Have you ever seen the rain?

I never had the clearest of ideas how Rick S. ought to be involved in this initiative but being associated with someone of his reputation and intellectual horsepower seemed like a good idea. For his part, Rick S. seemed happy to meet every 10 days or so and be brought up to speed while he mulled his options. He was, after all a real estate developer and this was a real estate oriented endeavor. My long time partner, Mark - who had by now gotten on board this train was consistently wary of Rick S. as he wasn't sure enough of his motives to suit him. I suppose down deep, I was still resisting the notion of going out on our own without the financial backing of some institution or at least and institutionally sized individual. I had enough cash to keep body and soul together for 6 months, I estimated and I had not, as of yet committed myself financially to this wholeheartedly. The cold hard truth was, it was approaching Thanksgiving, we'd been at it virtually full time for 60 days now and I still couldn't see how I or any of the rest of us was going to get paid.

Dallas , Mark and I were meeting at least once a week at a Starbucks on Lake Lanier, as that was roughly central for each of us. When I met Dallas, he was considering buying a 100 stall barn in Acworth, Georgia due north of Atlanta. Part of my first impressions were formed in the enormity of a barn that size. having little frame of reference in the equestrian world, I'll just say that one could easily park a 747 Jumbo jet in it! Well, as that purchase had fallen through and Chuck's admonishment to look for a failed subdivision instead of a farm, we began to ponder our land options toward the lake and closer to Atlanta's equestrian heart, an area call Birmingham Highway, in Alpharetta. In another of what seemed like Providential intrusions, one day I was wandering back from our Starbucks, looking for a scenic route back to town and I stumbled onto Birmingham Highway. As I had time on my hands, I drove north until I came to The Canton Highway (Ga. 20) and randomly turned toward home. In just a minute or two I came over a hill and there stood "Belmont Downs." Truth is stranger than fiction.

4 years ago, I was with a bank client who was trying to market a development called Belmont Downs. I remember it because my hometown was Belmont, NC. Here it was right in front of me and it was beautiful. There was about 2000 feet of frontage on Canton Highway that was lined with 4 rail, black creosote fencing, just like the modern farms in Kentucky are fenced. behind the fence was 30 acres of bluegrass and then a sweep of pine trees that ran over the hill and out of sight. The gate of the now derelict subdivision was locked but a faded sign had the developers name and phone number. Believing that I might just have found, or been pushed toward the exact site we needed, I called the number and got the developer, Tim Rice on the phone and made an appointment for Dallas, mark and me to see the property.

Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm,
I know, Its been comin' for sometime
When its over, so they say, it'll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin' down like a water

And I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain - John Fogerty of CCR

A Step In A New Direction

In continuing with my new opportunity...

Dallas grew up on an 18,000 acres ranch in West Texas. His family was in the horse transportation business though he seemed to be some kind of self styled entrepreneur. He was well bred and spoke of much business experience but drove an old Ford Explorer, lived up stairs in a barn and had none of the trappings of success. It was really hard to tell if he was real but he was so earnest and nice that I trusted him effortlessly. He wanted to build an Olympic quality barn, stable and breeding facility for $1 million dollar horses but claimed that he needed help pulling it all off. He spoke of legions of possible investors that flocked around the posh equestrian facilities that his family managed in Palm Beach and in Del Mar, California. It all sounded interesting even though he offered no concrete plan to actually get it all done. I supposed that was why he needed me. For my part, I have lots of second hand experience managing relationships involving successful people and their ventures. I could do research as well as anyone and arguably the most important thing; I believed in myself. I was hoping that there might be just enough meat on this bone to build an enterprise around. I was willing to give it a shot, not even fully knowing what I was getting into.

A professional associate suggested to me the I talk with Chuck, a well known land broker to discuss properties that might be for sale, as a first start. With only a little trouble I found the guy and pressed him firmly enough to get an appointment. Providence seemed at work as this turned out to be one of the most important associations of this effort. Chuck and I met at Starbucks in Atlanta early one morning and talked about what it was that we were going to try to do. That being buy an existing horse farm and manage it to a much higher level. My new friend, Chuck was unconvinced that we could make the math of such a venture work but he liked my description of Dallas so he agreed to take a meeting. The 3 of us met a week later and spent several hours talking about horse farms, land availability and other options. Chuck, a disciple of Eastern medicine - so much so that he and some partners of his just leased a farm in China offered us advice that not only sounded plausible, it sounded like the basis of a business. He suggested that we not buy a farm but a "broken subdivision." Find land," he said, "that is zoned and platted for many homes that can't be developed due to the ever worsening economy and crashing home building market. He then said, "put a conservation easement on the property, secure, then sell the tax credits that Georgia allows for such conservation and we might have enough money to capitalize our efforts." I believe, and this seems especially important to note, that I understood immediately the full sweep of the possibilities and went to work enthusiastically exploring the concept with as many of my professional associations (numerous from my banking life) as I could get appointments with.