Proposed marijuana grow factory in Newmarket Square wins approval to add retail shop - and cafe, which will only sell coffee and pastries

The Zoning Board of Appeal yesterday approved plans by Mario Signore to change his proposed three-story cannabis factory at 100 Hampden St. to include a ground-floor marijuana store and a separate cafe.

Signore's Green Line Boston Craft Cannabis had originally planned to use all three floors of the building for cultivation and product manufacturing, but decided to swap in retail for the ground floor because of an ongoing contraction in the Massachusetts marijuana production industry, his attorney, Nick Zozula, told the board.

Zozula said the new cafe would only served baked goods, rather than goods to get customers baked, and that Signore is looking for a Roxbury entrepreneur to run it. It would have a separate entrance from the proposed marijuana retail shop next door, he said.

The board approved the changes under a provision for minor amendments to previously approved projects, because the overall building size and 23 parking spaces were unchanged from the plans earlier approved by the board and the BPDA.