by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Despite months of organization and efforts, a plan by Sartell residents to buy the mobile-home park where they live has failed.
The deal collapsed because organizers were not able to arrange financing of about $1.5 million to make necessary improvements in the water and sewer systems of Sartell Mobile Home Park, formerly known as Hi-Vue Estates.
The park’s owners, Colorado-based RV Horizons, is now free to sell the property, as it had announced months ago before the park’s residents started their own company, named Eagle’s View Inc. in February. By April, 70 percent of the park’s residents had agreed to join Eagle’s View and to eventually buy the park. They formed their own board and then began a working relationship with Northcountry Cooperative Foundation, based in the Twin Cities. That foundation works for affordable-housing options for Minnesota residents, including the option of mobile-home park residents buying their parks and operating them themselves. The NCF has helped residents of several parks in the state do just that.
Sartell Mobile Home Park, a 63-lot facility, is located at 106 Second St. S. in Sartell, just east of Great River Bowl. It has been located there for about three decades.
A purchase agreement between Eagle’s View and RV Horizons was in place. However, it was dependent upon securing the $1.5 million for the required infrastructure improvements (water, sewer) in the park. That bad news, in the form of an engineering assessment, was delivered last July, and the improvements, it was learned, had to be completed within two years.
Despite many efforts by the Northcountry Foundation and others to find financing for the overall purchase, which would require money for the infrastructure improvements, the attempts did not succeed. The funds, through loans and/or grants, could just not be secured. That failure led to the expiration of the purchase agreement in late November, and the effort to buy the park came to a halt.
NCF officials have said the residents of Sartell Mobile Home Park demonstrated an impressive ability and determination to organize and to work for their good cause. In a statement on its website, NCF had this to say:
“In spite of Eagle’s View members’ immense disappointment, they hope to benefit from relationships formed and community strengthened through the recent resident-organizing efforts. NCF staff are inspired to work harder at advocating for state funds that could be accessed in the future by resident-owned communities who are faced with similar infrastructure needs.”
The Sartell Mobile Home Park, which most of its residents wanted to buy and manage, is now subject to sale by its company owner, RV Horizons, after $1.5 million in funding could not be secured to redo the park’s water and sewer systems.
