Bryan McLaren, the CEO and chairman of Zoned Properties, says the real “bread and butter” of his business is posted every day on the company’s Twitter feed.
“About 99% of what I post is me trying to get out local zoning information about permitting,” McLaren says. “It’s under the radar because hundreds and hundreds of these conversations are happening now and it decides the fate of cannabis in every town.”
Zoned Properties is a strategic real estate development firm that specializes in highly complex and highly regulated industries like cannabis, which is currently the firm’s primary focus. It has worked on hundreds of projects in 15 states over the past eight years. Although McLaren says it is impossible to keep on top of every zoning regulations in the country, the blueprint for approaching those conversations tends to be the same no matter where they are being held.
“Research the local zoning, reach out to the local representatives, have human-to-human conversations, educate people along the way who are using propaganda and then show them the data that it’s raising property values, decreasing crime and that it is increasing tax value,” McLaren says. “That’s typically the role we play.”
Along with keeping an eye on zoning, the company has three primary services for clients: acquiring, developing and leasing real estate properties to cannabis tenants; serving as a full-service real estate advisory firm that acquires and develops properties for cannabis clients; and handling transactional work through its licensed brokerage team.
“The point of Zoned Properties is to take everything regarding the real estate off the client’s to-do list,” McLaren says. “It’s everything related to the real estate and the property.”
— Patrick Wagner