Demand is strong for Sacramento-area warehouses suitable for cultivating cannabis ahead of the legalization of retail sale of the plant in California beginning on New Year's Day. That is pushing the price of warehouse space up in the metro area, reports the Sacramento Bee, citing industrial brokers familiar with the market.

Warehouses and light-industrial buildings are selling for twice the usual asking prices, the brokers said. Also, rents have risen to four or five times previous levels in the industrial area between Power Inn Road and Watt Avenue in the city’s southeast.

Growers are eager to be in Sacramento. At last tally, more than 100 businesses sought special permits from the city to grow marijuana indoors, and eventually twice as many might seek to do so. The city has granted more than a dozen conditional use permits to marijuana operations since Sept. 1.

Sacramento stands to be a cannabis-cultivating mecca, according to Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, a locally based organization that represents growers. The city is one of the few major urban areas in the state to adopt marijuana-growing ordinances thus far, and it has also made it clear that cannabis cultivators are welcome.