BiggerPockets

Could you secure a portion of the the area and lease out storage space for RV's, Boats etc?

I would look into what Kevin said. Think about throwing an 8ft tall fence up and renting it out for storage of vehicles and boats. A lot of places, like where I live will not allow you to keep a boat, rv, or trailor on your driveway.

You can create quite a bit of positive cash flow if you go about this right. In fact, when it's all said and done you might just end up hanging on to the land : )

As mentioned by a couple of other prior posts here, storage (self service) is an way to offset those tax bills with some revenue until a better use comes along.

The billboard idea could work, if near a major road and the zoning allows for that use.

Along the lines of what Jon said, not real sure what grows in that area, but if you could do Christmas Trees or Pumpkins, those are a couple things that would be seasonal and pull in some good cash.

Cell phone tower? May have more opposition from locals than a billboard.

If it is in residential, and in the city limits, not likely you can grow crops on it. But if it is zoned commercial you could probably do a ground lease for maybe an assisted living facility or something like that.

That should be CMRA for commercial mail receiving agency. WTF was I typing?

Your lot is zoned "T" for Transitional by the city. Have a look at their web page. Your lot is on map 2. There's a link to the zoning code on that page, too. The section on Transitional zoning starts on page 179. Here's the basic description of what they want:

Transitional (T) District. The purpose of this district is to support the rehabilitation
and/or redevelopment of underutilized commercially zoned areas in the City where
traditional business district zoning is inappropriate or unsuccessful. The
Transitional District allows a mixture of uses appropriate for creating a mixed livework
environment at a scale and character compatible with the surrounding
residential neighborhoods. Such uses include a limited range of "transitional"
commercial services such as office and light industrial uses, residential
development and live-work units. Retail and manufacturing uses are not permitted
in this district.

There's a table of specific permitted uses a bit further down.

Originally posted by Chris Luithly:
The tool & Die company went bankrupt which caused this whole mess two years ago so instead of the cash that I was owed, I received this useless 7 acres.

Sounds like quite a story Chris. Do you own the tool building? I thought it was just the vacant land to the west. Being from SoCal where lots are typically 5,000 to 10,000 sq. ft., I have no idea what 7 acres looks like! :wink:

What kind of condition is the building in? With an improvement like that on the land, there's a whole new set of possibilities. They didn't leave the machines behind, did they?

I would have to drive the area to see what is the highest and best use for the land.

Soil type,nearby utilities,and topography of the land in addition to the zoning would determine possibilities.

The question really would be how much you were owed versus how much you could get for the land you were given??

Moving the dirt around on 7 acres can be extremely expensive depending on many factors.

Developers go by "net developable area" when making offers as that is what they can produce income on.

If you have 7 acres but only 3 is usable you will get very little for the other land.

The other thing you have to look at is road frontage and access points along with parcel size and shape.You might could partner or combine connecting parcels to appeal to a larger developer.

You also have to remember this fact.What the city or county wants has NOTHING to do with what a developer will want the property for.

I see it all the time in my area.We have a 25 year land use plan with current and future mapping. An area that was designated for townhomes is now foreclosed on.The new developer wants to buy the property subject to getting zoning to put in an apartment complex instead of the town houses.

Of course the county says we understand WHY the new buyer wants this but we will not deviate from our vision for the county.So the land sits and rots until the cycle will come back to where a buyer will purchase for that use or the county gives in a little to the developer.

It's a tug of war with the counties having huge budget short falls they really want the developments to increase the tax base over raw land assessments but can't deviate too much from the land use plans.

Before selling distressed investments land development was all I focused on for commercial development.

Determining highest and best use and getting it approved for that use is the hard part.Tweaking engineering and 3-d plans for approval is the easy part.

You could sell now to an opportunistic land fund for cash or a developer that wants to purchase and hold.There are also land buyers that own many businesses and like owning land as they can eventually sell off for a profit but put no time into it.

If you partner with a developer you can get more for your land but also share some of the expense,risk,and time into the deal.If I could benefit more by receiving cash today and investing it elsewhere that is what I would do.

Hope it helps...................................