With feet-thick concrete walls and miles of concrete platforms, it's tough to justify expending energy without an end result in mind. But who knows, maybe someone could use a half-mile-long concrete runway, Astill jokes.

The project will also require some clever engineering as developers try to figure out how to install infrastructure like sewer, water and gas lines without digging through deep foundations.

"If you buy farm land, it's difficult to extend new utilities," Astill said. "Taking on a project like Geneva is 10 times (harder than) that. It's worse than starting from scratch. You're starting from negative."

It's slow work and Astill said he knows people wonder why it seems that nothing is happening.

"We haven't tried to be out with a big market campaign," he said. "We still have a lot of work to do. This is a great development project; it's just got some environmental challenges."

---

E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com