CRB Monitor News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • Register
  • Licensing
  • Regulation
  • Markets
  • Securities
  • Research
SUBSCRIBE
  • Licensing
  • Regulation
  • Markets
  • Securities
  • Research
No Result
View All Result
CRB Monitor News
No Result
View All Result

Minnesota Draws 1,322 Microbusiness Applicants

No limit on microbusiness licenses that will be allowed to sell

Zack Huffman by Zack Huffman
2 months ago
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Home Licensing

Microbusinesses could be king in Minnesota, as over 1,000 applications were submitted for the uncapped license type ahead of this summer’s lottery for retail, cultivation, manufacturing and mezzobusinesses.

Aspiring cannabis operators submitted a total 2,085 applications to the Office of Cannabis Management during the one-month window that ran from Feb. 18 to March 16.

Of those applications, 1,322 were for microbusinesses. There are no caps on the total number of microbusiness licenses OCM will ultimately award, and each license is allowed to open a single dispensary.

RELATED POSTS

MN Compact Could Give Tribal Retailers a Head Start

MN Takes Second Shot at Adult-Use Licensing

Minnesota Adult-Use Lottery Held Up In Appellate Court

“I think this is a little bit more than we expected, but we knew that the number was going to be big,” said Michael Mayes, CEO of cannabis consulting firm Quantum 9. Mayes noted that retail and mezzobusiness licenses allow for more than one dispensary, meaning that consumers in Minnesota could theoretically have an abundance of options when shopping for pot.

“Microbusinesses get one dispensary, retailers get five, and mezzobusinesses get another three, so this makes an incredibly saturated market,” said Mayes. “There are too many dispensaries, just right off the bat. A lot of these will never open.”

Mayes said that he expects fewer than 700 microbusinesses will actually open their doors.

Other applicants included 394 retailers, 48 cultivators, 47 manufacturers and 64 mezzobusinesses. Those license types are capped at 150, 50, 24 and 100, respectively, split evenly between social equity and general applicants.

CRB Monitor CRB Monitor CRB Monitor

Cannabis business lotteries planned for May/June

Lotteries, which are tentatively scheduled for May or June, will be used to select the winners of the capped license types. The remaining uncapped license types include delivery, which drew 94 applications, transportation (64 applications), wholesaler (39 applications), testing facilities (seven applications), and hybrid medical combination license (six applications).

The window was originally supposed to close Friday, March 14, but it was extended for two days after a glitch and subsequent maintenance knocked the state’s application system offline.

“Maintenance issues with Accela’s system nationwide caused issues for those accessing the licensing system late on Friday evening, and so we initially extended the deadline by a day,” said OCM spokesperson Josh Collins. “After determining that Accela had additional maintenance planned for Saturday evening, we extended the deadline to noon on Sunday, to account for anyone who may have been delayed by the maintenance both Friday and Saturday evenings. As the deadline was extended, impacts on those submitting applications were minimal and messages to our customer service inbox reflected that.”

OCM is also working on a compact agreement with the state’s indigenous tribes that would allow them to license up to five dispensaries outside of tribal territory, potentially giving them a head start on the state’s emerging adult-use market.

With a potential flood of new licenses suddenly coming into the state, the legal cannabis market could see a land race as license holders compete for limited real estate options and difficult local government approvals.

“In other states like Michigan, we’ve seen the battlegrounds being at the municipal level where they dictate how many dispensaries, how many cultivators, or even microbusinesses, they allow in,” he said. “And then you may see merit-based or even lottery systems set up at the local level, where it could become more difficult to get a special-use permit.”

Mayes also noted that it cost $500 to apply for a license, making access to the approval process significantly less expensive than actually opening a business with that license.

“You may have an individual obtain a license, hoping that having the license is enough to garner the investment,” he said.

Final adult-use market rules pending

OCM also announced on March 25 that it had submitted proposed regulations to govern the adult-use market. Once those rules are formally adopted, OCM will have the authority to grant final licenses.

“With the rules now in the hands of an administrative law judge for final approval, we’ve reached a crucial milestone. Following approval, prospective businesses will be able to complete their final steps and receive a cannabis license,” OCM Interim Director Eric Taubel said in a press release.

Last fall, the state opened applications for a set of social equity lotteries, but then canceled the drawings. Of those applicants, 211 were pre-approved for social equity status and opted to roll their application over to this current cycle, according to OCM.

Keep up with all the news impacting the regulated cannabis market with the CRB Monitor weekly news digest. Subscribe now.
Tags: Minnesota
Share1Tweet4
Zack Huffman

Zack Huffman

Zack cut his journalistic teeth covering high school sports in the south before spending a decade covering local government, politics and the courts in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He’s previously written for Vice, WIRED, Mental Floss, GrownIn, the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, Talking Joints Memo, and DigBoston.

Related Posts

Licensing

Market Saturation May Narrow NY Retail Pipeline

3 days ago
Questions Remain About Trulieve’s Supposed $113M Tax Win
Licensing

Alabama Judges Voids Third Attempt at Medical Licensing

1 month ago
CRB Monitor News
Licensing

Missouri Regulators Revoke Another 25 Licenses

1 month ago
CRB Monitor News
Licensing

Rhode Island Commission Approves Final Regulations

1 month ago
Next Post
CRB Monitor - Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids Regulation and Pending Legislation

State Lawmakers Target Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids

CRB Monitor Securities Update | February 2025

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Download

Read CRB Monitor’s Seminal Analysis of Cannabis Business Risk

Download

Popular Post

Market Saturation May Narrow NY Retail Pipeline

by Zack Huffman
May 28, 2025
0

The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said it will likely have to limit possible approvals for applicants who have already...

CRB Monitor Securities Update | April 2025

by James Francis
May 27, 2025
0

We do indeed live in interesting times. The world braces for the era of its first American-born pope; hundreds of...

2023 Cannabis Market Report – Year in Review

Illinois Searching for Bank Services

by Maria Brosnan
May 27, 2025
0

The Illinois State Treasurer’s Office is searching for a bank to provide cash processing of cannabis tax payments. The deadline...

Questions Remain About Trulieve’s Supposed $113M Tax Win

Maryland Approves Cannabis Business Employee Ownership

by Zack Huffman
May 19, 2025
0

As Maryland’s adult-use cannabis market approaches its two-year anniversary, dispensary owners now have a way out of a business without...

Recent News post

Market Saturation May Narrow NY Retail Pipeline

May 28, 2025

CRB Monitor Securities Update | April 2025

May 27, 2025
2023 Cannabis Market Report – Year in Review

Illinois Searching for Bank Services

May 27, 2025
CRB Monitor

Cannabis Corporate Intelligence

  • About us
  • Editorial
  • Home
  • My account
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscription
  • Legislation
  • Licensing
  • Litigation
  • Markets
  • Premium
  • Regulation
  • Research
  • Securities
  • Resources
  • Leadership

© 2023-2025 Enhanced Compliance Solutions Inc.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • About us
  • Account
  • Cart
  • Checkout
    • Confirmation
    • Order History
    • Receipt
    • Transaction Failed
  • Checkout
  • Editorial
  • Home
  • Login
  • My account
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Subscribe data
  • Subscribe to our weekly licensing news digest
  • Subscription
    • Register to receive full access

© 2023-2025 Enhanced Compliance Solutions Inc.

×