Right now my initial concerns would be (aside from financial ones, which I'll outline below):What environmental concerns exist on the site?

In my opinion, preserving the water table is the single most important environmental responsibility we have to our species and all others, and if we screw that up, we deserve extinction. 

A local attorney who specializes in commercial might help.How do you know about title exceptions, ALTA level one survey, site inspection, phase one environmental,appraisal, service contracts, loan covenants,leases, property management agreement, estoppels & snda's, association dues, ccr's,etc.?? 

What environmental compliance issues exist?

What good is all the money you stole if 30 years from now the air is so polluted that you, your children, and grand children can't breath, or swim in the oceans etc?

If it is then your next step is to find a geo-tech engineering firm and an environmental engineering firm.

No municipal approval, no zoning regulations, no subdivision regulations, no environmental regulations......     

this is just an idea and if i lose interest in the animal shelter non-profit, i'd likely get into some other non-profit function anyways as since college, i've always been into environmental & humanitarian efforts (mostly overseas) one way or another.

This would actually be our first flip and we want to avoid environmental issues if we can. 

Because ethanol production requires a significant amount of energy, and most energy in the US is produced from coal, the small reduction in CO2 and other polluting emissions from burning ethanol versus gasoline will be more than offset by the power needed to produce the ethanol.