At a glance
A 60-site Illinois campground is a seven-figure land-and-infrastructure project
For a canonical independent, owner-operated, single-location 60-site RV park and campground in Illinois, this statewide planning model puts Typical cash required before opening at about $1.33 million before financing, with a Lean scope near $898,000 and a Premium scope near $2.04 million. At 55% seasonal occupancy, the Base case earns about $34,400 per month on a 12-month average, or $413,000 annually, and generates about $114,000 of working-owner pre-tax business cash benefit. A passive-owner view that pays market replacement labor for the owner role falls to roughly $49,000 of normalized cash operating profit before D&A. Sustainable break-even is about 46.1% occupancy, modeled working-owner unlevered payback is about 14.5 years, and a Typical launch takes roughly 9 – 15 months. The biggest caveat is development cost: land readiness, water, sewage, power, drainage and local land-use approvals are parcel-specific, so the hard-cost allowances below require local engineering and contractor quotes.
The legal framework is unusually important here. Illinois requires annual campground licensing and inspection through the Illinois Department of Public Health campground program unless the site is in a home-rule unit outside the state program. New construction or a major extension needs a state construction permit, and the Illinois Recreational Area Code requires applicable local health, zoning and other approvals before that state construction permit is issued. In practice, land-use feasibility and utility design belong ahead of irreversible land spending.
Model convention The primary model is all-equity and pre-tax so development economics are not disguised by hypothetical financing. Founder cash required therefore equals total project cost. The LLC is treated as a pass-through/disregarded entity for planning; owner draws and personal income tax are not operating expenses.
Startup scope
Utilities and site work dominate the opening budget
The startup model holds the same 60-site physical capacity across Lean, Typical and Premium. The scope axis changes parcel readiness, pad and road finish, bathhouse quality, engineering complexity and utility allowances; it does not quietly buy more revenue capacity. Illinois-specific official charges are small beside construction. For example, the state campground construction permit is $100, the original campground license is $100, and standard Illinois LLC articles are $150. Those fees matter procedurally, but bad utility or drainage assumptions can move the project by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
| Use of funds | Lean | Typical | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land & closing | $170 | $250 | $400 |
| Civil work, roads & pads | $150 | $220 | $340 |
| Water, sewage & electrical distribution | $210 | $320 | $500 |
| Bathhouse, office & service building | $90 | $160 | $260 |
| Equipment, Wi-Fi, tools & furnishings | $40 | $55 | $85 |
| Engineering, survey, site studies & design | $50 | $75 | $115 |
| Pre-opening fees, professional setup, insurance, payroll & launch marketing | $36 | $50 | $80 |
| Opening retail inventory + refundable utility deposits | $9 | $15 | $22 |
| Initial NWC + opening operating-cash reserve | $78 | $80 | $85 |
| Contingency | $65 | $100 | $150 |
| Total project cost / founder cash required | $898 | $1,325 | $2,037 |
Liquidity is separated from expense. In the Typical case, the $8,000 opening retail inventory is shown once and excluded from the $10,000 initial net working capital estimate. The $7,000 utility deposits are cash uses but not expenses. The $70,000 opening operating-cash reserve is unrestricted cash reserved for ramp and seasonality; it is not inventory, contingency or construction spend. No debt, equipment financing, landlord allowance, grant or reimbursement is assumed, so the modeled permanent founder equity requirement and peak interim cash requirement are both $1.325 million.
Startup scope comparison – Illinois statewide model, 2026 USD, $000s
Critical path
Illinois approval sequencing makes zoning a financing issue
The state construction permit is not the first land-use approval. Under the Recreational Area Code, applicable local health, zoning and other approvals must precede the IDPH construction permit, and plans for RV electrical systems, qualifying water systems and larger sewage systems require professional stamps. That makes a dependency-aware launch materially safer than a generic “form LLC, buy land, build” checklist.
Form the LLC, obtain EIN, and register Illinois tax/employer accounts. Run in parallel with early site screening.
Confirm zoning path, flood status, access, soils, water, sewage, utility capacity and local review. Modeled duration; local SLA varies.
Prepare civil/utility plans, secure prerequisite local approvals, then submit the state construction application and respond to comments.
Build roads, pads, utilities and patron facilities. Weather, utility extensions and change orders are the dominant schedule risks.
Complete corrections, obtain final approvals and original campground license before taking guests.
Stages overlap; difficult land-use or utility cases can push the project toward 15 – 24 months.
| Requirement | Level | Initial fee | Timing | Dependency | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois LLC articles | State | $150 standard | 10 business days standard; expedited option published | Form entity before EIN and entity-bank setup | Secretary of State |
| EIN | Federal | $0 | Online when eligible | IRS says form the legal entity first | IRS |
| Illinois business tax / employer registration | State | No registration fee published | MyTax registration often 1 – 2 business days | Register before sales or hiring | IDOR |
| Zoning, health, building, fire and other address approvals | Local | Varies by city/county | Not published statewide; model 6 – 16+ weeks | Applicable approvals precede IDPH construction permit | 77 Ill. Adm. Code 800 |
| Campground construction permit | State | $100 | Current SLA not published; 2 – 6 weeks modeled after complete submission | Plans, flood form and required prior local approvals | IDPH |
| Water / sewage environmental approval when triggered | State | Confirm with issuing authority | Varies by system | Community water and certain sewage systems require IEPA involvement | Recreational Area Code |
| Workers' compensation when employees are hired | State | Quote required | Before covered employment | Generally required with one employee, even part-time | IWCC |
| Original campground operating license | State* | $100 | After facility is ready for final inspection | License required before operation; annual expiration February 1 | State Act |
Local variation and address checks
Local rules cannot be averaged into a statewide requirement. Examples show the spread: McHenry County publishes a 10-contiguous-acre minimum plus setbacks and road standards; LaSalle County requires the IDPH-approved campground permit before county building permits and adds a storm-shelter rule above 20 sites; a Harvard municipal ordinance shows that rezoning and conditional use can enter the process. Treat these only as examples. Recheck zoning, home-rule status, health, fire, building, access, signs, taxes, utilities and special-district rules for the final parcel.
Pricing and capacity
The Base case needs about 7,100 occupied site-nights
The natural revenue unit is an occupied site-night. The canonical park has 60 sites and a 214-day planning season, creating 12,840 bookable site-nights. The Base case assumes 55% occupancy, or 7,062 occupied nights. A four-observation 2026 private full-hookup rate basket spans $40 to about $78 per night and has a $57.50 median. Because the model includes some water/electric and tent inventory, weekly discounts and normal promotional leakage, Base earned site revenue is set lower at $54 per occupied night, plus $4.50 of ancillary retail and service revenue.
| Observed property | State subregion / type | FHU rack | Comparable specification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kentuckiana | Southern / independent | $40.00 | May – Oct full-hookup nightly rate |
| Hilltop Campground | Southern / year-round independent | $45.00 | Full-hookup nightly rate |
| Sugar Shores RV Resort | Northwestern / resort | $70.00 | All RV sites full-hookup; weekly discount available |
| Northwoods RV Resort | Northern / premium resort | $77.86 | Premium FHU, blended 5 weekday + 2 weekend nights |
| Basket median | Small convenience sample | $57.50 | Median of four private 2026 observations |
This is a disclosed planning basket, not a statistically representative statewide average. Amenity sets differ, and public campgrounds provide a lower competitive reference: Illinois State Fairgrounds lists regular-season camping at $35 per night, while Illinois DNR lists premium Class A camping at $25 per night at one state park. Those public rates are not included in the private FHU basket because the product and subsidy structure are different.
Base revenue formula
60 sites × 214 bookable days × 55% occupancy × ($54.00 earned site rate + $4.50 ancillary revenue) = $413,127 annual net operating revenueRevenue is after discounts, refunds and credits and excludes sales, lodging or other transaction tax collected for government. Payment-processing fees are shown as variable operating cost rather than netted from revenue.
60 sites × 214 modeled bookable days.
55% seasonal occupancy; roughly 33 occupied sites on an average open day.
$54 site revenue plus $4.50 ancillary revenue.
Operating economics
Occupancy can support an owner job before a passive asset
The model separates a working owner from a passive owner. The working-owner view excludes a market replacement wage because the founder performs management, reservations, administration and much of the supervision. The passive view then deducts $64,975 of fully loaded replacement labor: a modeled $56,500 manager wage plus a 15% employer burden. The wage anchor is Illinois' statewide BLS occupational data: May 2023 mean pay was $24.63 per hour for first-line supervisors of entertainment and recreation workers. The $56,500 cash wage is a 2026 planning assumption for the broader campground manager role, not a BLS forecast.
| Metric | Downside | Base | Upside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonal occupancy | 38% | 55% | 68% |
| Occupied site-nights / year | 4,879 | 7,062 | 8,731 |
| Earned site rate + ancillary / night | $51.50 | $58.50 | $64.50 |
| Annual net operating revenue | $251,279 | $413,127 | $563,162 |
| Variable operating costs | $71,936 | $109,083 | $140,751 |
| Passive-basis contribution | $179,342 | $304,044 | $422,411 |
| Fixed non-owner cash costs | $184,000 | $190,000 | $214,000 |
| Working-owner pre-tax business cash benefit | – $4,658 | $114,044 | $208,411 |
| Fixed owner-replacement labor | $64,975 | $64,975 | $64,975 |
| Passive normalized cash operating profit before D&A | – $69,633 | $49,069 | $143,436 |
Annual revenue by operating case – Illinois statewide model, Typical scope, 2026 USD
Do not read the $114,000 working-owner figure as salary. It is the sum of compensation implicitly earned by doing the manager's work plus the residual operating return on invested capital. In the Base bridge, $64,975 represents avoided market replacement labor and about $49,069 is the residual passive-basis cash operating profit before depreciation, financing, maintenance capex and owner taxes. Because reliable asset-by-asset depreciation is not modeled, this article does not fabricate EBIT or EBITDA.
Cost structure
Labor, utilities and maintenance are the recurring lines to defend
Base variable cost is $15.4465 per occupied site-night: 2.9% card processing, $5.50 incremental utilities, $1.50 guest and cleaning supplies, 50% cost of ancillary retail goods, and $4.50 of fully loaded variable guest-service labor. Illinois' 2026 year-to-date average commercial electricity price through June was 13.70 cents per kWh; the $5.50 utility allowance is still modeled because campground water, sewer and electric consumption is site- and infrastructure-specific. It should be replaced with utility tariffs and an engineering load estimate for the chosen parcel.
| Cost family | Annual | Avg. month | Behavior / basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Variable guest costs & direct hourly labor | $109,083 | $9,090 | Changes with occupied site-nights and ancillary sales |
| Fixed seasonal/front-desk/grounds payroll + burden | $54,000 | $4,500 | Step-fixed non-owner staffing |
| Property tax planning allowance | $22,000 | $1,833 | Modeled; parcel quote required |
| Insurance | $18,000 | $1,500 | Property, liability and workers' comp; quote required |
| Base utilities, Wi-Fi & security | $18,000 | $1,500 | Fixed service plus base load |
| Repairs & preventive maintenance | $20,000 | $1,667 | Cash repair expense; separate from capex reserve |
| Grounds, fuel & waste | $16,000 | $1,333 | Mostly fixed within modeled band |
| Software, reservation, accounting & professional fees | $15,000 | $1,250 | Fixed planning allowance |
| Marketing & customer acquisition | $14,000 | $1,167 | Fixed budget; monitor booking source |
| Office, phone, banking, licenses & miscellaneous | $13,000 | $1,083 | Includes recurring state/local admin allowance |
| Total cash operating cost before owner replacement | $299,083 | $24,924 | Variable + $190,000 fixed non-owner cash cost |
Illinois labor rules set a floor under staffing. The state minimum wage is $15 per hour for workers age 18 and older. The model pays above that floor through its blended staffing assumptions. For unemployment insurance, the Illinois Department of Employment Security lists a 3.350% standard 2026 new-employer entry rate for most industries. Rather than pretend a single burden rate is an exact statutory payroll calculation, the model uses blended loaded labor allowances and requires a payroll and workers' compensation quote.
Below operating profit
- Debt service: $0 in the primary all-equity model.
- Maintenance capex reserve: $24,000 per year in Downside/Base; $30,000 in Upside.
- Income-tax reserve: not modeled; results are pre-tax.
- Additional stabilized NWC: $0 unless receivables, inventory or prepaids grow.
What breaks the Base case first
- A utility-heavy parcel raises both startup capital and per-night cost.
- Occupancy below the mid-40s fails to support a market-rate owner role.
- Understaffing pushes service work onto the owner; overstaffing erases passive profit.
- Deferred road, pedestal, septic and bathhouse maintenance creates false short-term cash flow.
Unit economics and break-even
A Base occupied night contributes about $43 before fixed overhead
At the Base $58.50 revenue per occupied site-night, variable cost is $15.45 and passive/economic contribution is $43.05, a 73.6% contribution margin. The owner's direct site-night labor is modeled at zero because the owner role is fixed management, administration and supervision rather than a per-night production task. Fixed owner-replacement labor therefore stays below contribution and appears in the passive-owner break-even numerator.
$54 site rate + $4.50 ancillary revenue.
Processing, utilities, supplies, retail COGS and variable hourly labor.
73.6% contribution margin before fixed overhead and fixed owner-replacement labor.
Break-even occupancy – Illinois statewide Base economics, Typical scope, 2026
Cash-survival break-even
Numerator: $190,000 fixed non-owner cash costs.
Contribution: $43.05 per occupied night / 73.6%.
Result: about $258,000 revenue, 4,413 occupied nights, 34.4% occupancy, or about 20.6 occupied sites per open day.
Sustainable owner / passive break-even
Numerator: $190,000 fixed non-owner costs + $64,975 fixed owner-role compensation.
Contribution: the same 73.6% because owner replacement is fixed, not per site-night.
Result: about $346,000 revenue, 5,922 occupied nights and 46.1% occupancy, or about 27.7 occupied sites per open day.
The distinction matters when evaluating an acquisition or a “semi-passive” plan. A park can cover non-owner bills at 34% occupancy and still fail to compensate the person doing the manager's job. Only above the sustainable threshold does the modeled operation support both the operating cost base and market replacement labor.
Runway and payback
The Base case survives ramp-up, but capital recovery is slow
The $70,000 opening operating-cash reserve is derived from a monthly ramp rather than a simple annual-loss percentage. The first season weights stabilized revenue toward summer and applies conservative opening-year ramp factors. With fixed non-owner cash cost and a $24,000 annual maintenance-capex reserve paid through the year, the largest cumulative operating deficit is about $6,900 early in the first month. Adding a disclosed $60,000 minimum closing-cash floor produces a required reserve of about $66,900, rounded up to $70,000.
Approximately after the opening month; remains above the $60,000 floor.
The modeled first-year ramp completes without a reserve top-up.
Approximate unrestricted operating cash after the first seasonal cycle.
Payback uses a monthly cumulative cash schedule from month zero and the Typical $1.325 million project investment. Base working-owner distributable project cash is operating benefit less the maintenance-capex reserve; no debt or tax reserve is deducted in the primary all-equity, pre-tax case. Ramp losses are funded from the opening reserve already included at month zero and are not counted again as new capital contributions.
Not reached within the 30-year modeled horizon because stabilized cash remains negative after maintenance capex.
About 14.5 years, unlevered project basis, pre-tax, after maintenance capex.
About 7.4 years, with the Upside staffing tier and $30,000 annual maintenance capex included.
State market and sensitivity
Illinois has demand depth, but the parcel still has to win its own trade area
A reliable statewide RV-park-and-campground revenue amount is not publicly determinable from the available category data without mixing private RV parks, public campgrounds, cabins and other recreational lodging. A responsible plan should therefore use demand proxies rather than label a broad number “market size.” Illinois' tourism office reports more than 113 million annual visitors and $48.5 billion of visitor expenditures for 2024. That supports the existence of a large visitor economy; it does not prove demand for any specific campground.
The address-level test is more practical: access, competing inventory and rates, attractions, utility capacity, flood exposure, big-rig road access, booking lead time and direct-booking share. No local market is used as the Illinois Base case.
Sources and method
What is official, observed and still model-dependent
Research was reviewed August 28, 2026, with planning figures in 2026 USD unless a source period is shown. Illinois rules and filing fees have the strongest evidence. Wage, utility and tourism inputs are authoritative but broader than one campground; the private rate basket is current but small. Development, insurance, property tax, utility consumption, local timing and land value remain parcel-dependent.
| Source / publisher | Geography / period | Evidence type | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illinois Department of Public Health campground program + state licensing Act | Illinois / current pages | Official fee or rule | Annual inspection/license, applicability, $100 original/renewal fee, February 1 expiry |
| 77 Ill. Adm. Code Part 800 + construction application | Illinois / current code | Official fee or rule | Construction permit, plan content, professional stamps, local prerequisites, $100 state permit |
| Illinois Secretary of State + IDOR registration | Illinois / 2026 | Official fee or rule | LLC $150, annual report $75, state tax/employer registration sequence |
| Illinois Department of Labor, IDES, IWCC | Illinois / 2026 | Official fee or rule | Wage floor, UI entry-rate context, workers' compensation requirement |
| U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS | Illinois / May 2023 | Reported government data | Campground-adjacent wage anchors for recreation, grounds and supervisory roles |
| U.S. Energy Information Administration | Illinois / Jan – Jun 2026 | Reported government data | Commercial electricity price anchor; utility allowance remains modeled |
| Illinois Office of Tourism / DCEO | Illinois / 2024 | Reported government data | Visitor volume and spending as demand proxies, not campground market size |
| University of Illinois farmdoc / USDA NASS | Illinois / 2026 | Published benchmark | Broad land context only; not converted into campground land cost |
| Kentuckiana, Hilltop, Sugar Shores, Northwoods | Multiple Illinois subregions / 2026 | Observed market quote | Four-property private full-hookup rack-rate basket and $57.50 median |
| Illinois State Fairgrounds + Illinois DNR | Illinois / current published rates | Published government benchmark | Public-sector competitive floor; excluded from private basket median |
| McHenry County, LaSalle County, Harvard | Local Illinois examples / current files | Official local rule examples | Demonstrates local acreage, sequencing, storm-shelter and conditional-use variation |
| Illinois Department of Revenue hotel tax guidance | Illinois / July 2026 page | Official fee or rule | Taxability gate for furnished sleeping accommodations; bare-site treatment left for confirmation |
The largest uncertainty is the parcel, not the small state filing fees. Before committing capital, replace modeled land, property tax, insurance, civil, utility and wastewater allowances with address-specific evidence, and confirm the operating jurisdiction and home-rule status.