So, What do you think? Am I crazy?

I'd rather have wisdom teeth yanked out with rusty pliers, so I stayed home.

It was a nice day. I decided to clean out the shed. Perhaps my insanity started with that decision. 

Perhaps not. 

It's been four years since I first promised I would get to it.

Saturday was the day. 

I found our bicycles while cleaning out the shed. They were in a sorry state. The tires were flat, the chains rusty, and each sported a generous mantle of cobwebs.

Suffice it to say that I filled said tires, oiled said chains, and power washed said cobwebs away. All the while, I thought of Jim Murray and Don Grandy, two avid cyclists.

With my bicycle looking much more like a bicycle should, I decided to take it on a little shakedown ride. I think that's where my insanity caught up with me. 

My little 15-minute shakedown ride became a four-hour tour of the Village of St-Eustache (my home) and its surroundings.

Like Jim said in one of his posts, you see much more on a bicycle than in a car.

That is very true, Jim. 

What I saw pissed me off.

Back then, I specialized in smallish projects to a maximum of $4 million. Most were under $2 million and many were under $750,000. 

I never had an interest in changing skylines. I preferred to change lives.

In property development, one major flop can kill you. None of my projects carried any such risk. No speculative property buying or land banking for me. It was as close to crystal ball development as you can get.

I still have my developer's eye. That eye was offended.

I still have my developer's mind. It hasn't forgotten any tricks.

During my ride, I found seven wonderful development opportunities. I wasn't looking for them. Maybe I didn't find them at all. 

Maybe they found me.

Empty lots and empty buildings are a blight

They are also a waste. They are a waste of space. They are a potential source of much-needed jobs. They represent opportunities not just for the developer, but for those who will use them to better their lives. 

Their unrealized potential affects all.

Many are too small to interest developers. I find that silly.  

Small is quick. Small is less risky. Small is a highly profitable niche. My favorite development of all (I've been responsible for some 3,000,000 square feet of development in my time), was a Victorian style, commercially zoned home of 3000 square feet. 

It was empty for 6 years. Someone burned it down. More accurately, the fire gutted the inside and did a number on the roof. The outside was all heavy stone. It looked fine.

Perfect. That fire saved me the trouble of dealing with the Historical Society. It also saved me a bunch of money because I didn't need to gut the place.

I bought the burned out hulk for $170,000. I already had a lease in hand from an insurance broker for the ground floor. One of the architects bidding on the project took the top floor. Planning started with two of three floors rented. The lawyer who reviewed the architect's lease took the middle floor. We were full before we even applied for permits.

Total Cost was about $550,000. Construction time was 4 months. We sold for $970,000 within four more months. You gotta love a $400,000 risk-free profit in 8 months!

So why do developers turn their noses up on small deals?

Opportunity #1

Vacant Lot: Intersection of two busy streets approx: 30,000 square feet.

Issue: Some 15 years ago, the owner foolishly sold off half his land. He sold the half away from the intersection so I guess he wasn't a complete idiot. The Problem: Since then, the Town built a left-turn median blocking access to his lot from the drive-home side of the main road. The lot is too short to safely cut the median. The Town built another median blocking entry to his lot from the drive-home side of the secondary road. That problem is minor if the first can be rectified.

Opportunity: I'm not even looking for tenants, but I know of three fast-food franchises looking in the area. This site would be perfect, but only if the issue is solved. Offhand, I see three ways to fix it.

Opportunity #2

Old Home on Major thoroughfare: This one reminds me of my favorite deal, but bigger. It's an old home of about 3800 square feet with a view of the river. It has three floors, six fireplaces, a large paved lot, and an out-building of approximately 1200 additional square feet. It was built in 1909. Insulation was not a thing back then.

It screams out to be professional offices.

Opportunity #3

The picture above was taken during a street fair right in front of the restaurant I opened and sold. How the buyer managed to go under within 3 years starting from a thriving place is beyond me. The building is empty. 

I'm undecided about the best use-case for this property. It could be another restaurant. It could be more professional offices. That annual street fair could be a problem for office space, but the offices would carry a higher rent.

My Problem(s)

I was tempted to return to the development fold. In the old days, I would send out a fax blast (remember those?) to 14 people. That fax described the project. I would have it provisionally funded within a day.

All my investors have passed on save one. He thinks we're in 1980.

My database of expiring leases and chains looking for sites is twenty years out of date. On the plus side, modern tech can rebuild it in a fraction of the time the original took to build.

The trust company that provided all my take-out mortgages has been bought by another. Doesn't make much difference,  contacts there have all retired.

Very few people remain active. The network would need to be rebuilt from scratch, this time I won't have the wunderkind reputation opening doors for me. The idea does not fill me with dread. It doesn't rile me up like it once did either. 

Is that good or bad?

Still, the waste annoys me.

For most of my life, I attacked things that annoy me.

So what say you? Am I crazy? 

If so, am I crazy like a fox or like a loon?

I am decisive by nature. Rightly or wrongly, I act. I can always act again if I'm wrong. Yet, here I sit in the unaccustomed role of being indecisive. 

I'm hoping some discussion here can provide clarity.

Is crowd-funding a possibility? I confess that I'm not well-versed in the concept.

Thoughts?