Dive Brief:

• “Green” building means something new these days in Colorado, where construction of legal “grow” facilities for marijuana producers is becoming big business.

• General commercial contractor Nathan Mendel, whose Denver, CO,-based company Your Green Contractor once focused on building dental and medical buildings, now specializes in custom-building and remodeling dispensaries, product kitchens, extraction facilities, greenhouses and warehouses for firms involved in the legal sale and distribution of medical and recreational marijuana.

• Mendel told Oregon’s Daily Journal of Commerce that contractors who don’t build for the marijuana industry are missing a business opportunity. Marijuana is legal in some form in more than 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Dive Insight:

Mendel told the publication that he has few competitors, but he expects building for the marijuana industry to take off as a niche in the construction sector.

He advised potential cannabis contractors who might have preconceived notions about the clients they will encounter: “Almost everyone has a story,” he told the publication, “but almost no stoners. They are few and far between.”