The bareness of vacant land lends itself to both creative and profitable business opportunities. As long as your plans comply with local zoning laws and regulations, your income-generating ideas are only limited by your imagination.
If you’re sitting on vacant land or planning to invest in a few parcels of unimproved land, here are a few ways to monetize your investment.
Strike up easement deals
Sometimes, all a property needs to promise is the ease of access. A nondescript-looking piece of land may appear to be a waste of investment but its value increases greatly if it cuts a quick path to somewhere else. You can grant it to surrounding properties and lease the right to pass through your land. The land will turn a profit while requiring the least amount of effort (path maintenance) from you.
Convert it to a self-storage facility
If you own several acres of land in a commercial district and there’s a lack of storage solutions, you stand to make a lot of money in building and operating a self-storage facility. The construction phase will require significant labor and capital but the benefits of this booming industry—great income potential, low overhead, minimal management, and recession resistance—are hard to pass up.
Set up a parking lot
A parking lot is another recession-resistant venture for vacant land owners, especially if the lot is located near areas of high and regular traffic—popular attractions, office buildings, and large concert venues, for instance. It’s a nearly no-maintenance source of steady income. Plus, at its most barebones, it is just a collection of neat white lines on bare asphalt.
Build a tiny house or village for rent
Because these occupy less space and are also more affordable to build than regular houses, tiny houses allow you to tap into residential rental income on lots too small for anything else. Tiny houses built in urban areas like the St. Louis Metro offer an ideal commercial space for rent in St. Louis for vacationers or working professionals with highly nomadic lifestyles.
Turn it into a warehouse
Because of e-commerce’s rise, the warehouse industry is expanding in new ways. Fulfillment centers—warehouses that offer direct-to-customer service, as well as store goods— are in high demand. An owner of vacant land in St. Louis spanning at least three acres can lease it to a developer who can turn the area into warehouse space for rent and make a good profit. Since the cost and labor are shouldered by the developer, you participate in the profit without shelling outa significant amount of capital.
Wait it out
For investors who prefer a hands-off approach to property investment, nothing matches the two-step strategy of snatching up a parcel then forgetting about it. With only market developments to worry about and no money bleeding out, you only need to practice patience. When property values increase, that will be the time to sell your property at a profit.
Do you have vacant land that you want to offer for warehouse rentals in St. Louis? Explore the project’s viability with the Cardinal Realty Group. We’re a trusted and established local leader in commercial real estate with over 35 years of experience. Call 636.225.0385 or send an email at Hal(at)CardinalRealtyGroup(dotted)com.
