Unique Real Estate Project in Tennessee with 8% Yield

This week’s deal is a real estate development project in Tennessee. It’s being done by a number of favorites of mine from Twitter (who’ve become real-world friends, too). If you’re with me on Twitter, you likely know Craig Fuller (founder of FreightWaves and recent owner of Flying Magazine) and Preston Holland (of Flying Media).

They are developing a 1,500 acre bit of heaven in eastern Tennessee into a mecca for the aviation community.

It’ll be a fly-in outdoor adventure resort and residential community with 800 homes, 15 rental hangars, and 180 vacation homes.

What I like about this deal is the unfair advantage the GPs get from their ownership of the Flying Magazine/Media brand. I imagine lots of events being held here and relatively cheap customer acquisition since they have this brand under control.

Also important is that the GPs are contributing nearly a 1/3rd of the equity on the deal ($8.7mm) and perhaps more. So, real skin in the game.

Fly-in real estate development is actually very interesting. You get a wealthy clientele brought together by their passion for flying. Your customer base is basically the radius of people within a few hours flying time in their private planes.

They’ve included some comparables on similar developments I found interesting.

Questions I would dig into are around the broader trends. With Boomers aging, will Gen X be stepping up into the flying hobby? What about the Millennials?

This may be answered by the big ideas they have beyond the aviation community. The GPs hope to make the entire property attractive for non-flyers as well as a luxury destination.

They have a nice financial model and presentation worth taking a gander. This is also an Opportunity Zone deal so nice for parking cap gains if you have them.

If you’re interested in hearing more, feel free to reach out directly.

Email jon@flythefields.com or go to flythefields.com.

Happy hunting!

Michael