EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. — East Grand Forks may be one of the next communities in our region to see cannabis businesses open in the coming months.
A dispensary operated by the White Earth Nation is in the works, and others could follow.
In negotiations between East Grand Forks and the White Earth Nation, the latter party may have it their way soon.
“Now that we’ve gotten those questions answered and everyone’s on the same page there, now we’ve been granted those permits,” Zach Wilson, CEO, Waabigwan Mashkiki, said.
The White Earth Nation has purchased an old Burger King building on Central Avenue and is outfitting it to become a Waabigwan Mashkiki dispensary.
The store in Moorhead opened last spring and was the first non-tribal dispensary in the state.
According to CEO Zach Wilson, customer data suggested Polk County was worth exploring for opening a store.
“Whether it’s to Moorhead or whether it’s to Mahnomen, we just felt really positive about going over there to get a piece of that market share,” Wilson said.
That market includes two businesses already approved for operation, Red Iris LLC and Skol MN.
But the tribe’s process has been allowed to accelerate quicker due to a recent agreement with the state.
“These tribal compacts that the White Earth Nation has signed with the governor and the state of Minnesota lay out its own set of rules as it relates to cannabis,” Reid Huttunen, city administrator, East Grand Forks, said.
The compact exempts the tribe from local cannabis-related enforcement and ordinances, but they will be paying income and sales taxes.
So far, the city has had several conversations about where that money could go.
“We have a local sales tax in place that helps fund some improvements at our parks and recreation facilities, and that’s subject to cannabis sales as well, so it’s going to help on that end on the local front for us,” Huttunen said.
Though there have been concerns about logistics at the new location, Wilson says they’re ready to go, with a potential opening date of this April.
“We’re hustling, we’re trying to go as fast as we can,” Wilson said.
Wilson says he expects to create between 20-30 jobs once the tribal dispensary is ready to open.
Isak Dinesen joined WDAY-TV as a reporter in September 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist at WAOW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin for three years. He graduated from NDSU in 2020, majoring in Journalism and minoring in Sports Communication at MSUM.
