GILL — Leaf Joy is changing hands and is set to become a mello Cannabis dispensary.
The Selectboard approved changes to the host community agreement on Monday to reflect that the cannabis dispensary at 1 Main Road, near the intersection of Route 2 and the Turners Falls-Gill Bridge, is being sold by Leaf Joy LLC to Mello Gill LLC.
Matthew Richman, CEO and chief financial officer of mello Cannabis, told the Selectboard that the company currently has a store in Haverhill and a cultivation facility in Amesbury, and had been seeking opportunities to grow the business and open another location.
“We come to build a good business,” he said. “We come to compete and compete fairly.”
Richman said he had heard from a friend in the industry that the owners of Leaf Joy might be willing to sell.
“The owners are nice guys, but they’re in New York, and this is a side thing for them, and they have other priorities,” Richman said, noting that the store was not well-stocked. “What happened was the store had no products; it only had one vendor.”
Mello Cannabis has been operating Leaf Joy since January under a management agreement, and is working to finalize a sale with the owners and the state Cannabis Control Commission. Leaf Joy opened in 2023, and the business is owned by Greg Faiziev. His father, Petr Faiziev, owns the property.
Richman said that since taking over, mello Cannabis has restocked the store with its own product, as well as products from other popular vendors, and sales are up 40%.
He said mello Cannabis is keeping Leaf Joy’s existing staff, including manager Olivia Ellis, and if sales continue to grow, he believes it could be possible to double staffing at the site.
Richman said he does not believe the Gill site will be as popular as the Haverhill location, which can see as many as 500 customers a day, but he believes the Gill store has opportunities to grow given its location along Route 2 and its competitive hours. The store is open until 11 p.m. most days, which is later than other nearby dispensaries.
“We continue to expect to drive sales higher,” Richman said. “The store could definitely see 200 people a day, and it’d be a very healthy business.”
“The store has a special place in my heart,” Ellis said. “This merge with mello and becoming part of the mello team has been incredible to our success over the last couple of months.”
Leaf Joy has been painted blue under the new leadership, and Richman said the business plans to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals to get changes to signs approved. He added that the store is also looking to improve the lighting in the front parking lot.
In addition to the physical changes to the property, Richman said he hopes to bring in other vendors who can set up booths selling items such as jams and salsas, and that mello Cannabis likes to host community events. A celebration is being planned for Aug. 1, to mark the third anniversary of the dispensary being open in Gill.
“To have things happening, it just makes it more fun,” Richman said. “People like to participate. It’s good for us and it’s good for the community.”
Selectboard member Charles Garbiel II said he was not aware that Leaf Joy was low on product and he is glad to see someone looking to revive it.
“We’re happy to see someone come in,” Garbiel said. “The last thing we want is an empty storefront.”
The Selectboard agreed to amend the host community agreement, with the only changes being replacing references to Leaf Joy with Mello Gill LLC, and extending the agreement’s expiration date from December 2027 to three years after the sale of the business is finalized.
