I’d want to know if this financial planner has any of his own funds invested in the project. It seems like you should be able to get the reports by having your friend request them.
I’d also be curious to know if there are any unique aspects to the property (by a lake or recreation area)? Is this the closet private land to the refinery? Do they plan to put in basic infrastructure? How is the land zoned, will that change? It would be interesting to find an existing, comparable refinery and track property values and how it grew over the years.
It does sound like they have a good track record, that spans decades, so they should have experienced boom & bust cycles. Has your friend used them before? If not, can you verify their record?
