Taking property or a home in lieu of cash payment, for $1K?

[Garen T.]

I've been doing property development for a few years and I've rolled each project into the next. I've never taken much  income out of the project. This next year that needs to end and I plan to start receiving something back. 
The following numbers are fake numbers, but I'm trying explain my situation. Put an extra few zero's and you'll get what I trying to do. 

My original investment: $4K
Total that I'll get back next year: $20K
So, I'd have to pay income on the $16K at regular income. I'd like not to do that. 

If instead of $16K, I take ownership of buildable lots. Lets say the lots are worth $4K each, but the properties transfer to me with a very minimal value. I hold the 4 lots for a year and day, sell them for $4K and pay the long term gain instead of short-term gain. 

I would end up with 4 lots sold in a year that I'd get 16K out of. If I went ahead and built on them, I could stretch this out even further and 1031 them until I'm ready to pay taxes. I'm not trying to get out of taxes (except the short-term ones). 

Is that ok to do?