CLARKSBURG, Mass. — New England Regional Dispensary, or NERD, owner Chad Cellana believes that the cannabis business should be personal. 

 

"We strive to keep those community values, and we want our customers to feel welcomed," Cellana said. "We want to know our customers and have those connections so we can make recommendations and accommodate their needs as best as possible."

 

The cannabis dispensary, located on 34 Cross Road, is customer-service centric, Cellana said, and that he stands by the products he sells and recommends.

 

"We don't want to have good deals but less good products," he said. "I am trying to carry a better product and educate the customer. I get questions every day — 'What will help me with this, what will help me with that, what will help me sleep better?' We want to be able to make those recommendations."

 

It's not strange that NERD, which only opened in May, has solidified this focus so quickly as it has been in the works for 10 years.

 

A decade ago, Cellana was living in Milford, keeping tabs on potential medical marijuana legalization in Massachusetts.

 

"I was reading the Milford Daily News, I liked to do the puzzles in there. So, I was following this story about voting to legalize it. And they did in 2012," Cellana said. "So, I started brainstorming and thought this could really happen in the future."

 

Cellana said soon after medical marijuana was legalized, he spoke to his uncle and now business partner John Cellana about opening some sort of business in Berkshire County. John, a local entrepreneur, owns the property NERD now sits on.

 

Understanding it was early in the process, Cellana said his uncle told him to keep the idea on the back burner and go out and "learn what you can learn."

 

Cellana said he knew there was a cultivation facility being built in the neighboring town of Franklin. So he submitted a job application.

 

"I got a job. Cool. So now I'm in the industry, and I'm really thinking, 'geez, I can learn what I need to learn here to do what I want to do,'" he said.

 

Cellena quickly climbed the ranks in Franklin learning the business from top to bottom. 

 

"I guess I pivoted to another position after three years there to more of a production and inventory manager position," he said. "So, I kind of learned all the back house stuff. I was stocking the two dispensaries we had at that company. I thought I'm making these guys millions of dollars, right? So, let's see what I can do on my own."

 

He enveloped himself in the cannabis industry at a pivotal point in his life. Fresh out of college, Cellena admitted he was a little rudderless at the time.

 

"I found some direction in my life as a kind of post-undergraduate working in school systems trying to figure out whether to use my degree," he said. "And then I got this job and it changed everything. I never looked back. I always said in high school I would never work in a cubicle, and I really never did."

 

Cellana worked on a business plan for years in the background and when he finally brought it before some accountants, they told him he had something unique.

 

"They told me they see a lot of these business plans and what differentiated me was that I had all of the experience," he said. "Everyone else comes in with money and a warehouse … so I quit my job in 2019."  

 

This is soon after recreational marijuana became legal in Massachusetts.

 

Cellana said he stayed true and focused on this 10-year plan. Back in Berkshire County, his uncle was rezoning his property in Clarksburg preparing it for retail and cultivation.    

 

Cellana said he soon after met with Clarksburg officials to get the process underway. He said they were immediately onboard and signed off on the host community agreement in 2020.

 

"When I first pitched it to the Select Board, the Council on Aging was there," he said. "It felt like I had my toughest demographic right there. And at the end of the meeting, they were like applauding me."

 

Then he started the long state licensure process. But Cellana knew what he was getting into. Although it was an often-difficult process, he said he made sure he had his business in order.

 

He received a provisional cultivation license in 2021 and provisional retail in May 2022. He opened a year later.

 

During this time, Cellana built out the actual storefront and renovated the former sawmill office. 

 

He said he wanted to do things differently.

 

"I know a lot of dispensaries you move through like it's almost a prison. Buzz into this door, go through the next door, check IDs," he said. "And we do all that, but we want to know your name when you walk in."

 

He said NERD is an open concept that is less invasive than other shops.

 

He also wanted his store to fit in and maintained the wooded, natural feel of the area in branding and in the store itself. He also maintained elements of the sawmill.

 

"I didn't want to just like strip the total history of the building," he said. "I kept it like the sawmill office, and this was my first design building. I planned it, designed it. Yeah, I might be tooting my own horn a bit, but it came out all right."

 

Cellana's family is from the area, and he wants the community to be part of his business. He said many dispensaries come in from the outside while he is quite the opposite. 

 

"I want to work with local people, and I have pledged to buy local products and ancillary products," he said. "I even hang work from local artists in the store. I wanted to try to bring everybody up."

 

Cellana continues this phased vision of his business with plans to build a cultivation facility when the time is right. 

 

"We have the licenses and once we get the right cash flow we will look towards cultivation," he said. "We will pull the trigger when we get the money together … I have learned that everything takes more time than you think. What I thought would take six months takes a year. What I thought would take a year takes three. But just the milestone of breaking into the industry is huge."

 

Cellana added that he is in talks with another community about opening up a second dispensary and he lit up when he said some financial experts believe his business could become a nationwide franchise. 

 

But Cellana knows he has to take his time as he has done the last decade.

 

"I'm setting realistic goals, achievable goals, and I always try to do that," he said. "It's hard to eat the whole bowl of soup in one sitting … you just have to keep churning and just never stand still."