[ldd-]

It's relatively common practice - buy RE as a speculative investment and hold hoping that it will grow in value as an area develops.

In the meantime, it would be great to have the property throw off some free cash flow, so developers build businesses on the property that involve highly generic structures that are easy to build (low investment) and easy to demolish - otherwise, the cost of demolition for any prospective buyer will reduce the value they are willing to pay for the land.

Common businesses for this purpose are parking lots/garages and storage. When you see those, it's pretty safe to assume the owner is trying to maintain as much option value as possible in the property.

Once you build a specialized structure, you lose option value on the property.