Last week, we wrapped up our approvals process with local authorities and officially received approval for land use and zoning based on our intended use of the property - that is, to grow and sell cannabis. Our home will indeed be the former US Post Office at 16535 Anna Trail SE in Prior Lake.
For a long time, a lot of people questioned whether this was going to be a realistic idea at all, let alone in this location. Prior Lake is an affluent, conservative suburb. Prior Lake officials actively advised me to instead pursue other cities for our endeavor. But Prior Lake is also our home, where our kids go to school, and we insisted and we were serious. Why did it work and why was there no anger or animosity or news headlines from anybody? I'll try to break it down.
- We were ridiculously prepared. Our team was having zoning and land use conversations in our company group chat in June of 2023. We had conversations with several potential landlords before we arrived on one that was amenable to our plans. We made sure the building was owned-outright so that a bank couldn't fail to underwrite us as tenants. We were certain this property was locked in based on our interpretations of state laws and we knew that our preparation would prove useful when local regulations finally came out. And I'm not just talking about zoning categories. We measured every distance to every local entity that could potentially restrict us. We considered population and whether Scott County was a good location with the 12,500 rule. We considered timing and how long we could realistically hold the space before licensing. We made absolutely certain of our personal records and of our business classifications. We had been planning our flow of customers and how our store could look as soon as we acquired the location in August of 2023. We talked about our renovations and how we'd separate spaces and where we'd have storage and what we'd do for growing and how we'd manage plants and genetics and on and on and on for literally years before we had the chance to even apply for a license. We put a lot into this.
It didn't hurt that my last few jobs were in regulated industries. That also involved a lot of project management which might be my strongest talent - I'm really good at breaking really complicated stuff into manageable stuff. Candidly I hated my jobs so I didn't try very hard at them but I learned a lot about navigating regulations and I had successfully approved a few products with major agencies and so I had a leg up.
- When the time came and the rubber had met the road, we acted exactly as though we were approving a Bluetooth device with the FCC, an engine device with the EPA, or a sensing device with IEC. This was just another business approving another legal, regulated use.
We genuinely want this to work well for everybody. We want to live and operate in a city that checks its businesses for fire codes, manages risks with its police department, and enforces building codes to ensure safe spaces for our friends and neighbors. Code enforcement doesn't have to be seen as negative action. I've heard it stated that "codes are written in the blood of those who died before they existed" because it's common knowledge that most safety rules wouldn't exist without an example.
With all this in mind, I have nothing but amazing things to say about the behind-the-scenes operations at the City of Prior Lake. They held two separate inspections with three different departments (fire, police, building) and organized everything in a way that was timely and simple and there's not a whole lot more you could ask for.
Side note, it's weird walking around with a police officer in your future grow space saying "this is where we're going to grow a few hundred weed plants" and for the police officer to say something like "this is really cool"... going to take some getting used to.
- We took a massive risk. We signed a seven year lease on a space that wasn't approved. This space is not cheap. We quit our jobs. But. BUT! We knew what we were doing. Well, I can't speak for the others, and I definitely questioned myself a handful of times, but I knew what I was doing. We didn't tip-toe into this and I'm not sure that you can. At the very least, it would have taken a lot more time had we not been so committed and prepared. There will be examples of businesses that took similar risks that ended up failing and I know that easily could have been us. But, at the least, we'll get the chance to open for full recreational very soon, and we're very proud of the work we did to get here.
I'll probably only have one more update when we're officially open for full rec. We're currently expecting to expand our offerings and get clones rooting the week of 10/13. I plan to send tissue samples of each mother plant for testing on day 1 so we can have clones available to customers within a few days, as well as flower, vape, and higher-dose edibles from the growing number of wholesale sources coming available as time passes. Our first batch of flower will come some time in early 2026. You can see photos of strains that will be available @bminusbuds on Instagram.
We'll see you all very soon - it's here!