Owners of new cannabis microbusiness (L to R) Todd Christiansen, Glenn Hauser and Tad Ulrich stand outside their cannabis retail store. The store is located at 4 N. Minnesota Street in New Ulm and is named Four North. They hope to open the business with a full line of cannabis products by late September.

NEW ULM – The city’s first cannabis retail shop is coming to downtown with high hopes of opening in late September.

The name of the store is Four North Cannabis Retailer and it is located at 4 N. Minnesota Street in the heart of New Ulm’s downtown. Four North is the retail side of a cannabis micro-business called Brick Side Growers, Inc. The micro-business is vertically integrated, meaning in addition to a retail store, Brick Side Growers will operate its own cannabis growing facility to supply its store, and others with products.

Brick Side Growers owners Glenn Hauser, Tad Ulrich and Todd Christiansen said that early in the development of the business, they spoke with several consultants and they all recommended the vertical integration model for the business.

Currently, Brick Side Growers is only waiting to complete the build-out of its store and growing facility to complete the licensing process. Once enough product is available for sale, the store will open.

Christiansen said just as a bar would not open without any alcohol to sell, Four North will not open until they have enough products available. This means New Ulm will need to be patient for a few more months before the cannabis shop opens, but the owners are used to waiting. Hauser, Ulrich and Christiansen have been working to start the business for nearly a year and a half.

The new signage for Four North Cannabis Retailer at 4 North Minnesota Street went in Tuesday. The new store is the retail side of Brick Side Growers, a new cannabis microbusinnes.

Hauser said the initial idea to start the business came from a discussion he had after someone approached him about starting a cannabis growing operation. Hauser was doing a lot of carpentry work at the time, including building greenhouses. He also had a farm. After thinking about it, Hauser approached his friend Tad Ulrich, who had purchased the former Lafayette Charter School building. The building has 20,000 square feet of building space that could serve as a growing facility. However, there were a few obstacles.

Hauser said at the beginning neither he nor Ulrich were big cannabis users and they did not know where to begin. Christiansen was brought on to provide assistance, but the trio still had to do their homework to start running a business that even a few years ago was still illegal.

Ulrich immediately began taking classes on cannabis and today has eight certifications.

“I am a certified master of cannabis,” he said.

Hauser said they also began soliciting advice from different consultants and this is where the idea for vertical integration came up.

A small sampling of products that will be available at Four North Cannabis Retailer. The full product line will including cannabis flower, preroll cannabis, vapes, infused drinks and edibles.

Sara Christiansen, who is serving as a consultant for Brick Side Growers, said some businesses might want to only sell the product, others might want to only grow the product. With vertical integration, the company is growing the seeds, packaging the product and selling.

“We don’t have to worry about relying on suppliers; we will make our own supplies,” Todd Christiansen said.

The integrated model required them to have a storefront and fortunately, the building at 4 N. Minnesota Street became available.

“It was too nice to pass up,” Hauser said.

The building at 4N. Minnesota Street still has much of the original tile from 1911 when it was used as a pharmacy. The word “drugs” is still written into the tile of the main entrance. The owners intend to keep this feature and further emphasize the building’s past as a pharmacy as they work to build out the store.

The owners of Brick Side Grower play a game of chess in the lobby of their new retail store in downtown New Ulm. The store is called Four North and will be the first cannabis retail shop in New Ulm. (Clockwise) Glenn Hauser, Tad Ulrich and Todd Christiansen.

The store build-out is the last step needed for Brick Side Growers to become fully licensed to open. This build-out requirement was only added by the state on July 3.

Ulrich said they had the information for the license application ready to submit to the state, but after refreshing the website, he noticed this new requirement.

“They changed the rules again on July 3 and they didn’t tell anybody,” he said. If he had not stumbled upon the update then, they might have missed the law change. The change itself did not come a great surprise to the owners. Minnesota has been changing the laws regarding cannabis sales since it was legalized. Some of the changes have been beneficial for Brick Side Growers.

Hauser said Brick Side Growers was originally going to apply for a mezzobusiness license, but in January, the state change the licensing for microbusinesses. Before January, Minnesota was granting all cannabis business licenses through a lottery system. Now, the microbusiness licenses are approved through a vetting system. Under the vetting system, any cannabis microbusiness that qualifies can get a license.

Hauser said, based on the number of applicants that have applied for a cannabis mezzobusiness license, there was a one-in-four chance of receiving a license. The only benefit of applying for a mezzobusiness is that it would allow an applicant to operate three retail stores. Brick Side Growers only intends to operate one.

The soon to open cannabis retail store Four North, located at 4 North Minnesota Street was once a pharamcy. Evidence of its pharamcy past is still visible in the tile floor which the store owners have decided not to change.

“We figure we could start small and work our way up if we want to,” Hauser said.

Sara Christiansen said Brick Side Growers will be one of the few cannabis microbusinesses to have a retail shop and a grow facility when they open. This means once retail cannabis stores begin opening in Minnesota, there could be a scarcity of product, but that would not be a problem for Brick Side Growers because of the grow facility.

Hauser said another benefit of growing their own product is that there is quality control. They know what’s going into their cannabis.

Christiansen said there is a consistency of the product. There is also the option to sell wholesale once the facility is in full production. Brick Side Grower could serve as a supplier to other retail businesses.

Through all the work setting up the businesses, Brick Side Growers wanted to acknowledge the support from New Ulm.

Sara Christiansen said the city was amazing at working with them. New Ulm was able to help fast-track the permitting process. With the changes in the law, support from the State of Minnesota has been minimal, but the City of New Ulm was very helpful.

Hauser said he was initially concerned the city would give them the cold shoulder, but as they provided information, everyone was receptive.

“As you educate people, they are not so scared of it,” he said. “Eventually, it will be treated like a distillery or brewery.”

Sara Christiansen said part of the retail service would include education on the products sold. The idea is to create a non-intimidating environment for people to learn about the products and what is right for them.

Four North will sell a variety of cannabis products, including flower, pre-rolled cannabis, vapes, infused drinks and edibles.

“The goal is to have a variety of things,” Hauser said.

In addition to working on building out the Four North storefront, Brick Side Growers will be looking to start hiring and training employees. They estimate that at least 24 employees will be needed to work at the grow facility and at the storefront, in addition to some part-time workers.

Hauser said they were already interested in the community from people looking to work for the business. There is a lot of interest in having a cannabis business operate in the New Ulm area.

Brick Side Growers is also excited about being part of New Ulm’s downtown business community. The storefront is already getting involved in some of the downtown events, like Spikin’ in the Street. Hauser, Ulrich and Christiansen agreed it would be wonderful to be ready in time for Oktoberfest.