Cannabis Dispensary Opens in Historic Water Mill House – 27east
Reporter
Amid the legal skirmishes over Southampton Town’s authority to regulate cannabis dispensaries, the first New York State licensed cannabis dispensary to have followed the town’s laborious commercial site plan process to the letter of the law opened last weekend in a historic former home in Water Mill.
Hampton Premium Green opened on Saturday, January 31, at 978 Montauk Highway. The building previously housed 1780 House Antiques — which was named for the building’s deep roots in Water Mill’s history.
HPG Proprietors Ashley and Albert Capraro said that they were relieved to finally be open after nearly three years of working to secure permits for their new business and to complete extensive renovations to the 18th century building they retrofitted to suit a very 21st century industry.
“We are finally here — it has taken so long, but it’s exciting to be open and for everyone to see what we’ve been working on all this time,” Ashley Capraro said on Saturday.
The Capraros’ dispensary is a far cry from the convenience store style of many pot shops in the state, with their jars of sage green buds, platoons of prerolled joints and stacks of innumerable edibles and drinkables.
HPG’s merging of marijuana products and culture with the muted elegance of high-end Hamptons retail and the historic setting of the new home presents much more like entering a jewelry store than a head shop.
The 230-something cannabis products from 20-odd producers, including all of the East End’s cannabis growers and producers, are displayed in glass cases staged throughout the four display rooms. In one, John F. Kennedy — photoshopped, joint in hand, marijuana smoke swirling lingering around his lips — watches over shoppers. Sales staff stroll the rooms eager to talk about the products in detail and help customers navigate the electronic ordering terminals that are mounted on nearly every wall.
When a customer places an order, it is sent from the kiosk to a secure storage room — a requirement of state cannabis regulations — and, moments later, the shutters of an arched portal open to deliver the goods, already packaged for the road.
“The way I wanted to curate our experience is different from the typical dispensary,” said Capraro, who worked for Michael Kors retail stores for 15 years. “We set it up so it feels like you’re in a house. We want it to be more than transactional — we want our customers to roam around, to talk about the products with us and create a relationship with us.”
Capraro said the inventory at HPG will grow as those relationships with new customers inform them about what people are looking for.
Despite the dead of winter kick-off, HPG will be open seven days and is offering delivery “from Commack to Montauk” she said.
The Capraros’ vision for HPG has been some three years in the making.
The couple, who are from East Moriches and became new parents this summer, were awarded Ashley Capraro’s state retail dispensary license in 2023 and closed on the purchase of the Montauk Highway building in May 2024, with their applications to open a dispensary in Water Mill already in motion.
Albert Capraro already had one of the state’s original adult use retail licenses, but had struggled to find a location on the Brookhaven side of the border where he could open a dispensary, despite owning several commercial buildings. He said the Brookhaven Town system was a disorganized mess. In Southampton Town, he said, the rules were clear, well presented, and town staff was helpful, though demanding, and the site plan process onerous.
It took nearly two years for the HPG application to win site plan approval last spring and months more to get building permits for the extensive work required at the property to meet town and state requirements.
Other cannabis dispensary owners have battled the town in court on their path to opening. One, Brown Budda, has sued the town, challenging its right to impose site plan requirements — specifically, forcing the owner to construct a sidewalk in front of its shop, a Suffolk County requirement, before it would be issued a certificate of occupancy. The business has opened anyway.
Another, Charlie Fox, opened without any town approvals, was hit with a court injunction and ultimately leveraged the legal fight over the town’s zoning requirements into securing a town-issued certificate of occupancy, even though all the conditions of their rushed-through site plan approval had not — and still have not — been met.
A third set of license holders have sued, challenging the town’s stalling of their application and then moving to change the surrounding zoning to one that does not allow cannabis stores. A Suffolk County judge in December ordered the town to allow the owners of the business, Mottz Only Authentic, to proceed as before the zone change and forbade it from imposing most of the town’s typical site plan requirements. The town has appealed the ruling.
Al Capraro said he saw patience and following the town’s lead as the wiser strategy — albeit a long and expensive one.
He built the sidewalk — a requirement of the State Department of Transportation, but a condition of the town’s approval — at some $50,000 expense. He more than doubled the size of the property’s parking lot to meet town parking requirements, and paved it — a six-figure investment. Lighting and landscaping plans were pored over and details met.
The hurdles are those that all commercial property owners must go through. But the fledgling cannabis industry — mostly populated by upstarts with little retail experience — has come out fighting, and they make the claim that because the state created very specific parameters under which cannabis dispensaries must operate, the town has no authority to impose all the same demands other businesses must follow.
The State Office of Cannabis Management has officially sided with the dispensary owners who spurn the town’s demands, and two Suffolk County judges have agreed — issuing orders striking down Southampton Town and Riverhead Town’s additional requirements. The two towns have sued the state, saying it is either abandoning the original spirit of the legislation or has changed the rules midstream.
Two other dispensary owners in Southampton Town have adhered to the town’s process. The owners of The Hamptons Collective say that they hope to open their shop, also more than two years in the making, in March, and the owner of Budhampton, which is slated to replace the Carvel in Bridgehampton, has said he is unlikely to open until this coming summer.
Albert Capraro admitted to some frustrations with the cost and delays of the town process but said that the now that Hampton Premium Green is up and running, the payoff is satisfying.
“It was a lot but, yeah, we did it the right way, and we got here,” he said on opening day. “Finally.”
Reporter
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
Sorry, an error occurred.
Already Subscribed!
Cancel anytime
Account processing issue – the email address may already exist
Sign up with
Thank you .
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Invalid password or account does not exist
Sign in with
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
No promotional rates found.
Secure & Encrypted
Secure transaction. Secure transaction. Cancel anytime.
Thank you.
Your gift purchase was successful! Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
A receipt was sent to your email.