How is land selling vs. new homes?

Remember that island called Manhattan that the Indians sold to Peter Minuit for $27?

I do my long weekend runs up into Winthrop because it's such a beautiful area.I have some friends in Rhode Island.

I am a mass investor looking to rhode island  for some potential investments .  

I am trying to buy my first investment property and am considering moving back to Rhode Island since real estate looks more affordable than FL.

Island Ave is the hot button road.

So my Wife and I have been throwing the idea around of selling our house and buying this 30 acres of farmland that has no improvements on it and build a Wedding/Event Venue on it with a 250-300 person capacity barn style and a 3-5 acre pond with a 10,000 sq ft island to do outdoor weddings on. 7 Acres of road frontage is currently zoned B1 for Business the rest is residential agriculture if i recall correctly none of it hinders us from doing what we are looking to do from what the county has said. 1 option was to build a home as well on it the and and do the barn to do weddings and the 2nd option was to just build the event venue and no home.

If you really must stay within the city limits, consider the Bronx or Staten Island? 

I've recently formed a new partnership in the Quad Cities (Moline, Rock Island, Davenport, Bettendorf) to begin investing in commercial real estate (primarily storage units and multi-family). 

Looking to househack in either Bettendorf (nice neighborhoods/appreciation) or Rock Island/Moline (for cashflow), but also want to hear all the other strategies people have had success implementing in the area as well!