{"id":120369,"date":"2014-05-13T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T12:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pot-may-lift-warehouse-demand\/"},"modified":"2014-05-13T06:01:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T12:01:00","slug":"pot-may-lift-warehouse-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pot-may-lift-warehouse-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Pot may lift warehouse demand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Adam
Adam Gifford, co-owner of Acceptus Group, looks over plants that growing under efficient fluorescent lighting at his grow facility in Durango in December. Growers could put pressure on Durango\u2019s limited warehouse space.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

W<\/em>ith recreational marijuana expected to be allowed in Durango and La Plata County by July, the area could face strong demand for warehouse space, a phenomenon that\u2019s already affecting the Denver area.<\/p>\n

La Plata County has five marijuana growing facilities in unincorporated areas of the county, Planning Director Damian Peduto said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one grower within Durango city limits, near the Durango Tech Center, that was grandfathered in when the city banned further grow operations.<\/p>\n

County officials expect to see more applications for marijuana grow facilities this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI anticipate we\u2019ll be getting some new applications after our regulations are adopted,\u201d Peduto said.<\/p>\n

That could put pressure on warehouse space, driving up prices. La Plata County \u2013 with its unforgiving topography and thousands of acres of federal land \u2013 also has little land available for building warehouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sense is there\u2019s not a lot of warehouse space available,\u201d said Roger Zalneraitis, executive director of the La Plata Economic Development Alliance.<\/p>\n

Little construction of warehouses has occurred in recent years. Tighter lending standards have contributed to the slow pace, Zalneraitis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLending \u2013 and this isn\u2019t a knock on the local banks, this is happening nationally \u2013 for speculative space has been virtually impossible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In Denver, explosive growth in the marijuana industry has led to strong demand for warehouse space. Growers are paying $18 per square foot in some instances, and the industrial vacancy rate has fallen to 3.1 percent \u2013 the lowest in decades, The Denver Post reported.<\/p>\n

Durango\u2019s experience may vary, Zalneraitis said. Demand to grow pot may be lower, given Durango\u2019s much smaller population. Also, Durango\u2019s draft ordinances on allowing marijuana retailers are much stricter than Denver\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Durango also has more rural land that could lend itself to other grow facilities besides warehouses, Zalneraitis said. Already, one local grower, Indoor Horticulture Centers at 2694 County Road 222, uses six renovated shipping containers and a greenhouse. The county\u2019s other growers use warehouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me thinks we may have more options for marijuana growers than in a major metro area,\u201d Zalneraitis said.<\/p>\n

Most valuable, he said, is flexible warehouse space that can be used for office and industrial use.<\/p>\n

Zalneraitis expressed concern that demand for warehouse space could push up prices for other industries that use warehouses, particularly construction companies, which are expecting a busy summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping it doesn\u2019t quadruple our rent prices, because that would cripple our construction industry,\u201d Zalneraitis said.<\/p>\n

cslothower@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

price pressure on grow spaces<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[551],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-120369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-frontpage-feature-box"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120369"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=120369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}