In 2023, Pure Roots opened what was the state’s largest dispensary in a former Mexican restaurant in Battle Creek, but now the 8,000-square-foot facility’s title has been stolen.
The historic Gibraltar Trade Center, which shut down its Mount Clemens market in 2017, will breathe new life again as Michigan cannabis brand Pleasantrees takes over 9,000 square feet of the 250,000 square-foot building.
Pleasantrees has been occupying its new space since 2022 at partial capacity, but is now ready to open its full facility with a grand opening weekend March 29-30 featuring on-site cannabis consumption, games, and giveaways, plus a first look at the new space.
Along with a renovated interior and parking lot, Pleasantrees commissioned Detroit Sign Painters in 2023 to repaint the iconic Gibraltar Man sign in a new blue suit to mark the building’s new era. For many Southeast Michigan residents, the location itself is bound to bring back fond memories.
“I grew up, born and raised here, and for me and many folks in the area, Gibraltar was always a place of commerce, a place to go on the weekend, whether it was for shopping at the market or a particular event they had going on there,” Pleasantrees president Bryan Wickersham says. “For us, it was very much trying to really strike some nostalgic memories of folks in the area and trying to bring back some of that Gibraltar feel to the space which is why it is a bit oversized for a typical cannabis dispensary.”
The interior of the new retail space features a large-scale LED wall, a cultivation showcase, and fridges for cannabis-infused beverages. While design elements are similar to other Pleasantrees locations, most of these additions are brand new, and ones that the company hopes to carry over into other cities in the future.
“Growing cannabis is first and foremost what we do and what we're known for,” Wickersham says. “We’ll be showing off about a dozen plants in their final stages of life through various strains that we then have available for sale to be able to educate [customers] in real-time. It just puts the plant on the pedestal it deserves to be on within these dispensary locations.”
Pleasantrees is also looking for new ways for its partner brands to be able to directly engage with customers, so they hope that the new 50-foot-long, 15-foot-high LED wall can serve as a way for vendors to set up and interact with consumers. Wickersham says that this will give brands their own temporary storefront and provide “that Gilbraltor feeling of the various booths.”
Another unique aspect of the new location is that there will be a large wall of coolers dedicated to beverages, as Pleasantrees has a partnership with Michigan-based Blake’s Hard Cider Co. to create locally made cannabis-infused drinks.
“It’ll be the first cannabis store in Michigan that I’m aware of that has a full fridge wall build-out similar to what you would see within a convenience store, trying to normalize the fact that these are just drinks, they’re functional beverages,” Wickersham says. “They can replace the beverages in your cooler. They’re not necessarily meant to replace your joint or replace your gummy. It’s starting to more normalize the fact that this is an add-on.”
To Pleasantrees, consumer education is a missing gap in the cannabis market, and the company hopes that all of the new additions help destigmatize weed. The president says the goal is to host cannabis seminars and classes for not only long-time cannabis users but for the entire neighborhood to come and learn about the plant.
Now that home growing is legal in Michigan, Plesantrees also plans to sell plants to customers directly and offer courses to teach them the “intricacies of growing cannabis.”
“We’re operating in an industry that was penalized and given a black eye for decades and decades and decades to the point that there are people that are still paying for that significantly and their families and generations to come will pay for it, until frankly, what is right can be done,” Wickersham says. “We like to find intentional ways to give back and ways to bring attention to the [cannabis and community] groups that we’re giving back to and spotlight them to make others aware, just so that we can do every little bit that we can to effectively write the past wrongs.”
For now, the Pleasantrees team is just excited to get the new space open to the public and see the reactions from new and returning customers. The weekend-long opening will be themed around its historic space, with many odes to the Gibraltar Trade Center.
“We'll have various vendors and games and giveaways going on. The exciting part to us is it’s a taste of what’s to come,” Wickersham says. “We were fortunate enough that we have a permit to develop a consumption lounge on-site adjacent to our retail location and that’s where this temporary event is taking place, in what will be future developed space for long-standing consumption-based events. That’s when we’ll get to do things a bit more large scale as well and start to bring even more of that Gibraltar feel back to that historic location here in our community.”
He adds, “We hope that it becomes a destination, not just for cannabis enthusiasts, but those looking to learn more, those looking to experience it for the first time. We take a very patient, unaggressive, unintimidating approach to how we sell cannabis and we think it’s a bit unique in that matter. We understand and appreciate that it’s quite a large building for a retail store, but it is intentional on how we’re trying to really differentiate ourselves on being a bit different, being a bit more experience-driven to really focus on on that service aspect of what we’re doing here and be able to educate those consumers that are coming through the door as we'd want anybody to be.”
The new location will open to the public on March 29 from noon-9 p.m. and March 30 from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Pleasantrees has four other locations across Michigan in Hamtramck, East Lansing, Lincoln Park, and Houghton Lake.
You can take a tour of the Mount Clemens facility through the photos below.
