A member of Mayor Dave Bing’s administration last month said the city is close to selling 175 acres of residential land on the east side to entrepreneur John Hantz for $600,000. (A native of Romeo and a resident of Detroit for more than two decades, Hantz owns a financial advisory services company based in Southfield.)

If approved, Hantz Farms would plant more than 70,000 hardwood trees – with the hope that eventually it will be able to add and harvest other crops. Hantz believes urban farming is a high-technology play for the future, one that can help reverse decades of economic decline.

Are you still intent on opening a commercial farming operation in the city? Yes. I don’t have a lot of confidence how long the nuances can be debated. I’ve moved to a position where we start on something, to see it through so we can stabilize neighborhoods and beautify. I’m on to the world of doable. We changed plans to try and deal with objections

Do you think that the city’s stance on economic development is changing (in a way that’s more positive for entrepreneurs)?

We are seeing a shrinking population. Once we accept the reality of a population that is going to 700,000 from [1.8 million] than a solution begins to present itself. The next big idea is private property. We must pay attention to the lack of concern for private property. Nothing good can come from the lack of expansion of ownership of private property. The carrying cost of tax delinquent real estate is about the size of Detroit’s deficit. There’s a lack of understanding of how private property can stabilize the city. People will take care of property when they own it. We once had two million energized citizens cutting the grass. Now the city doesn’t have the means.

How do your neighbors react to the idea of a commercial urban farm?

The residents are very open-minded. They are the ones that give me hope. More than 95 percent of them want it. They understand. I don’t have all the answers, there will be more competition for ideas. (Agricultural expert) Rich Foster of Michigan State will bring some of those. China has 50 cities with more than a million people, they will have to grow vertical farms to feed their people. How many cities have the issue we have, too much land? By taking an abundant resource and exchanging it for a scarce resource, you create value. We have to redeploy this abundance, if we don’t we’ll become a city of 500,000. Cities compete, people can choose to live somewhere else.

As a specialist in finance, how long do you figure the nation will be stuck as it has been with minimal or no economic growth?

We’re in for another decade of this, no matter what happens in November. We’re committed as a nation to a soft landing (from the economic collapse of 2008-2009), so that will take a long time for debts to be resolved and credit restored to the point we can start growing again. We could do fast and furious, resolve things quicker, and we’d be back in business. Entrepreneurs listened to false signals the last time in the housing market and elsewhere. You have to let businesses fail. That’s how it would be shorter. For every loser there is a winner.

What should ordinary investors do in the current economic climate?

Spend time on the balance sheet and consider all options to pay down debt. People hear that mortgage rates have gone down to 3.7% and think that sounds cheap. It might not be so cheap. Most investors err by thinking too much about income. All this marketing convinces people to borrow money they shouldn’t borrow because they think they’ve got 20 years to pay back and that’s not so bad. Live within your means. Looking at your balance sheet forces you to defer gratification and pay cash.