Our Vision

Our vision is to develop an intentional community of stakeholder/residents that would work based on the design principals of permaculture, the philosophies of Blue Zones and the tools of Open Source Ecology. It goes without saying that should we decide to partner together, your input is equally important, but you should at least have a good idea what our plans are.

Vision for the land

We see the property being divided into various distinct, but overlapping zones

Owner/Investor Residential Zones
Eco-Tourist/ WWOOFer/ Fixed Income Retiree Residential Zone
Community & Commercial Zone
Agricultural / Manufacturing Zone

Development of the property would follow in a similar pattern of inclusiveness, and in harmony of the principals agreed to. Assuming the property is purchased by the end of 2017, our intention is to visit the property 3-4 times per year for the next two years to observe and plan and to not begin construction of our hacienda-on-the-hill in earnest until 2018, or later.

Residential Zones

The Owner Residential zones would be located on the premium location of the property. The Eco-Tourist/Time Share/ Rental Residential Zone would represent short to seasonal-term housing of various levels of quality. These units would be clustered by group and range in amenities depending upon the intended occupancy use. Accommodations and amenities for WWOOFers would be more Spartan and closest to the agricultural zone; fixed income semi-permanent or permanent retirees would require the most comfortable accommodations, and eco-tourism accommodations falling somewhere in between. We feel that targeting fixed income retirees offers a steadier stream of income than unpredictable seasonal tourism.

Community & Commercial Zone

This zone would be a site selected that is convenient to the water and would consist of a large cabana with a long bar, wood fired brick oven, a smoker, a grill and kitchen. The cabana would be large enough to accommodate a pool table, or shuffleboard, and enough open space still available for the community and neighbors to gather for yoga classes, dances, etc. The kitchen/bar area would be of sufficient size to function as a neighborhood watering hole, perhaps opened once or twice per week, but its primary function would be to serve the residents and guests, with local expats coming by regularly to pick up products manufactured or services provided on the island and to perhaps and to the lower two owner residential zones enjoy a micro-brewed beer and artisanal pizza.

Agricultural/Manufacturing Zone

This zone would be the largest zone by area where crops are grown and animals are raised and slaughtered. In addition to producing local fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry, we are intending to age and cure meats, make cheeses and prepared foods, microbrew beer and small batch rum for purchase by the expat community. The manufacturing zone will be where the tools of the Global Village Construction Set will be developed and put to use. The first imperative of this zone is to provide for the needs of the community, and to develop perennial crops with longer maturities which provide a constant yield with fewer inputs.

We look forward to the prospect of partnering with you, and should we find that there is a real potential in forming a partnership, we are quite prepared to meet both on line and in person to make sure such an arrangement is a good fit for all concerned.

Ownership

Our view as to how the property is owned and the percentage of ownership is quite flexible, and must be done in such a way to be inclusive of all stakeholders concerns and aspirations for the property, so long as such divisions and aspirations occur in compliance with and support of the principals and philosophies previously described. If your only interest as a partial owner is to simply retire, relax in your home and to simply be left alone, using your portion as you see fit, this is perfectly acceptable, so long as your uses do not come into conflict with ours (i.e. using pesticides, generating pollution, etc.). We have no intention of zealously enforcing these philosophies as dogma, but if this is something you are not comfortable with, we should meet to discuss it further.

The property is to be held as a corporation with 10,000 shares. The initial share price shall be set by the board, but based on the value of the land and capital owned by the corporation, reassessed annually by the board as the land is improved. Individual parcels of land, dwellings, etc shall be granted exclusive use and possession of parts of the entire property, and shared use of all common areas, rather than incorporating parcels separately to avoid an unnecessary tax burden.

For example. Assume land is purchased for $200,000 and that two equally vested founders have also contributed $120,000 of initial construction. Each share therefore is worth $32. If after year one, first phase of improvements to the land are done and the equity improvements are assessed at $80,000 and two additional investors join at $60,000 and $40,000 respectively. The value of the stock is now $50/share and the two new investors are owners of 1,200 and 800 shares respectively, with the shares being redistributed by percentages among all of the owners, with the founders owning 40% each and the other partners owning 12% and 8%. The intent of the board is to get the share price to a minimum of $100-$150/share and corresponding to the price per square foot of private living space. So that an investor wanting a unit of 400 square feet would own 400 shares at an investment of $40-60,000. The number of shares owned determines the investors share of profits, votes etc, but the goal would be to have a community of investor/owners each with a relatively equal stake in the property. It should be noted that even though the intent is to increase the share price, the goal is not to make investors richer, but to enrich the community, with each owner having a smaller slice of an ever increasing pie. If you are familiar with cooperatives, then you’ll understand the approach.

Sounds great, but what if I don’t have capital to invest?

Even if you don’t have cash to invest now, or are still a few years out from making this sort of move, you may have certain skills or passions that would be of great use to our endeavor. Are you an architect? Structural/mechanical/electrical engineer? Chemist? Biologist? Doctor? Nurse? Veterinarian? Carpenter? Mason? Plumber? Electrician? Have some particular set of skills you’ve acquired over a very long career?

If, so, reach out and introduce yourself