Dispensary valuation multiples

What multiple do dispensaries sell for?

There is no MLS for dispensary sales and no audited survey of private multiples. What exists is three kinds of evidence: public company trading multiples, announced deal prices, and unsourced trade commentary. Only the first two can be checked, so this page uses those. Every figure below is a dated data point from a named source. None of it is an appraisal of any particular store.

The public anchor: Viridian Capital Advisors reported in November 2025 that 11 U.S. multi-state operators with market caps above $100 million traded at a median 5.1x enterprise value to 2026 EBITDA, or 5.72x on Viridian’s adjusted EBITDAR measure that adds excess tax liabilities and operating leases to enterprise value. In June 2024 Viridian put the same group at 7.8x consensus forward EBITDA. That is roughly a one-third compression in eighteen months.

This matters to a single-store owner because MSOs are the most common strategic buyers, and a public buyer seldom pays more for your EBITDA than the market pays for its own. A private store also lacks liquidity, scale, and diversification. In practice a broker will typically expect a single store to price at a discount to the public median, with the size of the discount driven by the factors in the table further down.

Reported dispensary deals, 2025-2026

These are announced headline prices. Most include things other than the retail license, and several were paid in stock or notes. Treat the per-store and revenue math as rough orientation only.

Deal (announced)	Headline price	What was included	Rough metric
Vireo Growth / PharmaCann Colorado (Dec 2025; closed Aug 2026)	Vireo shares valued at $49.0 million, subject to inventory and payables adjustments, plus assumed liabilities	Assets used in 17 leased LivWell-brand dispensaries	About $2.9 million per store in shares, before assumed liabilities
Vireo Growth / The Cannabist Company (Jul 2026)	Up to $35 million: up to $18.75 million cash, up to $16.25 million seller notes	Up to 25 dispensaries, one cultivation site, one production asset, five states	At most $1.4 million per store before valuing the other assets
TerrAscend / Aunt Mary’s, New Jersey (Jul 2026)	$9 million: $3 million five-year 6% convertible note plus $6 million, structured around a purchase option	One store with more than $10 million annualized revenue	Up to about 0.9x revenue
Grown Rogue / PharmaCann New York (Aug 2026)	About $4.5 million, $3 million of it payable on change-of-control approval	Four dispensaries averaging $1.7 to $2.0 million in combined monthly sales, plus a cultivation and manufacturing facility	Roughly 0.2x retail revenue
Vireo Growth / Eaze (Dec 2025)	About $47.0 million in Vireo shares	65 active retail locations plus a delivery platform in California, Florida, and Colorado	About $0.7 million per location

Three lessons come out of that table.

1. Scarcity shows up in the revenue multiple. The New Jersey store, in a state that is still building out retail, priced near 1x revenue. Leased Colorado stores in a mature, price-compressed market priced lower.
2. Distress resets everything. PharmaCann and The Cannabist Company were sellers under pressure. The Cannabist deal needs court authorization because the parent is in a Canadian insolvency proceeding. Prices from forced sellers are real comps, but they are comps for distressed businesses, not healthy ones.
3. Cash is rare. Shares, seller notes, convertible notes, and payments deferred until regulatory approval appear in almost every deal. A sibling page compares cash, stock, and seller notes.

EBITDA, SDE, or revenue: which multiple applies?

EBITDA fits stores with a paid manager and buyers that are companies. It must be normalized: strip out one-time legal costs, owner perks, and non-market rent paid to a related landlord, and add back nothing that a buyer will actually have to spend.

SDE (seller’s discretionary earnings) is EBITDA plus one working owner’s compensation. It fits an owner-operated single store sold to an individual who will do that job. If a store shows $600,000 of SDE and a replacement general manager costs $120,000 fully loaded, EBITDA is $480,000. A price of $1.8 million is 3.0x SDE and 3.75x EBITDA. Same price, different label. Always ask which one a quoted multiple refers to.

Revenue multiples are a sanity check. They are useful when earnings are temporarily depressed or the books are weak, and they are how many headline deals get reported. They ignore margin, and public operators show how wide margins run: Trulieve reported a 60% gross margin and 36% adjusted EBITDA margin for 2025, while Curaleaf reported a 50% adjusted gross margin and 22% adjusted EBITDA margin. A dollar of revenue at the first is worth far more than at the second.

Why a cannabis EBITDA multiple is not a normal retail multiple

An adult-use store remains subject to 280E, which disallows deductions for rent, payroll, and marketing. Federal tax is calculated on gross profit, not on EBITDA. A store with $750,000 of EBITDA can easily owe more than $450,000 of federal tax. The full arithmetic is on the page covering how 280E affects valuation. The short version: a 4x EBITDA price on an adult-use store can be more than 10x after-tax cash. Sophisticated buyers price on after-tax cash, then translate back to an EBITDA multiple. That is a main reason cannabis retail multiples look low next to other retail.

What moves a store up or down the range

Factor	Pushes the multiple up	Pushes it down
License supply	Capped state or capped municipality	Open licensing, new stores opening nearby
Revenue proof	Sales reconcile to track-and-trace data and bank deposits	POS-only numbers, cash gaps
Tax posture	Returns filed on a conservative 280E basis, no arrears	Unpaid excise or income tax, aggressive positions with no reserve
Real estate	Owned, or a long lease with cannabis use and assignment consent	Short lease, landlord consent uncertain
Compliance	Clean inspection history	Open investigations, repeated violations
Medical mix	Meaningful state-licensed medical sales now outside 280E	Adult-use only
Concentration	Multiple stores, no single-store dependence	One store, one manager, one landlord

License supply is covered in depth on the page about license value in capped vs uncapped states.

Illustrative: one store at different multiples

Illustrative only. Assume normalized EBITDA of $750,000 and after-tax cash under 280E of about $277,500 (the worked example on the 280E page).

EBITDA multiple	Enterprise value	Price to after-tax cash
2.0x	$1,500,000	5.4x
3.0x	$2,250,000	8.1x
4.0x	$3,000,000	10.8x
5.0x	$3,750,000	13.5x

A buyer who needs to service a seller note from after-tax cash will look at the right-hand column. A seller should too. Inventory is normally counted and paid for separately at closing, and tax liabilities are usually handled through holdbacks, so enterprise value is not the same as the check you receive.

If you want a range for your own store, the valuation overview explains the process, and a confidential first conversation can be set up at /book/. This page is educational and is not an appraisal, tax advice, or legal advice.