Castle Land AI

Castle Land AI

AI to Rezone Land Faster

Bill Hartman

FOUNDER, CEO

Founder and CEO

Creator of AI + NFX to disrupt the land market. Pioneered algorithms for application of AI to land development.

Focusing on digital transformation in the land market via AI, big data, cloud computing, and the internet of things.

We are integrating artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, mass-personalization, and network effects to this 4 billion year old asset class. Disruptive Innovation … from the ground up.

Investor

Private Land Investment

2004 – Present 

Incline Village, Nevada

Acreage land – supervise all aspects from initial identification, seller negotiations, through rezoning and entitlement, to finding a buyer and closing the sale. Assembled teams of specialists for rezoning, special use permits, development entitlements, regulatory and environmental constraints, soil science, road engineering, archaeological / wildlife / vegetation studies, architects, appraisers, topography, surveys, hydrology studies, digital mapping, and more.

Why Land?

The backstory: A free house … from rezoning land

When I read that our county was going to adopt a new development plan, we understood that it would be more restrictive — so property owners should apply for any changes before the new plan took effect.  My wife and I had a one acre plot with a house on one end. We wanted to split the acre into two half acres, and hold the second lot with the long-term goal of building a guest house for our kids to use when visiting.
  • Without knowing anything about the process, I asked at the county offices. We were surprised to learn we could actually split the property into three 1/3-acre lots. So we paid for a soil test, a survey, and an application fee (total under $2,000) – and in about six months the one acre was officially three 1/3 acres.
  • Then, a developer approached us and offered to buy the lot farthest from our house. The price he paid for one 1/3-acre lot was about the same price we had paid for the entire property a few years earlier – and we kept the house and two other lots.
  • Essentially, we got our house on its lot, and the middle lot, … for free!
  • Candidly, this wasn’t because I was smart, clever, or experienced. A “free house” was not our plan– we literally backed into it. This only happened because there can be a huge value jump when rezoning land.

 

ROI and IRR
The return on investment and internal rate of return of that rezone was amazing. Since then I’ve been developing a method to automate the various stages of land rezoning into a business. Importantly, we built it around the classic Black-Scholes option pricing model, designed to minimize risk. We also repurposed Planck’s Constant and harnassed Ricardo’s Law. This is what led to Castle Land AI. Along the way, I got involved in a variety of projects as an investor from the land side, including:
  • Used 160 year old subdivision map to demonstrate legacy entitlements. In turn created a new residential building lot, valued at $100,000 … for only $ 42 in filing fees.
  • Tribal land:  generated plans for a 200 unit subdivision. Of note,  tribal land is considered sovereign territory. As such, it is not subject to U.S. county zoning regulations — this can save months or even years of time. Liaised with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  • Created plans for a 120 unit subdivision using embedded development rights.
  • Led a team for an acreage hotel/casino/resort makeover and rebranding.
  • Preliminary work on a 7 acre government center. Often, land for official government use is not subject to the normal regulatory guidelines.
  • BLM land exchange — financial analysis for a potential acreage exchange.
  • Project manager for office building in 40 acre town center development that included hotel, apartments,  condos, and parking structure. This was on historical land with unique legacy issues.
  • Conservation easement – financial ROI analysis if tax benefits were clawed back in exchange for significant development rights
  • Land reclamation project in the Sacramento River delta

 

Founder and Chief Guru

Guru Books, Ltd.

1991 – 2015

Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland and Incline Village, Nevada

Sold over 10 million books, with over 1,000 titles in six languages. Initiated sales with many Fortune 500 companies including Pepsi, Lays, Pfizer, Sprint, McDonalds, CBS, Hallmark, Valero, etc. Created and sold Yahoo! Guru book to launch Yahoo! on mobile phones. Created a book program for the Texas Open PGA golf tournament.

Our team pioneered downloadable books, mass-personalizable books and books distributed over phones. One book was downloaded over 240,000 times in three days — a record. We even created a SAAS model … in 1999.

Authored dozens of books.

Highlights include:

We developed a ski instruction guide with Franz Klammer, the Olympic downhill champion .

Multiple awards in print, phone content, and customer service. For example, Alberto-Culver used a Guru Book giveaway with its client Dollar-General… and won DG’s Vendor of the Year for the campaign.

One of the most interesting projects involved a behind-the-scenes look at McDonald’s and how it innovates automation whenever possible, in order to improve service to some 30 million customers per day in the U.S.  This focus has had a direct impact when we strive to automate and expedite every step in the land rezoning process.

Ran sales trade show exhibitions in London, Frankfurt, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

 

Launch Manager

New national radio station founded by Riverdance creators Moya Doherty and John McColgan. Investors and board members included Irish entertainment and media industry leaders. Moya and John are inspirational entrepreneurs, having turned their halftime show for the Eurovision song contest into a Broadway smash hit and then a global touring phenomenon seen by over 25 million people. The role involved working with board members as well. This was also fascinating as it was based in downtown Dublin, during the “Celtic Tiger” growth period in Ireland.

Lead various aspects of launching this station from scratch. Included real estate search, site inspections, specs for radio studio fit-out, and national network distribution.

 

Project Manager

Radio Kerry

1992 -1996  

Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland

Leading radio station launched by Jacobs Award-winning producer Dan Collins. Create new projects in an expansion drive. The station won many prestigious honors for its quality programming. This was an especially interesting position working directly with the Board of Directors who were all investors in the company and business leaders in the area. As such it was immersion training in Irish business practices.

 

terrific opportunity to learn the business side of the European film and TV industry. Coming from a small country like Switzerland, Condor’s president Peter-Christian Fueter typically had to initiate and secure co-production partners in France, Germany, UK, Italy, etc. in order to package and produce a project. A wonderful chance to learn from a real pro, assembling projects with partners from multiple cultures speaking a variety of languages. Attend film and TV sales trade shows in Cannes, Milan, and London. Create business development opportunities with U.S. and international distributors. Film credits include:

  • Academy Award, Journey of Hope, Best Foreign Language Film, Co-Producer
  • Tennessee Nights, starring Johnny Cash, Julian Sands, Stacey Dash, Co-Producer
  • Quicker than the Eye, starring Ben Gazzara and Mary Crosby, Associate Producer

 

And, special projects such as:

  • Dallas Cowboys football team members in Los Angeles promotion
  • Houston Lighting and Power (now Texas Genco), becoming the in-house expert on Texas lignite …!

 

Paramount Pictures

Production management role, liaison between independent production companies and Paramount studios. Problem solver to help show producers and directors.  This included various TV series and special projects. One highlight was meeting Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and doing initial work on Star Trek – The Next Generation.

 

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

B.S. Business, Highest Honors, Marketing

Capstone project: “National Cinema Chains Rollout of Multiplexes Disrupt Traditional Single Screen Movie Houses”

 

UCLA Anderson School of Management

Capstone project: “Launching a Foreign Language Film Division in the U.S. Marketplace,” for Columbia Pictures

“Financial Model for a New Network Television Series,” for Paramount Pictures

 

Referrals

“He’s the reason their movie is going to win.”

Gregory Peck, Best Actor Academy Award-winner for “To Kill A Mockingbird” (as public defender Atticus Finch), and Head of the Foreign Language Committee, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Referring to Hartman’s marketing effort to create awareness and reach out to all voting members to engage them about the film “Journey of Hope.”

 

“Bill Hartman is the only guy who calls me in my office at 7am — and I’m in New York, and Bill is in Los Angeles!”

Ian Horowitz, President, Viacom International

info@castleland.ai

©2025 Castle Land AI. All rights reserved.