Real Estate & Construction  April 13, 2021

Fort Collins council to consider supporting resident efforts to buy mobile-home park

FORT COLLINS — In one of the last meetings before the current term expires, the Fort Collins City Council will consider whether to take a role in helping the residents of the Hickory Village mobile home park in buying the property for themselves versus having a new owner.

In agenda documents ahead of the Tuesday meeting, city staff said the operator of the mobile-home park at 400 Hickory St. on the far-north side of the city agreed to sell the property underneath the homes to a corporate operator on March 3 for $23 million. The property currently holds 205 units.

The sale has not yet been recorded in Larimer County records. The buyer’s identity has not been disclosed.

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Under a state law signed into effect last summer, residents of mobile-home parks are entitled to 90 days’ advance notice before a sale affecting the properties they live on takes effect, and allows for residents to make a competing offer to buy the land and operate it as a “resident-owned cooperative” or ROC. The state law doesn’t compel the seller to take the resident offer, but does require it to consider the offer in good faith.

The Boulder County-area affordable-housing group Thistle has already begun reaching out to residents of the park about forming a ROC, and local residents are interested in trying to buy the property, staff said in their agenda report.

The council will be asked if it wishes to participate at all in the Hickory Park purchase effort, and whether that support would range from connecting residents to local housing agencies and nonprofits, to potentially offering grants or loans to finance a competing bid.

Fort Collins has previously expressed interest in preserving mobile-home parks and other types of manufactured housing as a source of affordable housing for low-income residents and seniors. The council last December rezoned seven parks, including Hickory Village, under a new zoning designation that wards away other types of development.

The residents of Hickory Park have until June 1 to make a competing bid for the land.

FORT COLLINS — In one of the last meetings before the current term expires, the Fort Collins City Council will consider whether to take a role in helping the residents of the Hickory Village mobile home park in buying the property for themselves versus having a new owner.

In agenda documents ahead of the Tuesday meeting, city staff said the operator of the mobile-home park at 400 Hickory St. on the far-north side of the city agreed to sell the property underneath the homes to a corporate operator on March 3 for $23 million. The property currently holds 205 units.

The sale…

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