SAUGUS — The owner of a Route 1 car dealership whose building is the proposed site of Olde World Remedies’ Saugus dispensary believes the Marijuana Review Establishment Committee that awarded his property a score of 0 for location failed to do its due diligence.
Medi Mirnasiri, who owns Auto Excellence Group at 173 Main St., slammed Town Manager Scott Crabtree and other committee members during the Board of Selectmen’s cannabis hearings last month and in subsequent conversations with The Item. Olde World Remedies’ proposal was ranked fourth of the seven applicants reviewed by the committee, with the primary concern cited in the report being the location.
“The proposed premises at 173 Main St., a current exotic car dealership, presents several challenges,” the report reads. “The building has a massive amount of square footage and a relatively high rent for the respondent, which raised concerns regarding the business model.”
“In addition, the location is within view of Saugus Middle High School. While the building is well maintained and up to code, access to the site is challenging as it has a Main Street offramp curb cut,” the report added.
But Mirnasiri, who will be set to retire if Olde World Remedies is awarded a license by the Cannabis Control Commission to operate in Saugus, fired back at those statements, noting that his property is situated off a one-way three-lane exit off the highway. In the decade his dealership has been open, there have been no accidents in the area, he said.
And, while the property is less than a mile from the high school on foot, Mirnasiri wholly rejected the notion that the school is visible from his property. An Item reporter was also unable to see the school from Mirnasiri’s dealership.
Mirnasiri said the committee, which comprised Crabtree and other town department heads, failed to do a thorough investigation, including apparently failing to conduct a site visit to his property or speak to him directly.
“They did not do their due diligence as far as safety and accident reports in front of my entrance and exit,” he said. “The statements about safety are totally false.”
In fact, Mirnasiri said the only two people to have come to visit the property were Board of Selectmen Chairman Anthony Cogliano and Selectman Corinne Riley.
Two of Cogliano and Riley’s fellow board members, Vice Chair Debra Panetta and Michael Serino, both expressed some concern about the location during the hearings last month.
Panetta said she “travels that way quite often” and that navigating the area can be “dicey.”
Serino echoed the concern in the report about the building’s proximity to the school.
Olde World Remedies CEO Alan Rothenberg defended the location, saying he believed the low score was “totally wrong.”
“I don’t see how this is not the safest entrance and exit to any location on Route 1,” Rothenberg said.
Rothenberg also told the selectmen he was not afforded the opportunity to meet with the committee.
Crabtree, in a statement issued on behalf of the committee, defended the process.
“Every respondent now before the Board of Selectmen met with the entire committee and were given fair and adequate time to present and answer committee questions,” the statement said. “Moreover, the committee had lengthy site visits with respondents with cannabis establishments in Massachusetts where respondents had additional time to present, conduct a tour of their facility and operations, and ask and respond to questions by the committee.”
“All respondents to the (request for information) issued in February 2023 were held to the same standard and had the same opportunity to present their proposals prior to the committee’s report being issued. As with any matter of public procurement clarity, process, and fairness were afforded to all those seeking to do business in Saugus,” the statement continues.
Mirnasiri also objected to the notion that the rent set to be paid by the company and Rothenberg is onerous, saying Crabtree had “absolutely no business” commenting on the lease agreement the two parties had reached. A copy of the lease agreement, which Mirnasiri described as “tentative,” shows that rent for the property is set at $50,000 a month. The agreement submitted to the selectmen was signed Feb. 23, and indicates that payments were to begin on April 1.
The lease also makes the company responsible for paying property taxes and operating expenses for the main building. The rent will be adjusted each year based on the change in inflation from the previous year. The lease terminates on Jan. 31, 2028.
The report also criticized Olde World Remedies’ Lynn location on Western Avenue for poor ventilation and the “strongly present” smell of cannabis.
Mirnasiri said expecting a cannabis dispensary to smell like anything other than cannabis is absurd.
“What do you expect to smell? Ham and cheese on rye?” he said. “If you go to a paint store, you’re going to smell paint. If you go to a marijuana store, you’re going to smell marijuana.”
