Getting into the Florida medical marijuana industry has never been easier — that is, as long as you have a spare $95 million handy.
According to a new report from the Miami Herald, a sales broker working out of Atlanta is currently hawking two fully functional medical marijuana licenses that would allow the operation of cultivation facilities and 65 total dispensaries across the state, as well as ownership of a greenhouse as an added bonus. If you ask seller Aubrey Logan-Holland, the CEO of the aptly named firm Blue Dream Industries, the deal is a green rush no-brainer.
“Whoever acquires this asset will get a chance to stake their claim in one of the biggest medical markets in the world,” Logan-Holland told the Miami Herald. “It’s a good state to do business.”
Florida’s medical marijuana industry is a difficult and exclusive club to join when it comes to licensing, with only 22 total permitted businesses and only 13 active. Logan-Holland said that the licenses for sale are from one of the state’s inactive operators, but would not say which due to a confidentiality agreement.
From a buyer’s perspective, though, the two licenses hitting the market for $40 million and $55 million each are a few months late and more than a few dollars too pricey.
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“The acquisitions are not as attractive as they were last year,” Jeff Sharkey, a lobbyist and director of the state’s Medical Marijuana Business Association, told the Herald. “All of [Florida’s licenses] have been shopped for sale, to my knowledge.”
Since Florida’s medical marijuana program requires license-holders to operate all aspects of the growing and supply chain in a vertically integrated system, running a Sunshine State cannabusiness requires huge amounts of cash and organization. And while that may be appealing to a number of deep-pocketed multi-state pot businesses, local cannabis lawyer John Lockwood told the Herald that most of those companies — including Curaleaf, Trulieve, and Surterra — are already up and running in Florida.
“There’s not too many people out there with $50 million that haven’t heard of the Florida cannabis market,” Lockwood said.
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