The planning board for the Township of Montclair recently voted to approve an application for a 2,000-square-foot dispensary on Bloomfield Avenue. Officials voted unanimously to approve the application from High Hills NJ LLC to bring a cannabis shop to the former Dunkin’ Donuts at 586 Bloomfield Avenue.
Members of the planning board reviewed the application during the board’s regular meeting on July 20. The board has approved two other dispensaries on the same road in the last two years: Kush Connection at 665 Bloomfield Avenue and Night Owl at 516 Bloomfield Avenue.
Application documents made public by the board show that High Hills NJ intends to build two 110-square-foot waiting areas on the side of the building fronting Bloomfield Avenue. There will be two entryways to a 525-square-foot sales floor connected to the waiting areas. The application also calls for a storage vault, office, break room, bathroom, and storage space toward the rear of the building.
Professionals working on behalf of the applicant, including High Hills Director of Compliance Paula Givens, explained that the project will bring eight on-site parking spots and that the storefront is less than 150 feet from the municipal lot at 33 Valley Road.
Givens said the company could hire over 25 workers by the end of the year, but that the final number of hires is contingent on the business’s ability to provide delivery services. The store will operate Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Although the proposal was conditionally approved by the board, High Hills NJ will be required to continue working with the township’s historic preservation commission and the board, as the approved application did not include a proposal for signage. Façade changes will require a certificate of appropriateness from the historic commission.
A report in Montclair Local said the dispensary is slated to open later this year, but it did not provide a more specific timeline.
Givens told the board that she has worked on opening dispensaries, both medical and recreational, in Ohio and Michigan. Rikit Patel, the former owner of the Grove Pharmacy at 123 Grove Street, is a partner in the project, Givens said.
While the dispensary will be the third cannabis retailer on Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, the report from Montclair Local adds that the first cannabis shop in the township opened in 2012 at 395 Bloomfield Avenue. The retailer at that location, Greenleaf Compassion Center, eventually closed its doors, but the storefront was reopened in 2021 by Ascend Cannabis. The store’s move to recreational cannabis became a point of contention between local officials and the business, which eventually moved out of Montclair in 2023.
In July 2025, the planning board approved Kush Connection’s application for its store on Bloomfield Avenue, but it is unclear when the dispensary will actually open. The board approved Night Owl’s application for a recreational dispensary at 516 Bloomfield Avenue in February.
An archive from Google Maps shows that the retail portion of the building has been vacant since 2021.
Data from the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the state’s regulatory agency for cannabis, says it has granted a combined 1,424 retail licenses as of July 16. The data does not differentiate between opened and closed businesses, but it shows that the commission has awarded 961 conditional retail licenses. The commission has awarded 284 conditional-to-annual license conversions and 179 annual retail licenses. The commission reported that medicinal and recreational sales reached $46.2 million and $1.1 billion, respectively, in 2025.
