Post written by
Bryan McLaren
<p class="bio fs-responsive-text" innerhtml="Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zoned Properties, Inc., a strategic real estate development firm.”>Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Zoned Properties, Inc., a strategic real estate development firm.
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Getty
While the marketplace may indicate that people are the brains behind corporate social responsibility (CSR), I would contend that real estate is most certainly its backbone. As Corporate America digests Blackrock CEO Larry Fink’s 2020 letter to CEOs — a letter that may very well define the tipping point for Wall Street’s adoption of corporate social responsibility and the value of sustainable development — organizations across all sectors are awakening to the realization that short-term profits and exponential growth are not sustainable and not even valuable to shareholders in the long term. At the center of this transformation is our national infrastructure and the future real estate development projects that will support long-term, sustainable value for shareholders and stakeholders.
Every real estate development project has an opportunity to contribute to or detract from both the health of the national marketplace as well as the prosperity of our local communities. Think back to our childhood days of pretending to be master architects, building our very own little worlds via Sim City or Caesar. Prosperity metrics were always essential to evolving as a civilization. Real estate development projects inherently possess an opportunity to significantly impact the people within each and every community and their quality of life. If we are successful in creating an impact that is positive, we can create what some have come to define as prosperity zones or sustainability zones.
It is not simply the financial savings or shareholder benefits that should drive development, but the long-term value created in establishing community sustainability and community prosperity. This is the greatest driver of long-term wealth creation and return on investment. But shifting this paradigm takes time, which is perhaps the entire rationale behind speeding up the process with an incentive-based program like opportunity zones.
I believe my field, the regulated cannabis industry, has an opportunity to become a community-based catalyst in speeding up this paradigm transformation by creating prosperity or sustainability zones. As I have written previously, the zoning and permitting process for regulated cannabis is cumbersome and often forces cannabis facilities and real estate development projects into depressed areas of the community. While this is often viewed by owners, investors and operators as a threat to their business, I actually see it as an opportunity. Real estate development teams can use their real estate projects to showcase how regulated cannabis can drastically improve a community’s prosperity, quashing decades of propaganda and false rhetoric.
To date, we have seen the signals for increases in community prosperity where cannabis has been legalized and regulated: Tax dollars are being reinvested in local infrastructure. Violent crime has decreased in many local communities previously troubled with illicit drug trade, and the financial burden of enforcing unrealistic and unjustified cannabis laws has lifted a weight on local representatives.
The regulated cannabis industry was built through a grassroots effort, and we must ensure that the fruit of that labor returns those investments by using these real estate projects as catalysts for improving community prosperity. This is our opportunity to reinforce a paradigm for sustainable development. This is our opportunity to use real estate as the backbone of corporate social responsibility.
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Photo:
Getty
While the marketplace may indicate that people are the brains behind corporate social responsibility (CSR), I would contend that real estate is most certainly its backbone. As Corporate America digests Blackrock CEO Larry Fink’s 2020 letter to CEOs — a letter that may very well define the tipping point for Wall Street’s adoption of corporate social responsibility and the value of sustainable development — organizations across all sectors are awakening to the realization that short-term profits and exponential growth are not sustainable and not even valuable to shareholders in the long term. At the center of this transformation is our national infrastructure and the future real estate development projects that will support long-term, sustainable value for shareholders and stakeholders.
Every real estate development project has an opportunity to contribute to or detract from both the health of the national marketplace as well as the prosperity of our local communities. Think back to our childhood days of pretending to be master architects, building our very own little worlds via Sim City or Caesar. Prosperity metrics were always essential to evolving as a civilization. Real estate development projects inherently possess an opportunity to significantly impact the people within each and every community and their quality of life. If we are successful in creating an impact that is positive, we can create what some have come to define as prosperity zones or sustainability zones.
It is not simply the financial savings or shareholder benefits that should drive development, but the long-term value created in establishing community sustainability and community prosperity. This is the greatest driver of long-term wealth creation and return on investment. But shifting this paradigm takes time, which is perhaps the entire rationale behind speeding up the process with an incentive-based program like opportunity zones.
I believe my field, the regulated cannabis industry, has an opportunity to become a community-based catalyst in speeding up this paradigm transformation by creating prosperity or sustainability zones. As I have written previously, the zoning and permitting process for regulated cannabis is cumbersome and often forces cannabis facilities and real estate development projects into depressed areas of the community. While this is often viewed by owners, investors and operators as a threat to their business, I actually see it as an opportunity. Real estate development teams can use their real estate projects to showcase how regulated cannabis can drastically improve a community’s prosperity, quashing decades of propaganda and false rhetoric.
To date, we have seen the signals for increases in community prosperity where cannabis has been legalized and regulated: Tax dollars are being reinvested in local infrastructure. Violent crime has decreased in many local communities previously troubled with illicit drug trade, and the financial burden of enforcing unrealistic and unjustified cannabis laws has lifted a weight on local representatives.
The regulated cannabis industry was built through a grassroots effort, and we must ensure that the fruit of that labor returns those investments by using these real estate projects as catalysts for improving community prosperity. This is our opportunity to reinforce a paradigm for sustainable development. This is our opportunity to use real estate as the backbone of corporate social responsibility.