249 businesses win in Minnesota’s first lottery to license cannabis businesses
Published 7:53 pm Thursday, June 5, 2025
- Aaron Beauchaine, right, a senior broker at Meta Commercial Cannabis Real Estate talks with Brock Dombrovski, CEO at Meta, and others at a watch party for the cannabis lottery on Thursday in Minnetonka. Beauchaine was the recipient of a retail license in an earlier lottery drawing. He said he can open up to five retail spaces and employ about 15 people at each location. Jackson Forderer for MPR News
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He and about 60 others gathered in the Minnetonka office of Meta Commercial Cannabis, a real estate brokerage dedicated to cannabis. People gathered in front of two TVs to watch the lottery, which was held virtually and streamed on YouTube.
Beauchaine is a partner in Meta Commercial Cannabis and runs his own cannabis company.
“This morning was very nerve wracking,” he said. “You’ve been waiting so long for this, and it went by in a matter of seconds. Luckily, my number was called.”
He’s one of 249 applicants who won in a lottery held by the state’s Office of Cannabis Management. The winners now can proceed with the licensing process including a criminal background check.
The agency initially planned to hold the first lottery last November, but postponed it after lawsuits alleged it had unlawfully denied applications for licenses. Seven lotteries were held on Thursday, each lasting under five minutes with breaks in between to reset the lottery system.
The state also hired lottery facilitators who have experience running cannabis lotteries.
“After a little bit over a year from the time we started putting together the application till today, it’s a long time to wait. So there was high nerves, a lot of anticipation. There was a bunch of people here. It was electric after some of us got called for wins,” said Beauchaine.
Beauchaine, who is a veteran, plans to open storefronts in the west metro area and hit the ground running. He’s honing in on locations between Plymouth and Prior Lake for his cannabis dispensaries and hopes to open by early 2026.
Applicants across the state react to lottery
Abbey Johnson also got lucky in securing a retailer license. She owns two hemp retail stores in Lakeville and Dundas and hopes to add cannabis to her shelves by September.
“It’s surreal,” she said. “I’ve been working towards it for a really long time, and the odds felt like they were stacked against me. And, you know, I left a really good paying job to take on this new adventure for just a chance. And so I was feeling like I made all the right decisions.”
There were four categories of licenses up for grabs in the lottery: mezzobusiness, cultivator, manufacturer and retailer. A total of 776 applicants were in the lottery, including general applicants.
With just a third winning, many came out disappointed.
But he’s still holding out hope to get a license when OCM hosts a second lottery for retail applicants in July. It will include social equity applicants who were not selected in the first lottery.
Social equity applicants include veterans, people who live in high-poverty areas and people historically harmed by the war on drugs.
Others who didn’t win still were happy their peers were able to secure a license, like Matthew Robidou. He’s a military veteran and owns a hemp-derived gummy company based in Forest Lakes.
“I was obviously bummed out,” he said. “But I think we had this plan within the industry from the beginning, ‘if I don’t get one and you do,’ let’s work together. And so I think we’re starting to see that unfold. But overall I think it’s just yeah, on to the next thing and got to keep moving.”
When will dispensaries open?
When dispensaries might open depends largely on how quickly those with cultivation licenses can grow product for sellers, as well as how quickly retailers can find or build shops.
Minnesota’s tribal nations, which got a jump start in the market, may be able to help. White Earth Nation has a cultivation facility on their reservation and, through a new tribal compact, can sell wholesale to non-tribal counterparts licensed by the state.
“There’s a lot of cannabis that needs to be grown, a lot of cannabis products that need to be manufactured, and today’s lottery will set the course for a number of those new operators to start to build in that capacity,” Eric Taubel, interim OCM director, said on Thursday.
The cannabis agency is also working on thousands of applications for uncapped licenses, including testing facilities and micro-businesses. Taubel says so far, about 1,000 applicants are in “qualified applicant status” and almost 400 have reached preliminary approval.
