"They have the facility, experience, and team to bring Bemidji Brewing into markets that have remained beyond our production capacity, while we keep our connection to Bemidji through the taproom." That is Justin "Bud" Kaney, co-founder and president of Bemidji Brewing Company, explaining a deal that takes effect Oct. 31.
That quote is the clearest summary of what happened downtown in 2026. Downtown Bemidji's 2026 news came through rooms and names it already had. A matcha bar took the street level of the former Elks Lodge. A hot yoga studio is planned for the old downtown Goodwill space. A screen-printing shop changed hands without closing, and an office building got new owners. The brewery's owners are changing, but its taproom on America Avenue is staying put.
The addresses, then and now
| Address | What the space was | What's happening in 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 324 Beltrami Ave. NW | Former Elks Lodge building | KIN Cafe Brew and Bite Bar opened on the street level in September |
| 407 Beltrami Ave. NW | Former downtown home of Goodwill | BRIO Pilates and Hot Yoga Studio planned for November |
| 114 Fourth St. NW | Downtown storefront | Forbidden Love romance bookstore opened April 25 |
| 206 Third St. NW | Cool Threads, run by Gary "Ziggy" Zerott | Bob and Nikki Brink took over July 1 |
| 211 America Ave. NW | Bemidji Brewing's downtown taproom; the brand launched in 2012 | Fulton Brewing acquisition effective Oct. 31; taproom remains open |
| 403 Fourth St. NW | 4 West Building, multi-tenant offices | New owners Pat and Holly Weerts |
None of the six rows needed a new building. Every change on this list happened inside a downtown building that was already standing.
Matcha on the street level of the Elks building
KIN Cafe Brew and Bite Bar opened the first week of September at 324 Beltrami Ave. NW, in a street-level space in the former Elks Lodge building, and held its grand opening on Saturday, Sept. 5. Lakeland PBS covered the new cafe in mid-September.
The menu has two specialties, matcha drinks and Japanese-style fruit sandwiches. In its first week, partner Patcharin "Meow" Nuankhao named Matcha Mango Sticky Rice, made with mango, blended milk and coconut cream, as one of the most popular drinks, along with Nutella Matcha. The matcha is a blend of saemidori and okumidori from Japan, and the leaves are shaded for 24 days before harvest. The sandos are built on thick milk bread with sweet whipped cream and seasonal fruit such as strawberries, kiwi and mandarin oranges, and KIN also does mango and grape versions.
The bigger story is who opened it. Meow and her husband, Watcharin "Tek" Jaichuen, came to Bemidji from Thailand in 2020 to work as cooks at Tara Thai. Meow later managed Kin Asian Market and then took it over as owner. Tek is now head cook at Pho Bemidji, which their partner Chayanis "Channy" Kerdsook Bilinski manages. Kin Cafe joins Kin Asian Market, Kin Poke and Pho Bemidji, so it is the family's fourth Bemidji business, not a newcomer's first.
Meow's sister, Tata Nuankhao, runs the counter. She worked as an engineer for a Japanese company until a neck injury and surgery ruled out a desk job, and Meow encouraged her to move to Bemidji and manage the cafe. In Thai, "kin" mainly means "to eat" or "to drink."
A romance bookstore and a line to Beltrami Avenue
Earlier in the year, Olivia and Mason Pack opened Forbidden Love, a romance bookstore at 114 Fourth St. NW. Olivia grew up in Fosston, about 50 miles west, and told the Bemidji Pioneer she wasn't sure how the store would be received. On opening day, April 25, dozens of shoppers were waiting in a line that stretched from the door to Beltrami Avenue.
The owners already had roots in the region. Here, too, someone with local ties took an existing downtown storefront and gave it a new use.
Hot yoga where Goodwill used to be
Farther up Beltrami Avenue, 407 Beltrami Ave. NW was once the downtown home of Goodwill. Sadie Gardner plans to open BRIO Pilates and Hot Yoga Studio there in November. She plans a room for Reformer Pilates, a heated room for studio classes, and what she called "a very strong presence with retail clothing and yoga equipment sales."
Gardner is from Grand Forks, but her family's ties to the area go back three generations. Her grandparents had a lake home on Lake Bemidji, her parents had cabins on Lake Movil and Lake Beltrami, and she, her husband and their children now have property on Lake Beltrami. Before turning to fitness, she oversaw the development and opening of several Grand Forks businesses as a partner and president of 322 Hospitality Group. Her certifications include 200-hour yoga, Barre, Mat Pilates, Hot 26, Yoga Sculpt and Reformer Pilates.
The November date comes from an Aug. 31 report, and no exact day has been announced. Treat it as a target, not a confirmed opening.
Handoffs that kept the doors open
Some of the year's changes were transfers, not openings. These are easy to miss because the sign out front stays the same.
At 206 Third St. NW, Bob and Nikki Brink took over Cool Threads on July 1 from Gary "Ziggy" Zerott, who is getting ready to retire. The shop still does screen printing, embroidery and graphic design. If your team shirts or business jackets come from there, the counter has new owners, but the business didn't close.
At 403 Fourth St. NW, Pat and Holly Weerts became the new owners of the 4 West Building, a multi-tenant office building, and the Chamber's ambassadors welcomed them in August. Downtown on Minnesota Avenue, Fergus Falls-based Pemberton Law opened a Bemidji office at 206 Minnesota Ave. NW by early July. Rebecca Stone leads the office, which handles business, estate planning, family law and litigation.
Bemidji Brewing is the biggest handoff of the year. Tom and Megan Hill and Justin and Tina Kaney launched the brand in 2012. On Aug. 11, Fulton Brewing announced it is acquiring the company and starting True North Beverage, a Minnesota collective that also includes Fulton, Finnegans and N*RC Sparkling THC Waters. The deal grows out of a production partnership that began about three years ago, and it takes effect Oct. 31. According to Fulton, the downtown taproom at 211 America Ave. NW will stay open, and the founders will stay involved in the brand through the taproom.
The deal splits the business along a clear line. Production and distribution move to a statewide group, aiming at Duluth, the North Shore and the Twin Cities. The taproom room, the part a downtown regular actually walks into, stays where it is. Kaney said the owners decided that expanding their own facility would take an investment that was "difficult to justify in today's market." So the brewery chose not to build bigger downtown and kept the room it already had.
The newest building is the one leaving
Away from downtown, the freestanding Starbucks at 202 Shevlin Ave. SW, next to the Candlewood Suites, opened in September 2024. It was one of about 250 Starbucks coffeehouses across the U.S. slated to close, and a letter on the door said it would close by the end of the week of Sept. 26. The company described the closures as part of a yearly review of its North American locations, covering about 1% of more than 18,000 coffeehouses. Bemidji's other two locations remain open, the freestanding store at 811 Paul Bunyan Drive NW and the coffeehouse inside Target.
Set it beside the downtown list and a pattern shows. In this year's local business news, the building that went up most recently, about two years ago, is the one scheduled to close. Downtown's changes came from people with local ties taking over rooms that were already part of downtown.
Where things stand as of early October
- Open now: KIN Cafe Brew and Bite Bar at 324 Beltrami Ave. NW; Forbidden Love at 114 Fourth St. NW; Cool Threads under the Brinks at 206 Third St. NW; Pemberton Law at 206 Minnesota Ave. NW.
- Changing Oct. 31: Bemidji Brewing's ownership moves to Fulton Brewing under True North Beverage, with the America Avenue taproom reported to stay open.
- Planned for November: BRIO Pilates and Hot Yoga Studio at 407 Beltrami Ave. NW, with no exact date yet.
- Scheduled to close: the Starbucks at 202 Shevlin Ave. SW, as of the week of Sept. 26.
A fall downtown errand run now covers a matcha and a fruit sando on Beltrami, a romance novel on Fourth Street, and a pint on America Avenue, all inside buildings that were already standing a year ago. In November, a heated yoga class in the old Goodwill space may join the list.
Mona has lived in the Bemidji area since 1991. If you own a building on one of these blocks, or a home a few minutes' walk away, and want to know what these changes mean for its value, Crystal Lakes Real Estate is glad to sit down over coffee, maybe a matcha at KIN, and go over it with you. Let's Connect.
