Sagewood Springs, a Nevada Limited Liability Company, is a western land development company formed in 1998. Sagewood Springs is a small town site with associated housing, farm and ranch. It is a member-owner-resident planned community of 320 acres. It will provide housing, employment, food, community and social services for over 300 people in a rustic western town and farm setting, but with modern technology and techniques.
Although the town will appear as an old fashioned western town, it will function quite differently. The new legal structure provided by LLC's enables townfolks to be owner members of their businesses, homes and farms instead of leasee renter employees. The LLC structure will make possible the utilization of skilled teams of professionals who will be highly motivated to accomplish the goals of the community and company.
This new way of doing business will solve many of the significant problems of current business systems, such as low occupancy, disorganized work force, separation of work,home, food, family, and many social ills of regular communities. The land and buildings will be fully utilized in an organized and sustainable fashion. Full employment, proper population density, friendly people working together to build a better life for each other, along with environmentally friendly designs and systems now available, will solve many of the problems now faced by many communities today.
There exists a tremendous need for more fullfilling lifestyles, for more integrated system of working and living together. The many new technologies and materials make building and operating a planned community an exciting leap forward into the 21st Century.
Sagewood Springs will be a fresh start-up project, although similar projects could utilize many existing small towns, it is usually easier to organize and build it from scratch. The LLC structure can prevent encroachment from outside companies and protect member businesses. It can also expand by replication to nearby sites once the plan has reached maturity. Large scale networking will be possible among these towns in the future.
The Sagewood Springs main office is in Las Vegas, NV, another is near Palm Springs, CA, and an office in Sagewood Springs once it is built. Las Vegas is centrally located in the western USA and the most rapidly developing community in the USA. It's a great place to do business and base new projects.
Many people are moving out west from several directions. These people are looking to become a part of traditional western style communities, but in actuality, they are few and far between. This has forced most to live in dense urban communities like Las Vegas or Los Angeles etc. Once this new opportunity was funded it would be filled rapidly. And bysetting a new exciting example of how to develop the west, many similar developments will spring up. The pioneering spirit is alive and well and this pioneering project is an... "Idea whose time has come".
There are tens of thousands of potential members and no competition exists with this new legal structure. Many large tracts are available and its just a matter of selecting thebest place to start, taking into consideration location, water, soil, utilities and price. Its affordability for members will be better than existing developments and businesses. The security of the investment is not only good for financiers but also for members.
Sagewood Springs will be managed by the LLC Organizing Staff until the members votein the town managers. A team of 10 to 20 managers can handle all the corporate, land, financial, and community projects. Each person running for election will be able to present their qualifications to the members to decide. If no one is qualified, additional qualified members will be recruited for vacant positions.
Sagwood Springs can be built in less than three years by the members. The first milestone will be acquiring the property, which should take less than six months. The second milestone will be plan approval which can take six months. The third milestone will be the groundbreaking on Main St. Buildings and other life support systems, such as farm and utilities. Homes will be built along with other development but will take somewhat longer to finish. Meanwhile townfolks will live in non permanent housing such as mobile homes etc.
Sagewood Springs will require at least one million dollars. This will fund land aquisition, consrtuction financing, land reclamation, utilities, business and farm start up costs. Refinancing of construction loans into regular mortgages once construction is completed will lessen monthy payments greatly. The first crops and business incomes will come later in first year.
Some seed funding is needed to complete plan designs, land search, recruitment of members and regular office expenses. Sagewood will need some initial operating capital, beyond just construction financing, for business, farm and community projects.
Total financing for this type of project can include both debt and equity financing. All equity shares will have a buyback option to maintain LLC member ownership. Debt repayment should not present any unusual difficulties since this is a standard project except for the LLC aspect.
The initial financial partner will recieve a good interest rate on any debt financing and will also recieve additional returns from appreciation of their equity share. The construction loans will be refinanced and paid off after completion of the projects. The equity returns will accrue until the option is exercised by the members in five years.
Sagewood Springs has been in development for ten years off and on. It was originally planned to be a tourist attraction type venture, then redesigned to be a regular town development, then as an experimental town, but has since been redesigned to be a fully integrated LLC community, and not just a business strip or Disneyland.
The long term objectives are to develop this new system fully and to replicate it far and wide. It can easily be adapted to many similar arid regions, and LLC's are available in over 60 countires now. Our hope is that it will solve many community problems and set an excellent example of how to create a sustainable prosperous community using the best of the old and new.
Sagewood Springs will have excellent management, which will be reviewed and voted on regularly. It will also have all skilled personnel which can also support children and elders in a traditional fashion. Sagewood is a unique opportunity to create a very healthy lifestyle and a prosperous community. No need for a non profit experimental project since so much experimental work has been done recently. And regular corporate structure is still struggling with employee problems, product quality, shareholder demands, healthy work environment and sustainability. The LLC structure can manage and reduced significantly all these problems because members have real democratic control and a real stake in their careers, homes, farm, family and future.
There are new ways to build business, housing and communities in a coordinated and profit generating way. Overhead is kept to a minimum by close organization and teamwork that cuts down on outsourcing for many things. It is self contained and supportive which gives much added sucurity and confidence that things will get done right. The town will be able to provice great personal service due to small size and friendly town atmosphere. Quality will be very high due to expert trades and crafts people who care about their work. Overall performance will be much higher than comparable disorganized towns or individual business ventures.
The main limitation on this type of development is the usual start up capitalization problem. If fully funded by members, only well off members can join. With some financial assistance to get started, members can be drawn from a much wider range of incomes and a "Country Club" type community can be avoided. With this population level, all mangement positions should be continously filled. As overall skill levels and familiarity with the operations become spread throughout the town, qualifications and skills of members will increase greatly. Other limitations include general environmental constraints, nearby competition from regular urban businesses, depletion of non renewable site resources such as minerals and groundwater. Hopefully attrition of members will be more from moving on to form new similar towns, rather than from giving up and moving back to the city. The LLC has provisions for adding & changing members.
The long range growth and expansion objectives are to develop many such towns, to reorganize existing towns, to share these techniques with others, and to help fully develop ten thousand communities worldwide within 20 years. This level of development is definately needed worldwide and will provide an important alternative to existing developments. We believe that someday we will look back and ask, "Why didn't we get together and do this sooner?"