B.C cannabis growers will turn to blue-collar towns and the Agricultural Land Reserve to find millions of square feet of industrial space needed to meet demand for recreational marijuana, studies suggest.
“The legalization of marijuana is expected to drive up the cost of commercial real estate in all major provinces across the nation,” said Gaurav Mathur, Toronto-based research manager, capital markets, with JLL Canada.
JLL’s Rolling the Good Times study, released Feb. 15, found that Canada’s top eight medical marijuana companies by market capitalization will need at least eight million square feet of industrial space by 2020–-and demand will ramp up after recreational marijuana becomes legal, expected this summer.
The study showed that, based on large projects underway, more than half of the short-term demand will be in Alberta. Ontario is forecast to require about three million square feet, with the rest in Quebec, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.
