and permitting processes.

With interior demolition already underway and little to no exterior work planned, D’Agostino said Altai will be filing a building permit within the next couple of weeks. Ultimately, the goal is to open by the end of March.

The cannabis market in the region, though, is already quite saturated. Cheech & Chong’s Dispensoria has been operating in Whately at the former Sugarloaf Shoppes for more than a year and another dispensary is also permitted to open there. In Deerfield, SunnyDayz is currently constructing its “cannabis campus,” which will contain a dispensary, a cultivation facility and  research lab. Finally, there are a handful of dispensaries in neighboring Hadley and Amherst, as well.

D’Agostino said the current state of the market is being taken into account when they calculate the revenue projections for Altai, which means they believe it’s going to be a “lower-volume store” that serves the people of Sunderland and those who may be using Route 116 to travel to and from work.

“What we’re doing different is we’re being super realistic about what this business looks like,” D’Agostino said, noting the location on a heavily traveled state route is a benefit. “We understand the market. We’re being very pragmatic about that. This is going to be a lower-volume store, but it’s still going to deliver what we think is a viable business.”

Altai Alternative Care’s application will be before the Cannabis Control Commission soon as D’Agostino said the business is on the Nov. 14 meeting agenda.