CommonWealth Magazine

ROXBURY RESIDENTS Solmon Chowdhury and Brian Keith had no plans to get into the marijuana business.

But when the Massachusetts industry kicked off, the two men were approached separately by major cannabis companies outside of the state and asked if they were interested in getting involved. The chowdhurys are from Bangladesh and the Keiths are black, and state cannabis licensing regulations give priority to minority entrepreneurs. The big corporations were looking for well-known people of color to face their community – but the terms of the proposed contracts made it clear that the investing companies would run the business.

Chowdhury and his wife Rokeya Chowdhury are successful Boston restaurant owners who run Shanti restaurants in Dorchester, Roslindale and Kendall Square, and Dudley Cafe in Roxbury. Brian Keith, who works in aviation sales, was president of the Mount Pleasant Avenue Neighborhood Association in Roxbury and ran unsuccessfully for Boston City Council in 2017. His wife, Joanne Keith, works in finance.

The Roxbury friends – who met through their children, played club sports together, and worked on community boards – weren’t interested in being the face of someone else’s company. “We realized that if the four of us worked together, we could do better than what the big overseas corporation was doing, and we could do it so that the community was actually involved,” said Brian Keith .

Three years later, the Chowdhurys and the Keiths founded Rooted in Roxbury, a cannabis retail business owned and invested solely by colored Bostonians.

“We didn’t want to be in this industry at first, but one of the things we’ve seen is that if we don’t level up, another person will say that it’s okay to be in our neighborhood, but not really. ” [have] the dollars flowing into our neighborhoods, ”said Rokeya Chowdhury. “We want the people who drive by or walk past this special place to be the ones who can say, ‘Oh, I have a piece of it.'”

In contrast to much of the industry, which is dominated by big cannabis companies and funded by venture capitalists, Rooted in Roxbury has 40 investors, 96 percent of whom are black, all colored, 51 percent women and all of Boston residents are from Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Hyde Park. The founders said their collaborative efforts had reached people they know and targeted colored investors. They set a minimum investment amount of just $ 1,200 to encourage people who are not rich to invest. A group of women pooled their money to reach the threshold. The average investment so far is $ 16,500.

“These are investors in our community, they are part of our neighborhood, they are our customers in the café. They are everyday people we meet, ”said Rokeya Chowdhury.

Keith said the founders realized that there was wealth in the Black and Brown communities, unlike other companies that tend to only attract colored investors when trying to meet a diversity quota. “We wanted to flip the script and make sure we were targeting colored people first, so this first floor community got into this business instead of when we were needed,” Keith said.

Statistically, the Massachusetts cannabis industry is predominantly white and male.

Fewer than 30 cannabis companies that have been allowed to open are designated as a priority license category, which usually means that they are owned by minorities, people disproportionately affected by the drug war, women, or veterans.

Of 932 applications that have received some approval from the Cannabis Control Commission, only 77 are minority owned, 45 female owned, and another 59 are identified as being at least two categories of “disadvantaged businesses” that they are racial minorities or women, veterans or other groups.

Of marijuana company employees registered with the Commission, nearly 72 percent are white and 63 percent are male.

Experts say one reason for the inequality despite a state marijuana law that prioritizes equity is that the black community has less generational wealth and often minority entrepreneurs have less access to capital in an industry where traditional bank credit is unavailable to have. The total cost of opening a retail store is easily over $ 1 million, and there is often a long lead time that a business owner must pay to secure a location while going through a long, expensive licensing process. Brian Keith described the current climate as a “gold rush,” where people spend a lot of money to secure a location and then start licensing. “People of Color often don’t have the money to secure the lease for a long period of time that they don’t know if they’ll generate any income,” he said.

The only large company with an interest in Rooted in Roxbury is Green Thumb Industries. GTI owned the Newbury Street location and planned to open a medical marijuana store there, but the company’s plans failed. GTI agreed to sell the property to Rooted in Roxbury and received 10 percent equity for a limited time as part of the transaction to pay for the property.

Rooted in Roxbury has received approval from Boston to open its first store on Newbury Street and will now begin the state licensing process. The founders hope to be able to open in six to eight months. A second location in Nubian Square has been approved by the Boston Cannabis Board, and a Zoning Board hearing is planned. You begin the process of opening a third store in Downtown Crossing.

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Reporter, CommonWealth

About Shira Schönberg

Shira Schönberg is a reporter for CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for Springfield Republican / MassLive.com for more than seven years, covering state politics and elections to Elizabeth Warren and Governor Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism in 2018, and multiple stories were recognized by the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primaries for the Boston Globe. Prior to that, she worked for the Concord (NH) Monitor, where she wrote about the state government, town hall and Barack Obama’s 2008 New Hampshire election campaign. Shira holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

About Shira Schönberg

Shira Schönberg is a reporter for CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for Springfield Republican / MassLive.com for more than seven years, covering state politics and elections to Elizabeth Warren and Governor Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Legal Journalism in 2018, and multiple stories were recognized by the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primaries for the Boston Globe. Prior to that, she worked for the Concord (NH) Monitor, where she wrote about the state government, town hall and Barack Obama’s 2008 New Hampshire election campaign. Shira holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

The founders have experience in business, not cannabis, so they need to hire operators with cannabis expertise. They haven’t decided where to get their marijuana from, but they hope to have a boutique shop with a range of products – ideally they buy from lots of minority and small breeders. They set recruitment goals of 80 percent of Boston residents and half of women, Roxbury residents and blacks. The Newbury Street store will employ around 25 people. The company has pledged to pay $ 16 an hour, get involved with employees, and offer perks including a deposit support program.

Brian Keith said that she and his partners chose Newbury Street – the high-end downtown retail corridor – because of the pedestrian traffic and the money. Two more cannabis stores are considering opening within a half-mile radius. “When we generate income and pay out profits in these areas, we pay the income from those areas back to our communities, back to Dorchester, back to Roxbury, back to Hyde Park,” said Keith.

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