I just came from Lobo a few days ago, checking it out. The owner is very nice and very German, the land has plenty of electricity and now a working well + pump, but if you wanted to actually build anything here, it's going to be a massive amount of work. There are also lots of bees to avoid!
The biggest issue for me, other than the massive amount of work and capital required to build something here, is that you are RIGHT on the highway. It's not a freeway, but there is enough traffic on that Big Bend route to Marfa that every minute or two during the day, you'll have some truck hauling it at 75mph past you.
I think you could demo most of the land and turn it into some fun outdoor concert venue with food trucks and bathrooms, but you won't be able to draw more than 100-200 people max because you would have to eat up so much of the land for parking.
I really can't think of any killer use case for Lobo, which is unfortunate because it's actually quite gorgeous there. You can see the mountainous border with Mexico in the distance and I'm sure it's stunningly beautiful at night.
you could possibly build a star watching destination. I've been the McDonald observatory a few times and their star parties are very popular. Maybe something like an overnight thing with telescopes here or there for visitors to use. The teepee's in Terlinqua are done very well.
I would be surprised if there were any lights in Lobo at all. There would indeed be headlights every so often but it still gets ridiculously dark there. After around 9 pm traffic dies down to virtually nothing.
I remember reading about some Indian Indian guy building a motel on such a location, that does pretty well because it's on a spot that really required a motel. The rest of the space could probably be used for any extra income like you mentioned.
Aren't multi-story parkings a thing in Texas? They can massively increase the parking lot efficiency while costing relatively little (mostly steel and concrete for pillars and floors, almost zero walls).
Closeness to a highway could be beneficial for a factory, too.
Parking structures are very expensive to build. Concrete and steel are expensive and you need a lot of it to hold up the weight of all the vehicles (and the dynamic loads while they are driving around)
The biggest issue for me, other than the massive amount of work and capital required to build something here, is that you are RIGHT on the highway. It's not a freeway, but there is enough traffic on that Big Bend route to Marfa that every minute or two during the day, you'll have some truck hauling it at 75mph past you.
I think you could demo most of the land and turn it into some fun outdoor concert venue with food trucks and bathrooms, but you won't be able to draw more than 100-200 people max because you would have to eat up so much of the land for parking.
I really can't think of any killer use case for Lobo, which is unfortunate because it's actually quite gorgeous there. You can see the mountainous border with Mexico in the distance and I'm sure it's stunningly beautiful at night.