Cannabis REIT inks $49 million sale-leaseback deal with Ascend

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Innovative Industrial Properties, a real estate investment trust that specializes in the marijuana industry, bought a cannabis cultivation and processing facility in Massachusetts from Ascend Wellness Holdings (AWH) in a $49 million sale-leaseback deal.

San Diego-based IIP paid $26.8 million to Boston-based AWH – a vertically integrated, multistate marijuana operator – for a 199,000-square-foot facility in Athol, Massachusetts.

The marijuana processed at the facility can be sold for both the adult-use and medical cannabis markets, an AWH spokeswoman told Marijuana Business Daily.

IIP also agreed to reimburse Ascend Wellness up to $22.2 million in tenant improvements, bringing the total deal to $49 million.

AWH has agreed to pay the REIT an initial rent rate of 13.5% on the initial purchase price and tenant improvement allowance.

This marks the third, and largest, sale-leaseback deal IIP has done with Ascend Wellness.

In December 2018, IIP acquired a 75,000-square-foot facility in Illinois from AWH in a deal with a total value of $33 million.

Last July, IIP acquired a 145,000-square-foot property from AWH in a $19.8 million deal.

Ascend Wellness has raised $100 million in capital since 2018, including a $55 million raise in February 2019 to be used for expansion.

Innovate Industrial Properties trades on the New York Stock Exchange as IIPR.

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