As Illinois Legalizes Marijuana, CAR’s Scott Peterson and Liz Peetz Discuss Its Impact on Colorado Real Estate
On Jan. 1, 2020, Illinois will join a growing list of U.S. states where it is now legal to sell and consume marijuana. As the state moves towards implementation, REALTORS® in Illinois have been asking how legalization will affect the real estate industry in Illinois.
CAR’s General Counsel Scott Peterson and VP of Government Affairs Liz Peetz recently spoke with the Illinois Association of REALTORS® about Colorado’s experience with legalization.
Peterson explained that legalization has been a boon to the industrial real estate market.
“There were a lot of landlords at the outset who said, ‘there’s no way I’m going to lease my property to a marijuana grower,’ only to find out that they became pretty fantastic (tenants) by and large,” he said.
He added, “They always paid their rent, they were willing to pay above market (price), they had low parking requirements generally and were pretty good users of industrial office space. The industrial rents of downtown Denver have skyrocketed.”
Peetz added that the marijuana industry has contributed $1 billion to the state’s coffers since it was legalized in 2014.