Buying or selling a cannabis business in Virginia Beach, Virginia

One owner for the whole region

Virginia Beach is part of Health Service Area V, the eastern region that also takes in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, Suffolk and Williamsburg. Under section 4.1-1602 of the Code of Virginia, one pharmaceutical processor permit is issued per health service area, and the dispensing facilities in that area must be owned at least in part by the area’s processor. There is no separate Virginia Beach dispensary licence to buy or sell. The statewide structure is on the Virginia page.

The deal that set the HSA V benchmark

Verano became the exclusive vertical operator in the region on 22 August 2024, when it closed its purchase of The Cannabist Company’s HSA V subsidiary. The assets were a cultivation and production facility and six operating dispensaries in Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, serving a region of roughly 2 million people out of Virginia’s 8.7 million.

The price is one datapoint. The structure is the more useful one: $90 million total, paid as $20 million cash, $40 million in Class A subordinate voting shares and a $30 million promissory note. Just over one dollar in five was cash at closing. That is normal in an industry without bank debt, and it is the shape any Virginia seller should expect an offer to take. What a seller actually receives then depends on share liquidity and note security, covered in selling for MSO stock, cash vs stock vs seller note and seller notes and security interests.

Worth noting: the neighbouring Richmond region’s permit changed hands separately and for a different price, as covered on the Richmond page. Virginia’s regions trade one at a time.

What the city is actually preparing

Virginia Beach is further along on local implementation than most Virginia localities. It runs a Cannabis Advisory Task Force advising council on consumption, sale, manufacturing and cultivation, with a zoning subcommittee and published work-plan materials. For anyone contemplating a 2027 application in the city, those documents are the best public preview of the rules.

City staff have laid out a proposed framework:

Use	Proposed treatment
Retail	Conditional use permit in certain business districts; by right in industrial districts
Cultivation and processing	By right in agricultural and industrial districts
Testing	By right in industrial; conditional use in some agricultural and office districts

Staff have also flagged hours of operation, signage limits, minimum distances from schools or hospitals, floor area caps and security plans as conditions to be written, alongside the statewide rules: no drive-throughs, a two-ounce transaction limit and a minimum age of 21. On tax, the figure discussed is 3.5%, the top of the 1% to 3.5% band every Virginia locality must levy, on top of the 6% state cannabis tax that rises to 8% on 1 July 2029.

The timetable matters for anyone budgeting. The state application process opens 1 February 2027, permits are expected in May 2027 and sales begin 1 July 2027. Virginia Beach plans to take zoning amendments to the Planning Commission and then to council for adoption before 1 February 2027, so local rules are effective in July. Virginia removed the local opt-out referendum, so the city cannot ban stores; it can only decide where they go. See local control and municipal approvals and zoning, buffers and conditional use permits.

Hemp businesses in the meantime

The category that changes hands in Virginia Beach today is hemp retail, and it has been reset. From 15 August 2026 a product with more than two milligrams of total THC per package cannot be produced or sold as a hemp product in Virginia, and hemp oversight moved to the Cannabis Control Authority. A Virginia Beach shop being marketed on last year’s revenue is being marketed on a catalogue that no longer exists. Value the compliant assortment only; see selling a hemp or CBD business.

Practical points for sellers and buyers

Sellers. If you hold hemp retail or a compliant commercial site, the buyer you want is probably preparing a 2027 application. Site control that clears the city’s eventual distance conditions, and a lease that survives a change of control, are the two things worth documenting now.

Buyers. There is nothing plant-touching to acquire in Virginia Beach; the regional permit is held and was bought recently. Your realistic paths are a 2027 application, real estate leased to a future licensee, or an ancillary business. Two local factors deserve weight. First, industrial land is treated more permissively than retail corridors in the staff proposal, which inverts the usual site-selection instinct. Second, Hampton Roads has a heavy federal and military employment base, and federal employment and security clearances do not sit comfortably with a plant-touching payroll, which narrows the local hiring pool; badge and staffing mechanics are in employee transfer and agent badges. Anything priced today as a Virginia Beach licence is an expectation; see valuing a pre-revenue license.

This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. To talk through a Virginia Beach sale or acquisition in confidence, book an intro call.