If I recall my history correctly, this was basically done in the U.S. during the 19th century by the railroads in their expansion west. The government gave the railroad a land grant of one mile on each side of the new track they laid. Then, the railroad would sell off the land; it had increased in value dramatically by being near the railroad. It seemed to work, even though a lot of small railroad companies went broke, a lot or rail got put down and a lot of money was made.

You have almost described what many big box warehouse operations, and manufacturers do already.

They just plop a big facility on the edge of a small community near good transportation infrastructure, and "bring jobs" to said community. Albeit at a labor rate that is half what would be paid in a major community.
The towns people are glad for the jobs, the city wishes the facility was inside the community for the property tax, but is willing to only get the increased sales tax within the town from increased resident spending (due to new jobs), and the company gets cheap labor (with little or no benefit costs) and little or no city taxes.
Once the residents spend more time in the area they work, the new company starts selling "excess" land to folks who want to cater to the employees coming and going to the facility.

There is also the 'head fake'. A major corporation mentions that they are planning on expanding. This could be part of the plot or entirely independent of it. Using what might be a minor footnote in a press release as indirect reference people jack up the price of land.

This can be as simple as a land owner posting a 4' by 8' sign announcing the 'future home of ____'. The more official and fancier the sign the better it works. Also helps if get a local bulldozer owner to knock down a few trees and clear some brush. Follow by hammering in some stakes with orange tape on them.

A popular tactic is to send around a guy in a fancy car and suit to ask about buying properties in the area and implying that prices will be multiplying. That always gets people talking. Work an area by deception and inference and you can jack up land prices. Then you turn around and sell your land and make a profit.

If your good you can pull out making money and people will spend themselves into a hole based on the assumption that there will be a large development. Then, once their finances are exhausted and loans come due, people get desperate for cash. At which point you show up and buy their property for less than they wanted before you jacked up the price.

If your really good you can buy up the guys property and add a few thousand so he tells everyone he sold out as part of the fictional original development. Done well the would-be developer sells the original plot for a huge profit and end up owning all the surrounding land.

Wash, rinse, repeat.