Six more states approve legal marijuana, creating opportunities for developers

Voters in three states, California, Massachusetts, and Nevada, approved recreational marijuana, and in three others—Florida, North Dakota, and Arkansas—they approved medical marijuana.

As pot becomes legal in more states, opportunities for commercial real estate developers to tap into this market are growing. Growing marijuana requires a lot of space with a consistent climate, making the industry well suited for large warehouse spaces.

Additional space is needed for packaging and distributing edible forms of the drug. Retail marijuana shops will stimulate activity in the retail sector.

Pot’s continued illegality at the federal level complicates matters, though. Marijuana businesses struggle to find banking solutions and operate underground or with cash exclusively. A lack of banking/finance could be an ongoing constraint on scaling up these businesses.