Cannabis Investment Starts Heating Up in California

Mark Paul is the founder and co-CEO of MJ Real Estate Investors.

LOS ANGELES—In anticipation of the legalization of recreational marijuana in California this November and federal legalization in the near future, investors are beginning to develop strategies focused on the cannabis real estate as a new asset class. Real estate investors Mark Paul and Jeff McGuire have formed MJ Real Estate Investors, a new Beverly Hills-based investment group that will focus on cannabis-friendly commercial real estate assets leased to state regulatory compliant cannabis operators, GlobeSt.com reports exclusively.

“This wave is coming, and it is a tremendous opportunity. What is happening in November on the ballot initiative, not just in California, really represents major investment opportunity, and real estate is a big part of that opportunity,” Paul tells GlobeSt.com. “We believe that cannabis real estate is going to become its own asset class, although it might take a few years, and eventually it will become federally legal as well. When it does, we will have 500 companies in the space and major operators. Right now, it is relatively new, and this is a chance to get in on that wave on the ground floor.”