Real estate companies are seeing green when it comes to legal cannabis

Jul 17 2018, 2:05 am

Legal cannabis is a growing industry, as are the services surrounding it.

Earlier this month, Colliers International (NASDAQ and TSX: CIGI) became the first real estate firm to publicly market a cannabis facility since Bill C-45 received royal assent.

BlueVault Organic Marijuana Ltd. has enlisted Colliers to handle the future sale of the facility located in Pemberton, BC.

“Considering the potential for BlueVault to begin operations in early 2019, preliminary interest in the facility from industry and non-industry players has been strong,” said Alan Johnson, Vice President with the Unique Properties team in Colliers Vancouver. “There is a wide range of groups looking to capitalize on the growing cannabis market, and this BlueVault offering is the best opportunity in BC to do just that.”

Bianca Gilbert, Industrial Sales & Leasing Associate with Colliers International in Vancouver said, “we have already seen demand for assets suitable for cannabis production increase over the past year, both on agricultural land and industrial assets. With the recent approval of outdoor growing legislation, demand for these types of assets is also likely to increase.”

Colliers has set up a national cannabis platform between its Ontario and BC offices to manage the increasing demand and opportunity for cannabis-specific real estate, including leasing and financing for real estate acquisition and construction.

Although the company has been previously involved in lease, sale, and build out transactions in the cannabis industry, “this is the first time that we will be marketing the opportunity to invest in or acquire what will become a comprehensive cannabis operation,” Johnson told Daily Hive.

What is particularly unique about the BlueVault offering is that it “allows an investor to become involved with an existing applicant that has received preliminary licensing approval. This will provide an early entry into the industry,” said Johnson.

BlueVault is located on over 135 acres of Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) land in Pemberton Valley, with an indoor facility that will provide over 50,000 of net growing area. It will be one of only two operations with a Standard Cultivation license within the Pemberton Region.

Last week, the BC government gave local and First Nations governments the ability to prohibit cannabis production in the ALR within their communities.

Johnson believes that “providing local governments some level of control is better than an outright ban. There will likely be enough areas that support the use to not make a significant impact on the industry.  At the end of the day, I think common sense will prevail. Although The Provincial Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) has typically shied away from providing local control, given the historic nature of cannabis it is understandable that they might not want to bring in regulations in a draconian fashion.”

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Daily Hive StaffDaily Hive Staff

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