The permit and environmental process can potentially be a nightmare. 

I am interested in creating a sustainable development of land in the North East of Brazil as an investment for myself, but also as a way of protecting these territories from aggressive other foreign companies who are coming in just wanting to turn a profit at any environmental and social cost.

They often sell good stuff to people like me that already knows them or other buyers and sell the scraps to newbies that do not know better and buy the dogs.At very least you need a good commercial retail attorney to do the lease.Biggest thing with industrial is possible environmental contamination and if per the lease they are on the hook for it.Basically there are tons of things to look out for and you need help.  

@William Yeh   Under non-recourse loans, the guarantor is not generally responsible for losses the lender incurs, unless they commit certain bad acts; such as fraud, waste, damage or destruction, misapplication, misrepresentation, bankruptcy, or environmental contamination. 

For environmental  concerns, it is recommended to get a phase 1 which in itself can run 1500 plus dollars to determine if the property has any environmental issues.

Then we would have a larger foot print and be able to build much more at a better cost.Here's my question, for any developers that may have experience with buying buildable lots with tree issues:Would we be shooting ourselves in the foot by removing the tree prior to trying to negotiate to purchase the next door property?  

(Fair disclaimer, we are a distributor for CWP, Wood Harbor, Wellborn, and Wolf cabinets)The advantage to a big, established player (like any of the above) come to things like -* Quality of finish (Paint in a controlled shop is way different than paint at some guy's uncontrolled shop)* Warranty* Quality control of doors and boxes* Quality of construction* Service and Logistics* Quality of hardwareWhen you're talking about local manufacturers, they're oftentimes not building in an environmentally controlled environment.

The only way to know for sure is to get the test kits or have a environmental specialist test it.

I also like the idea of digging out the area below the garage as it adds a lot of space to a colonial on a small footprint.

what is the footprint?