We are the first realty and advisory firm on the east coast dedicated to the cannabis industry
About
Cannabeta Realty is the first real estate brokerage and advisory firm in the tri-state area dedicated to serving the needs of the cannabis industry. Comprised of longtime industry veterans of commercial real estate representing over $1Billion in transactions, we combine our extensive real estate experience with the latest in cannabis industry data, retail consumer trends, economics and laws giving a high degree of personal attention catering to the specific needs of each of our clients.
Dispensaries &
social establishments
Cannabeta Realty is the premier full service brokerage and advisory firm for dispensaries looking to enter the NYC and surrounding markets. We have compiled a proprietary listings database of hundreds of retail locations across the city where landlords will accept a dispensary use and pass our proximity checks (200’ or more from a house of worship and 500’ or more from a school). Leveraging our block by block intimate knowledge of neighborhood demographic trends, we help our clients identify the ideal locations for their retail strategies and then draw upon our multi-decades long relationships with the city’s top landlords to finalize the ideal deal structures for our clients.
Cannabeta’s work doesn’t stop there. We work with our clients to make sure they maximize revenue in the pre-license phase of their business by drawing upon our unmatched experience in short term rentals and pop-ups to bring revenue to our clients pre-licensing, and bring an in-house production and community outreach team to help with the licensing process for each of our locations. We are New Yorkers through and through and we are here to help.
Cultivation
Cannabeta maintains a database of industrial properties in the NY, NJ & CT markets that make for ideal cultivation sites for growers of any size. We leverage our extensive experience as real estate developers to understand timing, power needs, cap-ex, utility connections, sustainability, local politics, zoning, and overall economics to help our clients find the ideal locations for their businesses. We can also help with financing, real estate partners, or forming partnerships with other cultivators for larger sites.
NJ dispensaries & social establishments
Cannabeta is up to date on all the latest laws and regulations affecting New Jersey for cannabis businesses, including monitoring each of the 564 townships for their opt-in or opt-out status. In assessing the best locations for our clients we look at layouts & floorplans, locations of other existing or planned dispensaries, car counts, foot traffic, demographics, nearby retailers, and a whole host of other factors. We work closely with our clients to identify the best retail strategy for them across all markets in NJ and specialize in sourcing retail in urban, suburban, or rural areas or northern, central or southern NJ.
Other cannabis businesses
We help our clients find real estate for cannabis lab testing, processing, manufacturing, greenhouses, farmland, medical dispensaries in underserved markets, Long Island and Upstate retail and any other real estate need related to cannabis. We are always excited to meet new clients in the industry, and discuss any project.
Social impact
To us cannabis isn’t just a business, it's a movement. We take the needs of social equity and our communities seriously, and have been deeply involved with drug policy reform activism in NYC for decades. That’s why we donate 10% of all our profits back to the communities most harmed by the war on drugs.
Our team:
Rachel H Eisley
As Cannabeta’s NYC Retail Coordinator, Rachel has led the process of creating Cannabeta’s proprietary vetted space database. Eisley joins Cannabeta a decade into her career in NYC, which evolved from a photojournalist and arts educator to a property rental manager and pop-up event production designer. Rachel currently oversees 7,000 SF of mixed use creative art space in NY. For Cannabeta, Rachel also serves as liaison and director of short-term rentals and pop-up space utilization for cannabis tenant leases during their contingency time period pre-licensure.
Eisley is passionate about Cannabeta’s social impact mission and prior to joining the company received multiple grants for her volunteerism in the arts bringing free arts education to underprivileged communities including the Crystal Theodore Service Award and a grant from the Negley-Flinn Charitable Foundation.
contact: rachel@cannabeta.com
Sheldon Williamson
Sheldon Williamson is a licensed NYS Real Estate Salesperson. He has earned certificates in cannabis agriculture & horticulture through Syracuse University, and in cannabis fundamentals and cultivation from Green Flower Academy. He is looking forward to using his knowledge and skills in those subjects to assist cannabis businesses in navigating the highly regulated and political landscape of the industry, while building his own expertise through working with Cannabeta as Real Estate Coordinator. He is excited to be combining his passions to cultivate an exciting career dealing directly with cannabis businesses and local stakeholders to provide optimal real estate solutions.
contact: sheldon@cannabeta.com
Elliott Dweck
Elliott Dweck is a NYC retail leasing expert with multiple decades of experience brokering transactions for both landlords and tenants across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. In 2005, he applied over 40 years of sales experience to help launch the inception of Besen Retail, now one of the most active retail agencies in the NYC area. Throughout his real estate career he has leased over forty locations across NYC including to national brands such as Dunkin Donuts, Pinkberry, Aesop, Subway, Metro PCS, Quick Cash, Subway Lenny’s, and others. Elliott is a Brooklyn native and remains active in civic engagement within the NYC Syrian Jewish community.
contact: elliott@cannabeta.com
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Penelope-Myles Voss
Penelope started her career in the cannabis space with Cannabeta. She is passionate about supporting our clients and our team in her role as Director of Operations. Prior to joining Cannabeta, she grew her organizational leadership skills in a higher education setting. In addition, she is conservatory trained in vocal performance and uses her experience to keep the office *in tune*. She is enthusiastic about social justice issues and is excited to be aligned with an organization that is also passionate about drug policy reform.
contact: penelope@cannabeta.com
Daniel Kahn
Born and raised in NJ, Daniel is enthusiastic about the emerging cannabis real estate industry. He began his real estate career in 2006 as a residential real estate agent, but shortly moved to commercial leasing in 2008 working with the Kaufman Organization, where he has helped owners and tenants close many different office and retail transactions ranging from 1,500 to 16,000 sq ft. In 2010, Daniel joined the Coldwell Banker team working alongside retail specialist Catherine O’Toole. Prior to entering real estate, Daniel was a theatrical engineer and designer and he brings this creativity to every transaction.
contact: daniel@cannabeta.com
Mark Rubin
Mark's career in financial services, corporate finance and real estate spans over 30 years and has involved transactions in most industry verticals. In addition to his affiliation with Cannabeta, he is
President of Rubin Capital Corp. (“RCC”), a boutique financial and investment advisory boutique, which provides bespoke strategic and financial solutions to companies and investors. Over the past several years, Mark has been very active in the burgeoning cannabis sector, advising private and public cannabis companies and investors on capital raising, M&A, business development, and strategic business relationships. He has led or materially participated in mandates having an aggregate transaction value of over $25 billion, including the $42.5 million sale of a one million square foot state-of-the art greenhouse cultivation facility located on Long Island to Columbia Care in April 2021, a large publicly listed cannabis multi-state operator. Previously, Mark held senior level leadership roles at Drexel Hamilton, Duff & Phelps, Chanin Capital Partners, and Price Waterhouse’s Corporate Finance Advisory Group.
contact: mark@cannabeta.com
Devon Binns
Principal Broker
Devon Binns is a real estate professional with more than 19 years of experience in brokering and managing commercial properties in the New York City, Long Island, and Northern New Jersey markets. While his experience ranges from property acquisition, management, and sales across a variety of property types, Devon has been consistently recognized as one of NYC’s top retail brokers for the past few decades.
After beginning his career working at larger firms such as CBRE and PBS, Devon recognized that he could deliver a higher degree of personalized service to his clients independently, and ever since has maintained an impressive roster of repeat customers representing both landlords and tenants. He likes to develop a thorough understanding of the business goals and objectives of each of his clients and translate those into actionable and profitable plans, identifying future risks, and analyzing their impacts. He is respected in the real estate industry as a high volume leasing broker who delivers a high level of personal attention to each of his clients.
contact: devon@cannabeta.com
Matte Namer
FOUNDER | CEO, Cannabeta Realty Group
Matte Namer is a NYC born real estate developer, asset manager, hotelier, and salesperson with a passion for drug policy reform spanning decades. Throughout their ten years as Principal of Alfa Development, Matte was instrumental in overseeing over $500MM of construction projects in downtown manhattan with a focus on sustainable development, working closely with communities and local governing agencies. Throughout that time, Matte also worked on hundreds of lease and sale transactions and raised over $300MM in debt and equity for various real estate ventures. Matte helped start the trailblazing retail real estate tech firm Wallplay and acted as an interim COO.
They remain a principal of Alfa Development, peripherally involved with the asset Management of Alfa Development’s $50MM+ NYC retail portfolio and hotel (HGU New York) while now devoting their time towards helping their clients at Cannabeta.
contact: m@cannabeta.com
Pre-Approved Cannabis Cultivation Site for Sale or Lease
Cannabeta Realty has been retained exclusively to market for sale or lease the industrial and agricultural buildings and land at 4801 Lake Road, Franklin, NJ. The site represents an extremely rare opportunity for a cannabis cultivation site with municipal license and zoning pre-approval for up to 711,200 SF of flowering canopy in the southern NJ region.
4801 New Lake Road sits on an approximate 48.85 acre site with an existing 41,400 warehouse building, an existing 153,600 SF greenhouse, a caretaker’s house and other existing infrastructure. Town zoning approvals have been obtained to construct an additional 557,760 SF of greenhouse space for cannabis growth as well as an additional 38,400 SF warehouse.
Highlights
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Municipal zoning and license approvals in place for cannabis cultivation and processing
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Southern NJ industrial market / Gloucester County
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Unrivaled potential expansion opportunities
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Opportunity for immediate plantings
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Existing caretakers house
Price Summary
Ownership Requests Proposals
Property Type
Industrial/ Agricultural
Existing Building Size
41,400 SF - Warehouse
153,600 SF - Greenhouse
Proposed Additional
38,400 SF - Warehouse
557,760 SF - Greenhouse
Total Size
79,800 SF - Warehouse
711,200 SF - Greenhouse
In the press
“Some people are really passionate about social justice and passionate about the plant and its medicinal qualities. So you really get different motivations from different clients."
“Most other industries are shrinking in terms of retail,” Namer said. ”But in New York State alone, the legalization of marijuana created overnight the opportunity for an industry that’s going to reach $5 billion a year.”
According to Rubin, “The byzantine state-by-state legal cannabis market is terribly underserved by experienced independent financial and investment advisors because of perceived reputational risk and legal risk associated with the lack of federal legalization.”
"We’re very excited to partner with Mark to create a comprehensive offering to the cannabis sector. Mark is a perfect fit as he brings over 30 years of complex financial advisory and capital markets expertise, including a dual-focus in the cannabis sector and real estate markets,” said Matte Namer, Cannabeta’s founder."
“We’re coming into the industry on the backs of not only all the activists that have been working to change these laws for generations, but also tens of millions of people who have been in prison for draconian drug laws,” [Namer says]. “So I think that if you’re in this industry, and you just completely ignore that, that you’re really not correctly paying homage to where this is all coming from.”
“I’ve been saying this for a while now, but cannabis coming to New York is something the movement and the industry haven’t seen anything comparable to yet."
“I would definitely encourage townships that want that business to make it very clear that they’re open for business,” Namer said. It’s “more likely the companies are going to want to come in and spend their money there.”
“It’s exciting that Connecticut and New Jersey and New York all legalized within a very short period of time within one another,” Namer said. “And I think collectively those states account for what will probably become the largest cannabis market in the world."
Q: "Fast forward to your cannabis business idea, plan, and launch- can you share insight into your journey?"
A: "Since leaving college, I’ve spent my entire career in the real estate industry with a regional focus. I had also really been waiting for my entire adult life for New York to legalize cannabis which it finally did in March of 2021. Along with Connecticut and New Jersey, which also legalized around the same time, it became apparent to me that an industry which could ultimately reach $10Billion in annual revenues in these states was going to have to be created from scratch in a few short years. Essentially all of this creation would involve real estate..."
"...Finally and perhaps most importantly, as someone who has spent over 20 years as a cannabis activist, I felt it was important to be a part of developing this industry in a way that honors not just the activists who spent tireless decades to get us to this place but also the tens of millions of Americans that suffered incarceration because of draconian drug laws. We are proud of our mandate to donate 10% of our profits to these causes.”
Namer estimated that only about 15% of New Jersey municipalities currently allow cultivation, and those that do often have zoning regulations that further limit where businesses can operate.
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Given all these factors, finding an appropriate space “starts to become very difficult to sometimes impossible, depending on what you're looking for,” Namer said.
“Sustainability, equity and consumer awareness of where, who, and how cannabis products are produced will become a much greater factor in how customers choose products to purchase. More than two thirds (70 percent) of Americans are at least sometimes influenced to purchase products based on a company’s ethics."
“I think that it’s honestly something that is probably not talked about enough that you know the industry does kind of have a big carbon footprint,” said Matte Namer, founder and chief executive officer of Cannabeta Realty, a real estate group focused on cannabis. “ … I hope that there’s going to be some mitigation.”
“The Senate simply does not appear to have 50 votes let alone the 60 votes required to override a filibuster," Namer told HuffPost via email. "We are hopeful that the SAFE Banking Act may pass the Senate this year, however, politicians and activists are very divided as to whether any cannabis legislation should be passed that does not significantly advance issues of social justice."
“The cannabis industry is one of the most exciting, fresh industries to be part of. For those looking to make a splash purchasing property, it is fundamental to be in the know about potential challenges. If you are a cannabis business looking to break into commercial cannabis real estate, be sure to be as prescient as possible before signing the first check for your site.”
“Cannabis tenant limit the landlord’s ability to refinance the property. This can vary from landlord to landlord, depending on if there is financing on the property and the timing of when they are planning to refinance,” Matte Namer, founder and CEO of Cannabeta Realty, tells GlobeSt.com.
“New Jersey has one of the tightest industrial markets in the country right now, the vacancy rates are under 3%, and we estimate probably only about 15% to 20% or so of the towns in New Jersey have opted-in to allow cultivation,” said Namer, who added that many of the towns that are allowing cultivation have designated areas where it is allowed.
