Land

It looks like the land that we were considering for the development of Golden Tree Academy won't be available. Something due to the coal rights belonging to someone other than the current owners of the land and owners not being able to come to agreement on terms. This saddens me, as the price was right and it had spectacular views, small ponds, flat areas for buildings and fields, and hilly areas for landscaping, sledding, etc. Because this land won't be available, I looked online for land today. Unfortunately, there's no good search site like realtor.com for land. I also looked for commercial properties, such as hotels, retreats, and campgrounds, which may be able to be converted. Again, there's little out there for properly searching these types of properties. What is out there is sorely lacking in information and, in general, costs money to access full listings. Nothing struck my fancy enough to cause me to pay for the full listings.

When I first set about on this project, I was hoping someone who had a gifted or twice-exceptional child would donate land and/or buildings to help start the school. This is how boarding schools are often started - a donation of land. With such a donation, the donor would be eligible for naming rights, scholarships, etc. However, after four years, there have been no such offers. I have had one offer in regards to leasing land. It was a very weird offer. The person wanting to lease the land wouldn't tell me anything about location other than a general metro area, or about costs. In addition, there were likely no suitable buildings, so we would have had to build. Needless to say, we didn't go with this.

I figured if no land was donated, we could buy 20 or so acres at about $5,000 an acre. While there is property for this price and less, they lack infrastructure, and may not even be able to be built upon. Nearly all land available is not connected to a municipal sewer system. In addition, most haven't been perk tested to determine the feasibility of a commercial grade septic system. It's hard to justify the expense of perk testing land that likely wont pass and thus won't be suitable for the school. Once land is found, a septic system will have to be designed and built. The estimated cost of this is $300,000. This would be the largest expense, followed by proper commercial well systems, and bringing in general utilities.

I'm still looking. Something has got to turn up.

If you, or anyone you are aware of is interesting in selling, leasing, or donating land for the construction of a school, please let us know. Again, naming rights and possible scholarships are available for such donations. In addition, donating would lead to a good tax write-off. Land would need the following:

• 10 or more acres
• Municipal sewer hook up, commercial grade septic, or, at minimum, perk tested for commercial grade septic
• Municipal water or sufficient water to feed a commercial grade well
• Within 2 hours of major airport
• Within 30 minutes of retail
• Within 30 minutes of hospital
• Fits within our budget - which varies based upon what infrastructure is already in place

Til next time....
Bryan