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.
“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.
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.
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.”
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.
This story appeared in Metro Times