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2022 Athletes For Care Golf Tournament

Canna Real Estate Group was so proud to support the 2022 Athletes For Care Golf Tournament held recently a the Arrowhead Golf Course in Littleton, CO. So many amazing sponsors, players and guests participated in this event for a very worthy, timely and important cause. Arrowhead’s beautiful championship golf course, upscale amenities, unmatched event capabilities and superb service made this event an experience unlike any other.

Athletes for CARE is a non-profit organization working to improve global health, safety, and quality of life for athletes of all ages. They advocate for mental and physical health options for over 2 billion sports players worldwide suffering from conditions including chronic pain, depression, anxiety, PTSD, CTE, TBI, substance abuse and opioid dependency. We are honored to participate in events like this one that help spread awareness and bring their vision to life.

Check out the Athletes for CARE website to learn more about how they are changing the landscape for athletic health care!

Athletes for CARE

Cultivation Reno in Western Michigan

We’re rolling up our sleeves on this great renovation project in western Michigan.   Our clients there will be demising their existing multi-tenant building (now vacant) into a full-service cultivation and processing facility.  Our cultivation side will feature easy product and people flow symmetries and the extraction and processing side will convert flower and trim product into new retail products for the consumer.  Stay tuned, this will be a unique and very efficient building.

3 Reasons to Work with a Cannabis Real Estate Professional

Stepping into the cannabis industry can be daunting: every legal state is home to a separate set of laws and regulations, and entrepreneurs face different challenges working to secure cannabis financial services or cannabis commercial real estate than in other industries. In cannabis, geography isn’t the industry’s only limitation — most banking services aren’t available to the cannabis industry. Because of this, standard processes for securing loans and investors are unavailable to new cannabis businesses. With the added financial stress of high tax rates, these issues have the potential to significantly impact businesses’ net profits and create a substantial amount of risk for business owners and contractors. Worse still, since cannabis is still listed as a Schedule 1 drug, it’s federally illegal status prevents some landlords from renting to cannabis businesses, an added obstacle.

The good news, however, is that a growing group of professionals, including in cannabis commercial real estate, specialize in serving the cannabis industry and can help emerging cannabis businesses. Rather than gritting your teeth through rigorous processes, it’s often best to leave projects to professionals who have honed their expertise after years working within the cannabis industry. But with all of the risk involved, how do you know which professionals are right for you?

Cannabis Commercial Real Estate Professionals

That’s where Canna Real Estate Group comes in. We’re a consulting firm that specializes in commercial and residential real estate, and can provide cannabis real estate financing services, architectural, and construction consulting for cannabis businesses looking to work with experienced specialists. We always recommend finding the right people to work for you and your business, and since step one includes finding a property to house your business, finding a cannabis real estate professional is of the utmost importance. There are tons of reasons why working with a seasoned professional will benefit your business, but for now, let’s cover the top 3 reasons to work with a cannabis real estate professional:

1. They can help locate Cannabis Commercial Real Estate for purchase or rental

Renting a property means that you will not be tied to a specific location. It’s no secret that state-regulated cannabis markets see frequent regulatory changes, and sometimes these changes could affect where a business is allowed to operate, or what types of buildings you can occupy.

Not only will hiring a professional real estate consultant alleviate the burden of familiarizing with a laundry list of regulations, they’ll also ensure that a lawyer reviews a lease before you sign it, and will make sure that the landlord understands the nature of your business model before you become a tenant. A real estate consultant can also help create a backup plan, should your landlord refuse to renew your lease or raise your rent unreasonably. If regulations shift, your backup plan will determine how smoothly an unexpected transition will go.

There are other advantages to owning the property where your business will operate. Owning a property alleviates concerns surrounding whether a landlord will renew your lease or raise rent. Ownership also increases privacy, and keeps an asset on your books rather than a potential liability. 

Owning a commercial property comes with a lot of additional responsibility, however, and raises new potential problems. Does your property have room to grow as the business scales, and the costs associated with said scaling? Also, if you should have to move your business, will your property be easy to sell?

Unless you have extensive commercial real estate experience, working with a cannabis-focused specialist is the best way to ensure that you’ll navigate this process successfully. 

2. They’re familiar with “green zones”

Every state has a regulatory body that determines what constitutes cannabis friendly real estate. This list typically includes restrictions, or caps, that municipalities have placed on the number of licenses in any given location.

There’s only a certain number of licenses that are granted under the available types of marijuana licenses in every state, county, or township. Furthermore, determining which municipalities have opted-in is the best place to start searching for cannabis friendly real estate.

The next step is to find property that’s for sale or rent within your chosen municipality. Most online listings state whether the property is in a “green zone”; zones where marijuana facilities can operate, but not always. Sometimes you’ll need to call the municipality to retrieve a copy of their marijuana business ordinances, and you should review the municipality’s zoning map to see the property’s zoning classification. Due to the abundance of red tape involved in securing a cannabis-friendly property, you may need to hire an attorney that knows cannabis municipal and zoning requirements before purchasing or leasing property. This is where hiring a cannabis real estate professional can save your business time, headaches, and (most of all) money.

3. Access to a network of professionals to cover your business’ needs

Hiring a cannabis real estate professional goes far beyond simply finding a property. Due to the highly regulated and precarious nature of the cannabis industry, it’s not a matter of if, but when, you might need an attorney with cannabis experience, an architect familiar with cannabis build-outs, cannabis financial services, and more.

When working with a cannabis consulting firm like Canna Real Estate Group, you’re getting top of the line assistance within all of the necessary avenues to start or expand your cannabis business. Whether it’s complete builds, renovations, cannabis commercial financing to source loans or secure funding, or simply getting trusted advice, we’re here to help you create your dream cannabis business.

See Us At These Great Shows!

Canna Real Estate Group is excited to support and attend these two amazing shows this fall.   First, we’ll be at the Women In Cannabis Expo held September 27-29 at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in Reno NV.   Please see www.womenincannabisexpo.com.    Then, we’ll be a the MJ BizCon show coming October 19-22 to the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV.  We’ll have a fun presence at both shows and hope to see you there!

Site Selection in New Jersey

Canna Real Estate Group has recently partnered with our commercial real estate owners’ rep broker friends in Northern New Jersey. We’ve collaborated with them to identify a “green zone” compliant development property there and this beauty checks all the boxes. We’re in working discussions with both the municipality as well as our civil engineering group familiar with the site and local development guidelines. New Jersey will be a super-strong market in the coming months as several MSOs position themselves for growth there. Stay tuned as we’ll be working in the Garden State!

Strategic partnership with StoK

Canna Real Estate Group is pleased to announce our strategic partnership with StoK.  StoK’s amazing team will collaborate with one of our rapidly-expanding MSO’s to complete full project management of two larger and more complex renovations and cultivation builds located in Michigan and Massachusetts.

Growing Cultivation In Mass

Canna Real Estate Group is currently working on a scaled renovation of an existing warehouse property in Mass.    This effort will be a complex overhaul and upgrade of all building utility systems and then a demising of the interiors for a sophisticated cultivation and processing facility.   We’ll be headed to the site in a few weeks for project kickoff so please stay tuned!

Prepare Projects For Materials Shortages

We knew this was coming….   Due to 2020 pandemic-related supply chain disruptions,  we’re now realizing an unprecedented construction materials shortage in most areas of the country.   As seen in last weeks’ Globe Street article, steel, lumber and glass materials manufacturing and shipping have all been delayed this year.

https://www.globest.com/2021/05/26/builders-advised-to-stock-up-on-lumber-steel-as-shortages-loom/?slreturn=20210431084845

Take the time to visit with your architects and general contractors to forecast supply needs and ship dates to coordinate your “demand” with your suppliers’ “supply” to minimize downtime on your build project.

 

New Building Materials for CA Cultivation

We were in Southern California last week to visit with some of our good friends there.   One of our Owner/Operators is under construction for a new 10K SF cultivation project located in a high-desert area with lots of solar gain and plenty of ambient wind.   They’re using an amazing poured-in-place block material called “jumbolite” which resembles a standard CMU block but lighter weight and significantly higher R-values.   This will be an amazingly efficient, weather-resistant building that will deliver great performance.   Stay tuned, we’ll update you as the project nears completion.

New Jersey’s Bright Future

We’ve been collaborating with our partners and preferred service providers in the great State of New Jersey for many months now. Not only are we working with several municipally-approved “green zones” and their representatives, we’re also working with several of our commercial real estate friends to help us qualify available properties. We’re headed to New Jersey next month for several site visits and “put our stamp” on those which we feel would be good opportunities for our clients interested in expanding there. Oh and yes, we’ll be sure to take in some great beach and boardwalk visits (if we can!) Stay tuned!