I work in the cannabis industry and have held shares in MSPC for almost a year, so ill take a stab at this.
The real estate play would be geared toward prospective cannabis licenseees.
Every state has their own rules and regulations, however, it is pretty standard that any potential cannabis operator whether it be retail or cultivation, must gain the blessing of the municipality in which they wish to operate. In addition to convincing the municipality to "opt-in" they must then secure zoning approval.
Before you can gain Municipal approval, you must secure the property not knowing whether or not you will be approved. Even if the town gives you their blessing, many times you will still run into zoning issues after the fact.
I've worked with numerous clients who secured a property and then we're stuck waiting in limbo for either the town or the state to make decisions. People have been stuck paying for a property for over a year in some cases without a concrete answer on whether or not they can even move forward.
For retail dispensaries I doubt there is a play here. The only opportunity I see would be if they intend to acquire large swathes of land in States which will soon be passing or expanding cannabis programs.
Let's use New Jersey as an example. The governor will most likely attempt to pass an adult use bill in the very near future. If MSPC were to acquire say 70 Acres of vacant land and successfully convince the municipality to approve the entire property for cannabis cultivation and acquire all of the necessary zoning permits... they could then in theory subdivide the property into 5 acre plots of land and sell or lease each plot individually.
This would be very attractive to potential cultivators and those plots would sell at a premium. Eliminating all of the legal hurdles would save people substantial money and time.
The problem is in order to pull something like this off you would most likely need some sort of in with that particular municipality.
All IMO obviously.
