At a truck stop restaurant today for lunch, 4 fellows met next to me concerning a business deal. Two of them (jeans and long hair, beards) had a greenhouse for sale. The other two (slacks, immaculate hair cuts, clean-shaven) were looking for a greenhouse.
One of the most important lessons learned from legalization is that the first challenge is finding grow space. In Colorado and Washington, the scarcity of space was and is critical for the ability to even get in business, let alone get a license.
There was an interesting discussion about locating in Phoenix. There wasn’t anything available there, plus it was too hot. I can’t imagine that Willcox is any cooler than Phoenix, so I think that was sour grapes. Marijuana gets unhappy when the temperature goes over 85, so cooling costs in 115 degrees are considerable.
Arizona will be voting to legalize in November 2016. Assuming it passes, businesses will be open in 2017. Given what we’ve seen so far, now is absolutely the time to nail down space, but maybe it’s too late.