All it takes is one advantageous investment to retire a millionaire thanks to the power of time and compounding interest. It's how investors who put $10,000 into Amazon when it was first recommended by David Gardner in the early days of the fool September in 1997 would now be sitting on over $8.8 million today, just short of 25 years later.
Thankfully, Amazon isn't the only opportunity to make you a millionaire retiree. There are several other worthwhile stocks and real estate investment trusts (REIT) that have massive potential for millionaire status -- including Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR -3.07%).
A closer look at this millionaire-maker stock
Innovative Industrial Properties is one of the hottest growth stocks in the market today. The company that specializes in the ownership and leasing of industrial real estate to experienced operators in the medical marijuana industry has performed incredibly since its IPO in December 2016. In just a few short years, the company has achieved a 67% return on investment on an annualized basis, which is just under double Amazon's annualized return of 35%. Share prices have grown over 1,100% in just over five years. That means investors who put $10,000 into the company at IPO would have grown it into $124,271, meaning IIPR is well on its way to millionaire-maker status.
The first and only operator in this niche
To understand why IIPR has performed so well in such a short period of time, you have to understand its business model. Since medical marijuana is still illegal on a federal level (for now), banks aren't able to lend to businesses, making it a mostly cash-based business. IIPR saw this as an opportunity to provide liquidity to existing operators, purchasing their industrial property and then leasing it back to them, creating long-term cash flow for the company. This unique structure referred to as a sale-leaseback is the primary driving force for IIPR's business model, although the company also does ground-up development as well. Today it has 103 properties and 7.7 million square feet under management across 19 states.
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Growth opportunities aren't gone
Share prices for IIPR are nowhere near initial IPO levels, meaning investors will likely have to be far more patient than those who got in early to reach millionaire status, but the opportunity is still there. Considering 14 states have yet to legalize medical marijuana, there's room for expansion into new states. Medical marijuana use is also on the rise, with states like Illinois, one of the 19 states IIPR operates in, seeing more tax revenue being earned from medical marijuana than alcohol in 2021.
Eventually, there's a strong likelihood that marijuana will be approved for medical use on a federal level, which will open the doors to alternative financing for new and existing operators, which will give IIPR a run for its money. But its unique sale-leaseback structure will likely still be appealing to those who don't want to go the traditional route of a bank, meaning its business model is far from obsolete. And given that IIPR remains the only publicly traded REIT specializing in this niche, it's a clear pick for patient investors wanting to reach millionaire retiree status.
