With the legalization of recreational marijuana, cannabis growing operations are boosting the industrial warehouse market in Denver metro area. Because of the high demand for industrial space, aging industrial buildings (Class C) are being bought up quickly or leased. Typically, marijuana growing operations that lease instead of buying pay an average lease rate of 30-40% more than market rate. There are 223,494,597 total square feet of industrial space in the metro Denver area and approximately 1 million is currently being used for cannabis growing operations in metro Denver area.