Residents' purchase offer accepted for two mobile home parks; trustees asked to approve grant agreement

April Long, executive director of the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, told the Carbondale Board of Trustees that residents’ offer to buy Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park in Carbondale and Aspen Basalt Mobile Home Park (near Basalt) was accepted and is now in a due diligence period. The two parks were offered together for $42,000,000 and the coalition said the due-diligence deadline is Sept. 12, with a projected closing about a month later.

The purchase depended on raising a subsidy to bridge a financing gap. “We have raised over $14,000,000 towards that $20,000,000 gap that was needed,” April Long said. The coalition is asking participating local governments to execute grant agreements with the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition and to deliver pledged funds into an account before Sept. 12 so the purchase package can be closed.

Why it matters: the coalition and residents want deed restrictions that preserve the land for resident-occupied, permanently affordable manufactured-home community uses and prevent future conversion to market-rate development. Long said the deed restriction language is being drafted so the property “always be affordable housing” and “resident owned and resident occupied,” and to prohibit short-term rentals. The senior lender on the transaction is Rock Capital USA; the lender must also agree to the deed-restriction language.

Coalition officials described the preferred financing as a long-term forgivable loan aggregated by the coalition from municipal grants and private donations; the loan would include deed restrictions and would be forgivable over time. Long said the coalition would hold and enforce the deed restrictions and provide reporting to grantors. She said the only scenario in which grant funds would be repaid is “if they completely are in absolute, utter noncompliance with this deed restriction.”

The board did not take a formal vote on a grant agreement at the meeting. Staff and the coalition proposed returning a draft grant agreement to the trustees at their Aug. 26 meeting for possible approval and fund transfer thereafter. Trustees spoke in favor of moving quickly; several said they were likely to support execution of a grant agreement as proposed, but no formal motion or recorded vote occurred during the session.

Officials said state funding for mobile home park preservation may be available but not quickly enough to meet the Sept. 12 deadline; staff indicated state funds, at best, would be available early next year and that any state award would likely be smaller than hoped. April Long warned that if the $20,000,000 gap is not fully filled and Rock Capital increases its loan, residents’ lot rents would rise accordingly and residents would make a decision about whether to proceed.

Next steps: the coalition and municipal staff will continue drafting deed-restriction language, finalize the grant agreement mechanics, and attempt to collect committed funds into an account before the due-diligence deadline. The coalition asked the trustees to authorize a grant agreement to be presented at the trustees’ next meeting.