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'That's been the strategy from the outset. 'We will open a location anywhere we can,' Hellyar said. 29 in Manistique in the Upper Peninsula and is aiming for 100 stores in the state by 2024. does not adjust its strategy based on how tough cities' application processes are, said Doug Hellyar, president and chief operating officer for the major Michigan operator. 'It's more just availability of licenses, and also real estate.' 'Businesses in this space are just used to that at this point, dealing with regulations that are stringent and ever-evolving,' he said. But Mains doesn't think the regulatory red tape factors much into which cities have become cannabis powerhouses. That has made the industry quite litigious, with lawsuits cropping up in places such as Berkley and Detroit. Other municipalities were 'starting from scratch.'Ĭities that decide to let in cannabis can create their own preferences, to a certain extent, on what kind of businesses they'll allow. They could assuage or deal with the usual concerns about odor, noise or criminality.

Places that allowed cannabis retailers to sell back when they floated in a gray regulatory area - between when medical cannabis was legalized on a small scale in 2008 and when 2016 laws finally clarified the confusion around provisioning centers - had a head start in learning about the industry, Mains said.

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But a license could also be active while a store is still working toward opening, or after it's shuttered. They show active licenses, which does include all businesses that are open selling marijuana. The figures are the best option, according to experts, but they aren't perfect. So for this list, Crain's referenced a combination of tools: a state map and a searchable licensing database. Many stores also offer both medical and adult-use products.

The state doesn't have data available that shows how many medical and recreational retailers are open at a given time - it changes too often as stores close shop abruptly, lag in their opening timelines or close for remodeling, for example, according to Marijuana Regulatory Agency spokesman David Harns. Painting a picture of where cannabis storefronts are more prevalent in Michigan is not an exact science, though. As of that time, the state had 400 medical retailers and 300 adult-use ones. The state's cannabis market was worth a whopping $3.2 billion as of last year - though around two-thirds of that amount is attributed to the nonretail market, including illegal sales and legal home grows, an Anderson Economic Group study commissioned by the Michigan Cannabis Manufacturers Association found. That makes you more attractive when we're talking about M&A activity, that makes it easier for you to maybe think about doing an IPO.' There's kind of a rush to be the business that has the most retail outlets. 'But I think where the industry is at, it's more of a numbers game, depending on what the long-term plan for the business is.

'I think that (saturation) discourages some,' Mains said. The city in metro Detroit with the most is River Rouge, which has seven.īut medical provisioning centers have retained a chunk of the market, too: Medical sales totaled $40.1 million in August, according to the most recent state data available, while adult-use sales totaled $125.5 million for the same month. Bay City has 22, followed by 20 in Battle Creek, 16 in Lansing and 14 in Kalamazoo. Once a city decides to buy in, what happens next is influenced by its track record - or lack thereof - on accepting the much-older medical marijuana industry, as well as its population mix and its proximity to state borders, for example.Ĭrain's determined the top 23 cities for cannabis retail, zeroing in on the larger recreational cannabis industry.Īnn Arbor, with the University of Michigan and a long history of supporting cannabis, tops Crain's list of cities with the most active recreational cannabis business licenses: 24. Why is the map of Michigan's cannabis retail landscape so spotty? The reasons are myriad. The trio of localities, disparate in region and ranging in population size from Bay City's 33,000 to Ann Arbor's 120,000, are part of a small web of around 370 municipalities where cannabis retail storefronts can set up shop.

As cannabis-friendly outposts pop up across Michigan, the three cities to have garnered the most recreational business licenses are Ann Arbor, Bay City and Battle Creek.

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