Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast · Travis Sherry

EPOP Real Estate 004: A Tale of Two Projects (New York vs. Tennessee)

·34 min·2 clips

“Three months and three years” becomes the difference between the New York and Tennessee projects.

1. Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast shifts from travel to real estate with a focus on experiential hospitality and micro resorts. 2. The hosts frame Jonas as the guest on the “hot seat” because he is running two micro resort projects in the U.S. 3. The episode asks what happens when a development plan stalls in Tennessee but a similar model moves quickly in New York. 4. Jonas says he bought Tennessee cabins four or five years ago and added the latest cabin at the end of 2021. 5. The Tennessee property sits on 10 acres near the Smoky Mountains, including the Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, and Sevierville area. 6. Jonas says the land was bought with the idea that the cabin could at least break even while the acreage was developed later. 7. The first plan was a 12-unit glamping project with domes and tents, but the site conditions forced redesigns. 8. Surveys, perk tests, utilities, and septic placement changed the layout because the leach field took up too much usable land. 9. The plan eventually shrank from 12 units to seven units. 10. The final concept shifted from all-glamping to a mix of a high-end yurt, a high-end dome, and five permanent structures. 11. Jonas says the site plan approval took close to two years and still did not get permits in hand. 12. He says the original engineering estimate was a little over $21,000 and the current spend is about $64,000. 13. He says regulations changed for plan unit developments in the county while the septic design was being revised. 14. Jonas says the county now requires septic treatment so extensive that the project would need a mini waste treatment plant. 15. He estimates the Tennessee delay has cost more than half a million dollars and could reach roughly $1.5 million in lost revenue. 16. Jonas says the key lesson from Tennessee was that he tried to do too much himself without development or engineering expertise. 17. The hosts then contrast that with a Catskills property in upstate New York that Jonas found about six months earlier. 18. The New York property is an historic barn converted into a luxury B&B with nine bedrooms and eight and a half baths, and it sits in a county with no zoning commission. 19. Jonas describes the conversation as practical and lesson-driven, with an emphasis on underwriting conservatively, working with experts, and collapsing time. 20. Listeners interested in hospitality development and project management should get a lot from it, while people wanting light travel talk or a finished-building story may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Extra Pack of Peanuts Travel Podcast