DEMAND FOR POT SPACE TO GROW
The rush for pot is on and so is finding the real estate to grow it. The legalization of recreational weed Wednesday has already fuelled a six-fold surge in pot-growing facilities to 8.7 million square feet in the year through September, according to data from Altus Group Ltd. — space about the size of Amazon.com Inc.’s Seattle headquarters. Publicly listed firms have another 6.4 million square feet on the drawing board, not including retail. “It’s grown astronomically,” said Raymond Wong, vice-president of data operations at Toronto-based Altus. “With the publicly traded companies, there’s a lot more investment in these areas with anticipated growth and available capital, and they’re acquiring and expanding their existing facilities.” The demand for facilities, including greenhouses, indoor grow-ops and warehouses, comes amid already tight supply of industrial real estate.