“The show you never needed for a time you never thought was possible”
Comedian, journalist and National Public Radio broadcaster Justin Kaufmann hosts the second edition of The Pandemic Talk Show later today with Second City stalwarts T.J. Shanoff and Scott Goldstein.
Grown In has a hand or two in the production, and has a strategically timed voiceover advertisement scheduled for 4:20pm, or thereabouts. Guests include Max Temkin, one of the brains behind Cards Against Humanity, and comedian Kristen Toomey. Show goes live at 4:00 p.m. CST.
Research firm compared publicly traded cannabis REIT Innovative Industrial Properties to WeWork
When the bubble created by the first wave of commercial cannabis companies began to burst last fall, established companies no longer able to raise money in the capital markets began to sell assets to real estate investment trusts (REITs), including Chicago-based NewLake Capital and New York-based Innovative Industrial Properties.
The value proposition for a cannabis REIT makes a lot of sense. Cannabis companies that have proprietary licenses to sell, process and cultivate cannabis are short on cash as stock prices are down and there are limited places to raise money for companies still considered illegal by the federal government. Investment funds are raised to acquire assets for potentially pennies on the dollar, and then lease those properties back to operators.
But what happens when cannabis companies that sold assets at a fire sale are no longer around to pay the rent?
This is the question posed by Grizzly Research, which compared Innovative Industrial Properties to WeWork, a one-time market darling that imploded last year.
The long and short of the study is that Innovative Industrial Properties overpaid on what it acquired, and is a house of cards run by a charismatic CEO.
Chicago-based companies Green Thumb Industries and Cresco Labs, both publicly traded, have sold and leased back properties from Innovative Industrial Properties in recent months.
PharmaCann plans to open Pennsylvania dispensary
Chicago-based PharmaCann is forging ahead with plans to open a medical dispensary in Pennsylvania this July.
The company plans to hire up to 30 employees for the operation. Pennsylvania remains on the short list of states that could expand into recreational sales in 2020.
