Land Development
Our Land Development segment is primarily focused on developing the Sky Ranch Master Planned Community located along the booming I-70 corridor to provide residential, commercial, retail, and light industrial lots. Sky Ranch is zoned to include up to 3,200 single-family and multifamily homes, parks, open spaces, trails, recreational centers, and schools. Additionally, Sky Ranch is zoned to include over two million square feet of retail, commercial, and light industrial space, which is the equivalent of approximately 1,800 residential units, meaning the Sky Ranch community at build-out will include a total of roughly 5,000 residential and equivalent units. Our land development activities include the design, permitting, and construction of all the horizontal infrastructure, including, storm water, drainage, roads, curbs, sidewalks, parks, open space, trails, and other infrastructure to deliver “ready to build” finished lots to home builders and commercial customers. Our land development activities generate revenue from the sale of finished lots as well as construction revenues from activities where we construct infrastructure on behalf of others. Land development revenues come from our home builder customers under specific agreements for the delivery of finished lots. Additionally, pursuant to certain agreements with the Sky Ranch CAB and its related metropolitan districts, on their behalf we construct public infrastructure such as roads, curbs, storm water, drainage, sidewalks, parks, open space, trails etc., the costs of which are reimbursed to us by the Sky Ranch CAB through funds generated from property taxes, fees or the issuance of municipal bonds.
Our land development activities provide a strategic complement to our water and wastewater services because a significant component of any master planned community is providing high quality domestic water, irrigation water, and wastewater to the community. Having control over land and the water and wastewater services enables us to build infrastructure for potable water and irrigation distribution, wastewater and storm water collection, roads, parks, open spaces, and other investments efficiently and to manage delivery of these investments to match take-down commitments from our home builder customers without significant excess capacity in any of these investments.
We have been developing the Sky Ranch community since 2017. We are developing it in phases, which is anticipated to take approximately eight to ten more years until it is fully built out. In 2017, we began the initial development phase of Sky Ranch when we entered separate contracts with Richmond American Homes, Taylor Morrison, and KB Home, pursuant to which we sold a total of 505 single-family, detached residential lots at Sky Ranch. Pursuant to these agreements, we were obligated to construct infrastructure and other public improvements as well as wholesale infrastructure improvements (i.e., a wastewater reclamation facility and wholesale water facilities), all of which are complete as of February 28, 2023.
During our fiscal 2021, we began construction on the second development phase at Sky Ranch. For this phase, we entered into separate contracts with KB Home, Lennar Colorado, Melody (a DR Horton Company) and Challenger Homes to sell 804 single-family attached and detached residential lots at Sky Ranch, and we retained 46 lots for use in our single-family home rental segment. The second development phase will incorporate approximately 250 acres and is planned to be completed in four sub-phases (referred to as Phase 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D). Due to our strong performance in the first phase of the Sky Ranch project, we were able to realize an approximate 40% increase in our average lot prices. For example, we increased our sales price for a 50’ foot lot from $75,000 to $108,000 and added an escalation clause that increases the prices depending on timing of payments. The timing of cash flows includes certain milestone deliveries such as the completion of governmental approvals for final plats, installation of wet utilities, and final completion of lot deliveries.
In February 2021, we began construction on Phase 2A at Sky Ranch, which is platted for 229 residential lots. We have retained ten of these lots for use in our single-family rental business. As of February 28, 2023, we have received plats and substantially completed wet and dry utilities, roads, and sidewalks for Phase 2A, and are actively working on landscaping. Contracts with three of the four homebuilders include milestone payments as construction progresses, with the contract with the fourth homebuilder having one payment due at delivery of the finished lot (i.e. the transfer of the title). As of February 28, 2023, we have received all payments related to the sale of the 219 lots in Phase 2A which totaled $18.4 million. We recognize revenue earned under these contracts over time using the percentage of completion method to measure progress, which aligns the recognition of revenue with the requisite service period. During the three months ended February 28, 2023 and 2022, due to the construction progress, we recognized $1.4 million and $1.6 million of lot sale revenue related to construction at Sky Ranch. During the six months ended February 28, 2023 and 2022, due to the construction progress, we recognized $1.9 million and $4.3 million of lot sale revenue related to construction at Sky Ranch. Phase 1 of the Sky Ranch development is complete, and all revenue has been recognized. Phase 2A is approximately 87% complete, for which we have recognized $16.0 million of lot sales revenue since construction began on Phase 2A, with the remaining $2.4 million of revenue to be recognized over time as Phase 2A construction is completed. We expect the majority of this remaining revenue to be recognized before the end of our fiscal 2023.