NJ pizza ‘joint’? Restaurant site makes way for next-door dispensary

🍕 DeLorenzo's Pizza on Sloan Avenue in Hamilton (Mercer) is temporarily closed

🍕 Its building is being divided to house a marijuana dispensary

🍕 They will operate as two separate businesses

HAMILTON (Mercer) — A longtime Mercer County pizzeria has temporarily closed to allow construction of a marijuana dispensary in the same building.

DeLorenzo's Pizza of Hamilton, which closed earlier this year because of tax issues, announced on Facebook that it was closing in order to become "a combination pizzeria - dispensary." The post has caused confusion as under New Jersey law, food may not be sold at a marijuana dispensary. Customers may, however, bring their own food or have it delivered.

Richard Fornaro, the attorney who represents the operator of the dispensary, says the Facebook post is not accurate. A wall is going up in the approximate center of the building. The left side will be a 78-seat restaurant with its own bathroom. The dispensary will be on the right side.

"This is a commercial building with two separate units in it. There's one unit that's going to be for the New Jersey Nectar to be the operator of the dispensary and the other unit is going to be the pizza restaurant," Fornaro told New Jersey 101.5.

"It's not the same operator, and it's not like you'll be able to buy marijuana while you're sitting there waiting for your pizza to come out."

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A changed plan

The Planning Board approved plans at its Feb. 20 meeting for Vision Cannabis to open at 147 Sloan Ave., which is the same address as DeLorenzo's. According to the meeting minutes, DeLorenzo's lease was to expire on July but Vision would help them find a new location.

Those plans changed. On May 22, the Planning Board unanimously approved a revised plan for New Jersey Nectar to move their business.

"There were three units in that building before all the final approvals went through. These two operators made a business deal, and New Jersey Nectar is going to be the one operating at the DeLorenzo pizza site," Fornaro said.

DeLorenzo's has closed while work on the renovation gets underway with the construction of the wall between the two spaces. There’s a large construction trash container in the parking lot. There is no date for completion of the work and the reopening of DeLorenzo's.

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