Marijuana Cultivation Speculators Driving Salinas Valley Real Estate Boom
SALINAS (KCBS) -- The Salinas Valley is experiencing a real estate boom thanks to marijuana cultivation speculators hoping for the passage of California's Proposition 64 and Monterey County's Measure Y.
What's especially unique is buyers are snapping up the region's old greenhouses.
Old greenhouses are the new mother lode.
Prices for abandoned nurseries are already soaring in the Salinas Valley and the market is likely to heat up even more after Tuesday's election.
The Salinas and Pajaro Valleys were prime spots for cut flowers in the 1970s and 80s, but as cheaper imports became available, the flower greenhouses began to sit empty.
Monterey County has 150 to 200 abandoned flower nurseries.
The county estimates there are several million square feet of greenhouse growing space just rotting away.
"The supervisors of Monterey County voted to not allow any new greenhouses to be built. Anyone wanting to use greenhouses had to get existing old footprints of greenhouses," Salinas Valley realtor Chuck Allen told KCBS.
He says the greenhouses were made all the more desirable since the area has a ban on outdoor cultivation of marijuana.
Monterey County Supervisor Simon Salinas told KPIX 5 that while Monterey County is open for marijuana business, he said, "It's open to a certain extent, whatever is able to be grown within a nursery."
Allen said, "It's a total of about $30 to $50 per square foot for the restoration of a new structure."
Some marijuana cultivators are leasing space, some buying.
Allen says because the feds still don't recognize pot as legal in any form, they're having to turn to unconventional sources for funding these deals.
A secret marijuana farm in Monterey County used to be an old nursery. At one of the most heavily fortified farms in the Salinas Valley, there is round-the-clock security, surveillance cameras, and lots and lots of razor wire.
Supervisor Salinas says investors are swooping in and buying the greenhouses at sky high prices, hoping that voters approve Monterey County's Measure Y, the commercial cannabis business tax.
Supervisor Salinas said, "If that passes than we'll continue with it, and if it doesn't we will not allow it."
Supervisor Salinas says Measure Y could generate as much as $20-30 million a year in new tax revenue, money that would be used to hire more cops, provide health care for the poor, and fix the roads.
The county will monitor crime rates, underage use, and try to make sure marijuana doesn't harm their community.
When asked if the county will be able to shut the Pandora's box once its open, he said, "It'd be difficult. With our regulations, we're comfortable we can go after those that don't want to follow the rules, and we'll have the resources to shut them down,"Supervisor Salinas said.
Perfect growing conditions in the Salinas Valley means that half of the nation's vegetables are grown there, earning it the nickname "salad bowl of the world".
On the quality of the marijuana that the Salinas Valley would produce, Supervisor Salinas said, "Well, I think because of all the little microclimates that we have, I think it's going to grow good product."
