“Corsair Cousin” Goes Up In Smoke

Plans to bring a cannabis dispensary — and not 75 new apartments — to an Upper State Street warehouse took one big step forward, after a Fairfield-based housing developer flipped the property for $3.15 million to a local bud entrepreneur looking to bring ​“Hi!” to the people.

The site of that planned future dispensary is 1041 State St.

If it opens, it would become the third legal outlet for adult-use recreational cannabis sales in New Haven — following existing retailers already up and running on Whalley Avenue and Sargent Drive.

According to a warranty deed posted to the city’s land records database on Monday, New Haven Apartment Partners LLC has sold 1041 State St. and two small adjacent parcels for $3.15 million to Let’s Grow Hartford LLC.

The seller of the property is a holding company controlled by Andrew Montelli of the Fairfield real estate development firm Post Road Residential. 

That’s the company that built (and then sold) the Corsair luxury apartments across the street at 1050 State St. In November 2021, Post Road Residential won site plan approval to build 75 new apartments at 1041 State as part of a project informally known as the ​“Corsair Cousin.” The Elicker administration and alders handed a functionally unusable 0.06-acre parcel of Mill River Street back to the state in May 2021 to facilitate that development. Montelli’s company then purchased 1041 State for $1.35 million in February 2022.

After all that, the ​“Corsair Cousin” apartment plan now appears to be dead — as the new owners of 1041 State are looking to turn the property into a new place to buy pot, as opposed to a new place to live.

David Salinas, the founder of the nearby DISTRICT co-working hub, is one of the co-owners of the Let’s Grow Hartford LLC venture. This week’s property sale comes roughly a year after the City Plan Commission granted Salinas’s company site plan and special permit approvals to open an adult-use cannabis retailer at 1041 State.

According to Salinas, his company has not yet applied for nor received the state approvals needed to open up a dispensary at this State Street site. A state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) spokesperson said that the department is not aware of any dispensary plans for this address at this time.

During a Tuesday phone interview, Salinas told the Independent that 1041 State’s new owners very much plan on opening a cannabis dispensary at this site. Unlike with the previous housing plan, the new owners don’t intend to knock down the existing building — but will instead convert it to a new, cannabis-focused use. 

“We’ll have a full menu [of] edibles, beverages, flower, pre-rolls, vape carts,” Salinas said. The business will also include a cannabis delivery service, he said, that will ferry pot products across the state.

While the holding company that now owns 1041 State is called ​“Let’s Grow Hartford,” he added, the planned new cannabis dispensary business is called Hi! People. That same company is also currently looking to open adult-use cannabis retail operations in Derby and Hartford.

“At Hi! People, we’re focused on creating a unique and interactive experience,” the company’s website reads. ​“From our engaging in-store environments to personalized customer interactions, we want your visit to be more than just a top-shelf purchase. Whether you’re stocking up for personal enjoyment or exploring new products, we’re your newest destination for all your flower needs.”

Salinas said the next immediate steps for Hi! People’s 1041 State plans involving working on the architectural design for the dispensary. ​“We’ve got a concept drawing for the building. We’ll go to full architectural documents, and then we’ll bid that project out to contract.”

Asked how he would respond to concerns from New Haveners who wanted to see new apartments and not a cannabis dispensary at 1041 State, Salinas replied, ​“I’m not a residential developer. I think the city’s working really hard to provide residential development opportunities, [but] that’s not the business I’m in.”