Creating additional revenue while developing raw land

[Ryan Toth]

Hi everyone,

Had this over in Starting Out, and figure it would be better suited here.

A year ago, I had a vision for a motorsport facility which has gained significant traction and support from a number of high profile motorsport professionals. Due to the nature of the development, I need a fairly large tract of land - roughly 500 acres for the facilities themselves and another 500-1000 acres for sound buffer.

Given the amount of land needed, I would like to make the most of the extra land and add value to the overall project, as well as the seed investors. Some topics that have been brought to my attention are:

-timber sales, soil mining, solar power generation (solar farming)

As of now, there are two separate tracts of land with potential opportunity in two separate states in the SE (USA) I am looking at. As part of the land purchase, I feel it would be best to present all of the revenue generation options upfront for each property before starting geological, environmental, and civil surveys.

I would appreciate any insight on creating value post-purchase, identifying suitable revenue options, forecasting, estimation of potential returns during development, key team members to add (engineers, surveyors, etc.), and deal structuring (I am raising funds for the purchase so insight into owner-financing options, etc. would be great).

Thanks for replying,

Ryan