Geek Ranch Progress Report

I have been getting some questions recently so I decided it was time for an update. For those who don't know what a Geek Ranch is, there are other posts in this forum about it but basically it is an eco-tourism facility in the Tisey reserve. The Geek part comes from offering low-cost, full-service, long-term rentals for computer geeks, book authors and anyone else who just wants to "drop out" for a while.

First, the road work is progressing well. I posted a photo about that. The good news is that this also means we know how to buy lots of cement, lots of sand, use a cement mixer and manage a crew of about 20 locals. That in itself has been a good educational experience.

Our "on-site manager" for lack of a better title, Lester, has worked out well. He, like Gixia and I, is goal oriented. Without him, we would be on site full-time and not getting any of the other work done that is needed.

We have had FIDER approval for the project for some time but getting that just meant we then got to go to MARENA. Well, the paperwork is finally in process with them. The delays were, well, with them not us.

We have the Bill of Materials for the main building (five hotel rooms, big restaurant and conference center) plus the utility building (for generator, water pump, ...). We are in the process of getting bids on the materials. The airframes for the dome buildings are on the way as is the 30KW backup generator. Also, a big order of tools, equipment and strange supplies is being assembled in Miami for shipment to Nicaragua in the next few weeks.

On the "problem list" is electricity. It can be done but continues to be a moving target. As construction doesn't depend on it, we are not particularly worried. It will be there before we are open.

The actual facility (hotel, geek cabanas, coffee farm, horse rental, experimental farm, mushroom "factory", ...) will probably use 10-20 manzanas of the 153 manzana property. Our plan has been to have permanent residents as well. This is the one part that gets asked about most often and two recent questions is really what promoted this post.

First, because of the reserve status of the property, we are 99% sure we will not actually sell off any land. Even if this was practical for us, the purchaser would then have to go through the FIDER/MARENA hoop-jumping before they could so much as cut down one tree or put in a latrine. So, we have included the idea of these permanent residents in our plan.

What that means is that we would lease (probably a 99% lease) the land to people who wanted to become a permanent resident. There would be guidelines as there are guidelines dictated to us from FIDER and MARENA. These leases would be limited to about 10 people. (Note that we already have one leasee at this point.)

The terms or, put another way, how it works? We don't know yet. We are still dealing with the legal picture to see what makes sense on a number of levels. My guess, based on what I know today, is that there would be three pieces:

1. An investment (for company stock)
2. A yearly lease fee
3. Possible return on the investment

You could pay your lease with either stock (decreasing the value of your investment) or cash each year. You could base your decision on your own circumstances plus what the possible future value of the investment and return on the investment might be.

I hope this isn't sounding too complicated. My goal is to make this as simple as possible while offering flexibility for those interested. Once we get all the permits, all the infrastructure done and construction underway we will take the time to toss the ideas around a bit more and see what seems like it will work.