Joshua Seymour's 'life-changing' Kittery marijuana shop dream comes true after rocky road

KITTERY, Maine — Joshua Seymour, a local medical marijuana company owner, received a life-changing call while driving to Nashville in October 2021. Or so he thought.

Seymour, who lives in Kittery and owns Green Truck Farms in North Berwick, was called by his team and told the company had been chosen in Kittery's retail marijuana store license lottery.

Jubilant at first, Seymour pulled to the side of the road and began to cry. The joy was short-lived, however, as his team realized the ping-pong ball selected was not assigned to one of their entries, a mistake that meant his business had not won the Kittery pot shop lottery after all.

It was a tough setback. The Green Truck Farms team had submitted 100 entries to the lottery at a cost of $750 per entry, totaling $75,000, just for a chance to be invited to apply for one of three Kittery pot shop licenses.

Now, in 2023, his dream is coming together after all.

Seymour, nearly two years after the "heartbreaking" lottery took place, received approval from the town's Planning Board last week to convert his former Route 236 cannabidiol (CBD) boutique into a retail adult-use marijuana shop. The twist in fate came after the applicant in front of Green Truck Farms in the 2021 lottery rescinded his application, paving the way for Seymour.

Green Truck Farms is now poised to become the second retail recreational cannabis business to open in town. Theory Wellness opened last October at the Kittery Outlets.

“It was just heartbreak when we realized that wasn't our ball,” Seymour said of the license lottery. “I was unsure whether this was going to fly or not, so when we finally got the approval last Thursday, it was just as good as the first time I thought we had won. It gives me goosebumps to think about it because I had to hold in tears leaving that meeting. My family was at home watching it on TV. My kids were in the driveway waiting for me when I got home. We just had a huge family hug and I cried it out. It was so awesome. It feels so good. I'm really emotional about it because we put so much work into this.”

Seymour's journey to cannabis shop approval in Kittery

Green Truck Farms was founded by Seymour in 2015 inside the garage of his former Berwick home. Later that year, he moved his business into its flagship North Berwick location, and in 2019, he and his family moved to Kittery.

In late 2020, Seymour presented two petitions to Kittery officials, which collectively received over 1,300 signatures in support of allowing adult-use cannabis shops in town. The fall of that year, Maine opened up adult-use marijuana sales statewide, a business that has blossomed and resulted in high sales. In 2023 so far, the adult-use market has recorded $140.1 million in total transactions, according to the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy.

Kittery leaders decided to distribute retail marijuana business licenses and allow adult-use companies to apply via a lottery. The lottery received more than 700 entries, generating over $535,000 in revenue for the town.

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“I understand the purpose of that, and it did generate a lot of revenue for the town, which I’m all for, but unfortunately it put us in the spot where it was just a gamble at that point,” Seymour said.

Despite closing his CBD boutique in town after the lottery, Seymour held onto the property in hopes that circumstances could change, and Green Truck Farms would be allowed to apply for a license. That moment came last winter, when applicant Brandon Pollock, initially chosen at random in the lottery pull for the available Commercial 2 zone license, withdrew his application without giving a reason.

Next in line to apply was Seymour.

“We stand for clean cannabis for the working class. We want to make it an inviting atmosphere, something (customers) can connect with and somewhere they can rely on,” he said. “That’s the goal of our design.”

Zoning leaders in neighboring Eliot had previously approved an application from Seymour to open an adult-use location on Arc Road. But now, with approval from Kittery’s Planning Board in place, Green Truck Farms will forgo that opportunity and focus on transforming its Kittery location to an adult-use store.

“Fortunately, we were able to hold onto the property and we waited to see what would happen in the other zones,” Seymour said. “We were blessed with this opportunity once the lottery fell to us. I’m just really, really grateful to have the opportunity again. We’ve worked so long and so hard for it. Everyone on our team has put in a lot of effort. They were out there on the streets helping us collect signatures.”

What will Kittery's new pot store look like?

The town Planning Board approved Seymour’s plan last Thursday, Sept. 14, in a 5-0-1 vote, with board member Earldean Wells abstaining after expressing concern about a sewer line buried in a wetland on site.

Kenneth Wood, president of Attar Engineering, represented Seymour and spoke to the proposal at the board meeting.

“I can honestly tell you that a buried sewer line in a wetland will not affect the wetland’s capacity to treat or hold the stormwater,” Wood said at the board meeting.

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Seymour was approved to renovate his commercial space at 89 Route 236, neighbored by an Aroma Joe's franchise, and expand the parking lot.

Work will include knocking down the walls inside the building to create an open concept business, Seymour said, that will hopefully be open in the spring of 2024.

Products that will be sold at the shop include cannabis flower, concentrates, vapes, edibles and drinks, as well as CBD and medicinal products.

“Come summertime (next year), we’re expecting to be jamming over here,” Seymour said.

Though the applicant has received his necessary land-use approvals, the Town Council must still formally issue Seymour his company’s license to operate. A public hearing on the matter will be held on Oct. 11, according to Town Manager Kendra Amaral.

Green Truck Farms is also opening an adult-use cannabis production and retail location in Sanford later in 2023, according to the business’ founder.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kittery ME marijuana shop dream comes true for Joshua Seymour