Ever since the state of New Jersey legalized the sale of adult cannabis in 2021, Ewing Township has been among the first municipalities to approve such facilities in town.
One major factor making such facilities attractive to local officials is the fact that municipalities are allowed to tax cannabis businesses located in town.
The income can be pretty significant. Lawrence Township, which had one of the first retail adult use dispensaries in the area in 2022, estimated that it would have realized almost $1 million in additional tax revenues if the business had been open for the full year.
Ewing Observer editor Bill Sanservino recently sat down with Mayor Bert Steinmann to talk about issues impacting the township.
The first article resulting from the interview ran in the May issue of the paper and dealt with the reconstruction of the Ewing Senior and Community Center, which suffered a serious fire last year. The mayor also discussed the economy and municipal budget in the article.
Development and redevelopment in town was covered in the June issue/ Both stories can be read on the Observer’s website at communitynews.org.
In this month’s Q&A, the mayor discusses the state cannabis sales in town. A lightly edited version of that Q&A appears below.
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Ewing Observer: Under state’s cannabis regulations, towns can now raise a substantial amount of income. I know the township has seen a number of applicants and did some endorsements. What do you have coming within the next year or so?
Steinmann: We have two micros are another retailer coming online. We’re going to wind up with three major suppliers. I’m talking about a grow area of 100,000-plus square feet.
Observer: That’s a grow facility?
Steinmann: Grow, manufacture, and then obviously they sell to retailers. In those particular situations— if it if it’s strictly going to be for adult use—then our revenue stream is greatly improved. Basically, once they’re growing plants, they sell the plant to the manufacturer, who is going to make it into whatever form that they’re going to put it in.
We get 2% of that sale. Okay. Then the manufacturer does what they need to do. They sell it to the retailer. We get 2% of that sale. Then once the retailer has it, it walks out the door. We get 2% of that. So that is where we can see significant increases in revenue to the town.
Observer: How many companies does this involve?
Steinmann: Currently, there’s five companies. There’s currently a moratorium until October, and then we kind of revisit to see what we can do. I think we should cap the number of retailers at five. As far as the growers and the manufacturers, I don’t think we should have a limit as long as we can put them in industrial areas, because basically it has no effect on the public.
The public can’t visit these places and it’s a very good revenue stream for any community, and people have to remember that. Some people say we shouldn’t be doing it in Ewing Township. They have that belief and that’s fine, but at the end of the day, what they forget is that people can just go across the border to another town and get it anyway. It’s not like they’re going to stop it from coming into the township. You know, that doesn’t happen.
Observer: Where are the approved locations for each of these types of businesses—grow, manufacturing and retail?
Steinmann: You’ve got Philips Boulevard, Whitehead Road Extension, one more on Olden Avenue, and one that’s coming on Spruce Street in the old Randall Furniture. You’ve got one on Eggerts Crossing Road, which is a micro grower, and one on Jane Street, which is a micro grower. And then there’s one on Olden Avenue across from Capital Plaza. I’m dating myself now—it’s where the old Korvette’s store was and a movie theater. That was many, many, many years ago.
Observer: Those are all grow facilities?
Steinmann: No. The one on Olden Avenue is a retailer. The Old Randall Furniture store is a retailer. The one on Jane Street—the micro—is a grow and retail, but they’re doing as a designer-type drug. They try to make it specifically for the customer.
The one on Eggerts Crossing Road is a micro that’s just grow. The bigger ones are the one on Whitehead Road extension, which is grow and manufacture. The one on Philips Boulevard is actually going to be two or possibly three under one roof, and they are going to be grow manufacturer.
Observer: I understand you have a committee that kind of has vetted the business who want to locate in town. Is that correct?
Steinmann: Yes, we have a committee that screens everybody, and we have a lot of companies come in. A lot of them just failed. Some of them just don’t have the whereabouts to run that type of business. They just think, “It’s easy money for us, just go ahead and do it,” but there’s a lot of hoops that you have to jump through.
Members of the committee include a representative from the Ewing Drug and Alcohol Alliance. We have a local businessperson on the board. We have Rev. Darrell Armstrong from Shiloh Baptist Church—he lives in Ewing Township. We also have a member of the township council and the police chief on the committee. I’m also on the board, as well as our attorney and township planner.
We vet these individuals, we say yes or no, and then we give the recommendations to the council and council votes on them.
Observer: And then ultimately that must go to the state for another level of approval?
Steinmann: Right. But you can’t even get to the state unless you went through those steps with the township.
The first one in town, which used to be called Justice Grown, just changed its name to Bloc. Not The Bloc, just Bloc, whatever that means, I have no idea. So we just went through that particular process with the name change.
Now they have the flags flying outside and they’re starting to advertise more. We rode past the other day and there were maybe seven cars in the parking lot.
Observer: Don’t they have retail, grow and manufacturing facilities in town?
Steinmann: That’s right. Their grow and manufacturing is on Prospect Street.
Observer: And they’re open now?
Steinmann: Yes. Retail for medical customers was opened last year—late summer or early fall. The adult retail use opened a few weeks ago. We haven’t seen lines yet like they did when the one Lawrence Township first opened, but there should be more customers coming as a result of the advertising.
Observer: Yeah, I heard when they first opened, there were some pretty long lines at Zen Leaf in in Lawrence Township, which was the first one in this area.
Steinmann: Oh, yeah. That’s starting to die down though. As soon as people find dispensaries that are closer to their homes, they’re going to gravitate there. Not that I go look for it, but I don’t I don’t think there’s significant pricing difference from one to the other. I could be wrong though.
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