He became a marijuana legalization advocate in 2011, and in 2012 joined the Board of Coastal Compassion, a Massachusetts dispensary he eventually ran. That same year, Keogh founded the Cannabis Producers Association of New England, an advisory board, and in 2014 joined AmeriCann, an early entrant in the medical marijuana market in Colorado, as president.

This year, his experience in New England helped him facilitate the purchase of a Massachusetts property expected to be the largest and most technologically advanced grow facility in the country.

In March of 2017, construction is slated to begin on a 53-acre tract in Freetown, originally intended to be a Boston Beer Company brewery and acquired by AmeriCann this fall for $4.475 million.

The canna-business park will be 1 million sq ft and include energy-efficient greenhouses for cultivation, plant processing spaces, facilities for creating infused products, a testing laboratory, research and training centers, and corporate offices. Space will be sold or leased to businesses registered under the Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Program, and AmeriCann has a Host Community Agreement from Freetown that will enable businesses in the park to get streamlined preferential licensing. AmeriCann said in a statement that it “will set a new cannabis industry standard for energy efficiency, cost control, clean cultivation practices, and the production of Nutraceutical-grade infused products for the patients of Massachusetts.”

Medical marijuana has been legal in Massachusetts since 2012, but recreational weed just became legal in November. Keogh told the Boston Business Journal the November vote supercharged the plans for Freetown; development of the facility is expected to be completed faster to accommodate the growing business opportunities and AmeriCann is eying other locations.

The marijuana investment firm Arcview Group projects that cannabis will bring $1 billion annually to Massachusetts by 2020. Douglas Leighton, co-founder of Boston-based hedge fund Dutchess Capital, is betting big on canna-biz startups—investing in 20 such companies between 2103 and 2016—before federal laws change and powerful corporate interests get in and start profiting from weed at the expense of smaller companies. He told Boston magazine, “Eventually that will happen. Because that’s what happens.’’

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.