Future of Cannabis CRE

Paul E. Smithers has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. since its inception in 2016. Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. is the pioneering real estate investment trust for the cannabis industry and is the first publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: IIPR) to provide real estate capital to the cannabis industry. Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. targets licensed cannabis facilities for acquisition, including sale-leaseback transactions, with tenants that are licensed growers under long-term, triple-net leases. As of March 1, 2022, IIP owned 105 properties located in 19 states, totaling approximately 8.0 million rentable square feet, which were 100% leased, with a weighted-average remaining lease term in excess of 16 years. As of March 1, 2022, IIP had invested approximately $2.0 Billion in its portfolio of cannabis properties.

Richard serves as Chief Executive Officer of Subversive Real Estate Acquisition REIT LP (NEO: SVX) and Inception REIT Inc., both cannabis focused real estate investment vehicles. Previously, Richard served as the Chief Financial Officer of SBE (SLS Hotels), a global hospitality company where he, among other responsibilities, focused on corporate and asset level transactions. Prior to joining SBE in 2014, Richard was a Director at Colony Capital, a global real estate private equity firm, where he focused on executing and managing over $9 billion of private equity investments primarily in the gaming, hospitality, and media industries. Prior to Colony, Richard worked in Wells Fargo’s Real Estate Merchant Banking division. Richard holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.

Matt Solomon joined the Lee & Associates – West LA office in 2013, after graduating from Loyola Marymount University. Matt and his team of five specialize in creative office leasing & redevelopment, representing both Landlords and Tenants across Los Angeles. In addition to significant creative office leasing transaction volume involving tech, media, and entertainment powerhouses, Matt has also brokered premiere retail, industrial, and multifamily deals from West LA to DTLA.

In her decade of experience, JKH Consulting President Jamarah Hayner has led community involvement efforts for both public- and private-sector clients, as well as for leading elected officials in New York, Southern California and Phoenix. Throughout her career, she has helped clients ensure that communities and small businesses are valued stakeholders in projects affecting their neighborhoods, with a special focus in the areas of transportation, aviation, real estate and housing policy and workforce development. She has played a key strategic role in business pursuits totaling more than $3 billion, assisting clients in growing their market share in new sectors and regions. A tested communications advisor, she has led successful earned and paid media campaigns and represented clients as a spokesperson in outlets including the Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio and Business Journal affiliates, as well as numerous local and new media outlets. Jamarah’s career includes successful tenures in the administrations of several of the nation’s leading elected officials. She began her career in the office of New York City Mayor R. Michael Bloomberg, where she worked as his Community Affairs Unit’s Chief of Staff and Director of Policy and Initiatives, helping to manage citywide outreach for congestion pricing and other plaNYC initiatives. She served as the first Southern California District Director for then-California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, for whom she managed community outreach on a range of issues including her landmark foreclosure relief legislation package. She also served as a Communications Deputy and Special Assistant to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board Member and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. Jamarah is a graduate of Barnard College at Columbia University. She is a proud member of a number of civic organizations including: the Greater Los Angeles Area African American Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, the Heidi Duckler Dance Theater, Friends of Transit, COMTO Arizona, the Arizona Transit Association, and the Support Sky Harbor Coalition. She and her husband live in Manhattan Beach, CA and Phoenix, AZ.

Arcview is the first and largest group of high net worth cannabis investors. Troy is an elected board member for the Marijuana Policy Project and was formerly their top fundraiser and lead liaison to the legal cannabis industry. He is a founding board member of the National Cannabis Industry Association and co-founder of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which is now on over 200 campuses. Troy also helped launch and served as the first sales director at Renewable Choice Energy, which was recently named the #1 green power provider by the EPA. He was recently named by Fortune Magazine as one of the top 7 most powerful people in the cannabis industry. In his spare time, Troy enjoys karaoke and the Burning Man festival.

Cat Packer is the Executive Director and General Manager of the Department of Cannabis Regulation. Prior to joining the City of Los Angeles, Packer served as California Policy Coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance, where she worked to ensure the successful and equitable implementation of various cannabis policy reforms. Packer is an alumna of The Ohio State University where she received a Bachelor’s in Political Science, a Master’s in Public Policy & Management and a Juris Doctor.

Amanda Ostrowitz is a regulatory attorney and entrepreneur who’s identified a need for a user- friendly, scalable platform to research regulations and laws in the cannabis industry. Amanda founded RegsTechnology and its current product, CannaRegs, as a tool to aid attorneys, business people, and governments with localized tracking of regulatory issues. Although RegsTechnology has its origins in covering the dynamics of cannabis regulation, Amanda has created an innovative framework that can be applied more broadly to other emerging, hyper- localized regulatory issues. Prior to conceiving, developing and founding RegsTechnology, Amanda worked as a bank examiner in the Denver branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Amanda is a New England native who moved to Colorado in 2004 to attend Colorado College where she earned a B.A. in Economics and went on to receive her Juris Doctor from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2013.

Risk Management & Strategy. Formerly Legal Director at Uber and Lead Payments Counsel at Facebook

Jeff joined EKA after managing a growing list of clients at his own firm, McConnell Government Relations. He is a specialist in technology and cannabis related fields, along with a deep background in land-use policy and the budget processes of The City of Los Angeles and the County. Jeff has successfully secured hundreds of millions of dollars in contract awards for his clients over the past ten years and successfully permitted large scale developments from the Port of Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley. Jeff began his career as a legislative deputy for Councilman Nick Pacheco, where he focused on transportation, public works, the economic redevelopment of downtown Los Angeles, and the city budget. He has maintained remarkable relationships and resources across the spectrum of Los Angeles city politics. Jeff is currently vice-chair of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, and a former co-chair of the Transportation and Goods Movement Committee for the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, where he serves on the board. He also serves on the boards of the Central City Association and Crestview Preparatory School. Jeff is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a degree in Chemical Engineering and Theater.

Stanley S. Jutkowitz, senior counsel in Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Washington, D.C. office, concentrates his practice on domestic and international business transactions and tax planning, counseling on corporate and business matters, and real estate transactions. He is also the founding editor of the firm’s marijuana law blog, The Blunt Truth (blunttruthlaw.com) and heads the firm’s cannabis practice. Mr. Jutkowitz has taught a number of continuing legal education courses on various aspects of cannabis law. His cannabis law experience includes counseling businesses on the legal risks of selling into the cannabis industry both in the US and internationally, representing lenders and property owners in real estate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, counseling investors on cannabis investments, tax planning and banking. His real estate experience includes the acquisition, development, sale and leasing of commercial, retail and residential property on behalf of domestic and foreign investors, and the representation of specialty users of real estate, such as companies with security clearance, technology companies and biotech companies. His transactional experience includes representation of emerging and other privately and publicly held companies in connection with mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, venture capital transactions and public offerings of stock and tax planning and structuring entities for both inbound and outbound cross border mergers and acquisitions.