Each city will decide how many licenses they will allow for. Sometimes there is no caps on licenses which means having the best real estate location means you will have more access to customers. Other times it’s a competitive merit based process and with limited licenses means higher revenue potential for each store. In any case real estate is going to be key for a successful retail store. 

Each city will have a application process they will release that will outline the exact process. After receiving local approval from a city a future store will have to apply for a state license in order to be able to open doors. 

Every city has different application fees and schedules. It’s important to study the process carefully in order to understand all the costs involved. One of the key costs is “time” since there’s no way to know how long a city will take to award a license. In California it can take more than a year to get a license. Which is why it is vital to have low real estate holding costs during an application period. Which is why working with CannDev can be beneficial since all our deals have low holding costs during the application process.