When selling and smoking marijauana was illegal, having a dealer in the neighborhood didn’t boost property values, but that could change now that marijuana is legal in California.
In Downtown Los Angeles, Bow West Capital will open its Green Street Building development in a month’s time, according to Forbes. Located in the Jewelry District, the project will be occupied exclusively by businesses in the cannabis industry. The Santa Monica-based developers are hoping the building will help transform the neighborhood.
The seven-story, 67,000-square-foot building at 718 S. Hill Street is named after the Green Street Agency, a branding company and the building’s anchor tenant. There’s also a Vincente Sederberg LLC, nicknamed The Marijuana Law Firm. Around a dozen cannabis startups are occupying space in the building’s co-working floors. The cannabis-dedicated complex will be the largest of its kind in the country.
Matthew Rosenberg, CEO and founder of the architecture firm that designed the building, M-Rad, said that bringing in “some of the biggest players in the industry… will bring in high-level clientele and investors who may feel encouraged to invest in the development of the area.”
Cannabis industry tenants have pushed up property values in other parts of L.A. County, partly because of the low supply of landlords willing to take on tenants and the high demand among tenants for space. In Lynwood, rents jumped from the low $100s to more than $300 per square foot.
L.A.-area businesspeople have jumped at the opportunity to get in on the growing cannabis industry. At least two local real estate funds — Pelorus Equity Group and Inception Company’s REIT — have cropped up that cater specifically to cannabis companies. [Forbes] – Dennis Lynch