Small town pop. up but no room to build - what can I do?

[Steven J.]

I'm working with a small town in MN with a population of 500. They are 40 minutes from the nearest nice sized city and landlocked by farm land all around. They have recently purchase the 12 lot mobile home park and I've met with them to discuss purchasing those mobile homes and they are on board. Step 1 is done.

Because the population is growing but the city isn't affordable housing for families has become a hot topic. In the long run (5-10 years out) they plan to convert the park into SFH, Duplexes, or an apartment building. I'd love to figure out how to help them with this type of thing but I know nothing of where or how to start.

The main option I see is call up my syndication buddies, who focus on hotels in smaller towns, and see if they might bite. Perhaps they can help facilitate the money raising, a developer figure out the lot divisions, and another builder to start converting some of the older buildings, the soon to be abandoned school, into housing.

What other suggestions are out there? How can I propose this as a legitimate idea to others and get them interested? Or is this just way too over my head?

I look forward to hearing the responses!