More Info. On 2nd Secaucus Pot Shop That Seeks To Open

SECAUCUS, NJ — On Thursday, Patch reported that a second retail marijuana shop would like to open in Secaucus.

Now, on Friday, Secaucus town administrator Gary Jeffas gives the public more information about this new business seeking to open in town:

Floro Secaucus LLC gave a presentation Dec. 20 before the Secaucus Cannabis Control Board, a three-person board made up of Jeffas, Police Chief Dennis Miller and Secaucus town attorney Keri Ann Eglentowicz.

Jeffas said they seek to open a 4,000-square-foot business in the front area of that warehouse location. Jeffas said as far as he understands it, the pet cremation business and the casket company would remain in operation.

This would be a retail marijuana store, selling pot directly to consumers. They would not grow marijuana on site or sell it wholesale. It would be located directly across Castle Road from the existing Harmony Dispensary and — not dissimilar to how two gas stations work — be direct competition for Harmony in the retail marijuana market.

Harmony has not released any public statements on the news that Floro seek to open right across the street.

Floro Secaucus LLC, which is owned by two people who live outside of Secaucus, has applied for a Class 5 retail marijuana license from the town. Jeffas said Secaucus has not approved or denied it yet.

He said the Cannabis Control Board will most likely "make a decision in the next 30 to 60 days" and will then recommend to the Council and Mayor Mike Gonnelli if they approve the business to open or not. Once Floro gets approval from the town, they will then apply to the state of New Jersey for a license.

Jeffas stressed that the town of Secaucus has limited where pot-based businesses can open to a very small triangular area immediately around Harmony.

"It is not like we want to have a marijuana business on Paterson Plank Road; we would deny that," said Jeffas Friday. "It is a very limited geographical area and we made it that way so it would be self-limiting. I think the town of Teaneck, for example, has limited marijuana businesses to one block only. Ours is in an industrial, warehouse area."

"However, we are looking into amending the town ordinance further to limit the number of licenses the town gives out," said Jeffas. "For example, we don't want, say, 15 pot shops sitting down there."

He said Harmony Dispensary paid about $250,000 in taxes to the town of Secaucus in 2022 and he only expects that number to go up in 2023 now that they have been approved by the state to sell marijuana to all.

"What that will be with recreational sales, we really don't know but we certainly expect the number to rise. A new market has been added," said the town administrator. "It was the will of the residents: 70 percent of the state voted to legalize marijuana. It became a matter of, it's here. How do we best deal with it?"