On today’s show we are talking about a project that so far has gone nowhere. It’s not a large project, and we did not have anything invested in it besides some time.
The subject property was part of a development in the province of Quebec.
The owners of the land had got the property zoned for residential and developed the half of the land and sold half of the project for single family homes. Half of the road was built and homes were built on portion that was developed. It’s not entirely clear why the other half was not build. Maybe the owner ran out of funds. Who knows. The other half of the property which comprises about 18 acres was left undeveloped. Naturally, the property taxes on residential land are higher than the taxes on agricultural land.
The owner of the property was tired of paying the higher property taxes on the land that was basically doing nothing. So he downzoned the undeveloped 18 acre portion back to agricultural.
The next generation were left owning this land and they recognized that the value of the land would be enhanced considerably if it were zoned residential. So we entered into a purchase agreement with the current owners that was contingent on getting the land rezoned back to residential.
