In the News—Week of August 15, 2022

The ownership group of a licensed cannabis operation in Pennsylvania completed a sale/leaseback transaction with a Chicago-based real estate investment firm. The 100,000 square-foot cultivation facility in Pennsylvania traded for $30 million. The transaction was closed in our Scottsdale, Arizona office by Joel Montemayor, Assistant Vice President and Escrow Officer, and Chadwick Campbell, Senior Counsel and head of our cannabis real estate transactions group, which has closed over $375 million in transactions nationally.

Rents in California going up – especially in desirable suburbs

California rents are rocketing upward, and the biggest increases are in the suburbs, the Los Angeles Times reports. Figures from Rent show that Palo Alto near Stanford has the third highest rents in the country, behind Boston and Jersey City, N.J.  Glendale, California, and Santa Monica are fourth and fifth. San Diego is ninth, and Newport Beach is 10th. Los Angeles is 12th and San Francisco is 13th. “At one point in the middle of the pandemic, Oakland overtook San Francisco in average rent prices,” Jon Leckie, a data journalist for Rent, tells the Times. “That shows that people said, ‘Let’s get out of the city center into something that’s not too far away.’ You could still go to the office, but you’re far enough away that you get away from the city center and don’t have to deal with crowds of people.”

Golden State puts aside money to pay for fossil fuel power plants 

The state of California is against fossil fuels. But the Golden State is more opposed to the lights going out, Politico reports. The state government has millions earmarked to buy power from fossil fuel plants. Some of those plants were supposed to close next year. Critics say the approach could keep the plants alive for a decade or more. The lawmakers who backed the policy and the governor’s office say such measures are needed to avoid blackouts. 

Trammell Crow subsidiary, Japanese firm building high-end apartments

Trammell Crow’s subsidiary High Street Residential and Japan’s Daiwa House Group are building a high-end apartment project in the suburb of Kingwood, The Real Deal reports. Houston already topped the nation in luxury apartment construction in the past decade, figures from Yardi Matrix show. Even with the onset of a recession, the Houston market is expected to rank third in the nation for apartment demand trailing only Dallas and Austin metro areas.