One of the most important business decisions cannabis businesses need to make is whether to lease or buy real estate. I have worked on too many cannabis real estate transactions to count. And in my experience, the vast majority are leases. Today I want to look the top three reasons why that’s the case. #1
As we noted in our summary of the big Cannabis Control Board meeting on May 11, 2023, one significant revision to the New York adult-use rules and regulations was the creation of the “provisional license.” This mechanism allows applicants to be provisionally licensed without having secured real estate prior to submitting an application. Provisional licensing
Prospective cannabis businesses seeking to open dispensaries on Long Island are running into several issues and roadblocks with the proposed or adopted zoning legislation restricting operators to mainly industrial areas. As it stands, dispensaries can open only in Long Island towns that opted in for retail cannabis sales. To date, Babylon, Brookhaven, Riverhead and Southampton have opted-in
Real estate is on the forefront of many people’s minds with New York on the doorstep of adult-use cannabis applications. And for good reason: owning or controlling real estate will be a requirement for applicants (with some soon-to-be caveats for social equity applicants). We have fielded lots of calls from prospective adult-use cannabis applicants starting
One of the most common commercial cannabis lease structures is what is commonly referred to as a “triple net” or “NNN” lease. Triple net cannabis leases allow landlords to pass on nearly all operational costs associated with a property to a tenant, which can be a big benefit for both landlords and tenants. Today, I’ll
Last month, I wrote a post explaining some of the issues buyers of cannabis businesses face when dealing with the landlords for the purchased business. In a nutshell, leases almost always contain clauses restricting assignment and subletting, and these clauses will often note that certain changes of control of the cannabis tenant are considered assignments
Getting to closing on a cannabis M&A transaction is always a hurdle (read about that process in detail here). There are always a lot more contingencies to closing for cannabis M&A transactions than for run-of-the-mill businesses that don’t operate in highly regulated fields (e.g., cannabis acquisitions will require approval from state and possibly local agencies).
Every single business that wants a cannabis license in California needs to buy or lease property, because licenses are tied to properties. Cannabis businesses usually opt for leases rather than purchases given the uncertainties in getting licensed or succeeding in business, and sometimes capital constraints. As part of the licensing process, state and local agencies
So you’re interested in applying for an adult-use cannabis license once the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) issues the license application. One of the first decisions an applicant needs to make is where they intend to operate. As we referenced in our earlier posts on the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) and Part 1 of
Over the last few weeks we have seen a number of articles about New York’s Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) written by attorneys based outside of New York or (worse yet) attorneys who are not licensed to practice law in New York. We have been pretty “vocal” about the importance of selecting the right
