The cannabis industry continues to make inroads in commercial real estate but in Los Angeles, scores of illegal weed shops have been sprouting up. Los Angeles now has an estimated 178 illegal cannabis businesses, and the city has decided to nip them at their power lines.
The City Council voted unanimously this week to give the water and power agency the authority to cut off illegal marijuana shops’ access to utilities, according to the Hub-LA. There are about seven unlicensed cannabis operations for every licensed operation, officials said, but the L.A. Police Department has struggled to control their growth.
Earlier this year, the Department of Cannabis Regulation announced a push for new enforcement regulations, which would include penalizing landlords with $20,000 daily fines for allowing unlicensed operations. It would also give the city Department of Water and Power the authority to shut off utilities.
There are plenty of law-abiding players in cannabis real estate.
Barneys is opening a luxury cannabis shop at its Beverly Hills store this month, and Innovative Industrial Properties, which owns growing warehouses, made a 117-percent profit [https://therealdeal.com/2018/11/10/a-cannabis-landlord-is-this-years-best-performing-reit/]for its investors last year. [The Hub] — Gregory Cornfield