Ontario and B.C. alone have already snapped up more than half of the country’s existing grow-op space

The rush for cannabis is on in Canada and so is finding the real estate to grow it.

The legalization of recreational weed on Wednesday has already fuelled a sixfold surge in pot-growing facilities to 8.7 million square feet (808,256 square meters) in the year through September, according to data from Altus Group Ltd. — space about the size of Amazon.com Inc.’s Seattle headquarters. Publicly listed companies have another 6.4 million square feet on the drawing board, not including retail.

“It’s grown astronomically,” Raymond Wong, vice president of data operations at Toronto-based Altus, said by phone. “With the publicly traded companies, there’s a lot more investment in these areas with anticipated growth and available capital, and they’re acquiring and expanding their existing facilities.”

The demand for marijuana facilities, including greenhouses, indoor grow-ops and warehouses will put more demand on the country’s already tight supply of industrial real estate. British Columbia and Ontario combined took up more than half of the existing grow-op space, Altus said.

Wong said expansion plans are likely conservative as it excludes private companies’ anticipated growth. “There’s a whole other market out there that anticipates further growth in this area,” he said. “We don’t see this slowing down.”

With assistance from Josh Wingrove.

Bloomberg.com