Conference Call with Chris Scott Hanson
March 20, 2002 12:00-1:00

Present: John, Stephanie, Greg, Chris

1) Budgets
Chris has not yet done them. John reminded him of the 3 types of budgets that we're looking for. Chris said that he will get them out to us ASAP, but no later than next Tuesday the 26th.

2) Feasibility
-Feasibility begins once the Purchase and Sale (P&S) is signed.
-The project management contract with Cohousing Resources begins when the Purchase and Sale is signed.
-Chris' experience is that feasibility takes 60-90 days, and costs between $15-35,000. It all depends on how much testing we need and want to do.
-He does plan to look into the pesticides/toxins/chemicals that may be in the soil. Greg brought up several points about this testing and feels that we could do some preliminary research for MUCH less cost than $5-$20k. This would include simply finding out who the current farmers are and asking them what chemicals they've used during their farming. Greg thinks it is very likely that we'll find some contamination in the soil, and he can help the group understand what they mean and what levels are safe.
---Chris said that we could probably begin this initial soil research and testing on our own AFTER 3/31/02. He will ask the owner for the name of the current farming tenants so we can contact them. We need to stay away from the land until 3/31 because we don't want to give away our interest in the land until the contract is up.

3) Price
-Greg asked why the price isn't higher? Chris said that's a good question, but he believes that it is a combination of things: (1) the majority of the land is industrial and is land locked (no access to the road) and there really is no market for that much industrial land right now, (2) the part of the land that is usable as residential dwellings is small (10 single detached dwellings) so that isn't a big selling point, (3) the land owner isn't very savvy and probably doesn't know how to make this land worth more (i.e. 40b).

4) Land Owner
-Chris is somewhat concerned that he hasn't heard back from the landowner in about 3 weeks despite *numerous* attempts to reach him by phone, email, and letter. He doesn't really know what to make of this, but it could be that the owner has been out of town (as he is frequently), or has had a death in the family.
-Chris *does* think the owner is very serious about wanting to sell the property and knows that WE are serious about wanting to buy based on his long conversation with the owner a few weeks ago.
-One troubling point - after Chris spoke to the owner on the phone at length, he called back about 48hrs later without any memory of the previous conversation.
-Chris gave us the name of the company that the owner works for, and the name of another company mentioned by him, so that we can research and give Chris the company's contact information so Chris can try to reach him at work.

5) Chris' Schedule
4/2 arrives by plane at midnight
4/3 plans to meet with the landowner (not yet confirmed, but the owner said he is generally available on Tuesday and Wednesdays)
4/4 - 4/8 available to meet with us.
4/7 has very tentative plans with JP in the afternoon, but we said we'd really like for him to come to our general meeting that afternoon if he can. He said he'd make an effort to arrange his schedule in order to do so. We need to pick an alternate date to meet with him, however.
4/8 fly out

6) Misc
We talked with him a bit about the specifics of the streamlined development model and what that means in terms of our capital requirements. He thought it might be a good idea to have a sub-meeting with folks that need/want to review the development model with him while he is out here next. We agreed that that would be an excellent idea. Need to schedule this as well.

7) Conference Call
Wednesday 3/27 at 12:00 Eastern Time

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Last modified: March 20, 2002