This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Co-op of Residents Buys Park Plaza Estates Manufactured-Home Park

Members of the Park Plaza Cooperative purchased their manufactured-home community Tuesday, making it the fifth such resident-owned co-op in Minnesota.

Board members of the new Park Plaza Cooperative in Fridley were all tears and smiles Tuesday as they signed paperwork to buy their manufactured-home community.

“I was bawling my eyes out,” said Natividad Seefeld, interim president of Park Plaza Cooperative. “It was an unbelievable feeling.”  

The 90-home cooperative is the fifth of its kind in Minnesota, according to Kevin Walker, housing development director at Northcountry Cooperative Foundation (NCF), a non-profit organization that supports cooperative projects through training, research, education and development assistance.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Over the last year, staff at NCF have supported the residents of Park Plaza Estates in , where the residents formerly rented land for their manufactured homes, sometimes called mobile homes.  

A Year in the Making
A little more than a year ago, residents received a letter from Phil Johnson, a managing partner in the park's ownership group, stating that the property was going to be sold but that the residents could consider buying it as a cooperative.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Park Plaza is the second community Johnson has sold to a co-op of homeowners, according to a press release from NCF.

“Both co-ops used NCF and from my end, the process was professional and efficient,” Johnson said in the NCF statement. “It’s not anything like what some community owners think—it’s really no different than a sale to any third party.”

(The first park Johnson sold to a co-op is now called Paul Revere Cooperative, located about four miles northeast of Park Plaza in Lexington.)

“The people that live in these communities, they're not rich people," Johnson said in an interview, If [NCF] is able provide some assistance, then they can realize that dream."

The residents also were contacted by NCF with an offer of assistance if they chose to become a cooperative. In February 2010, the residents incorporated with the Minnesota secretary of state and began working on bylaws and rules of the cooperative. With NCF’s assistance they obtained a lawyer and began recruiting more residents to join.  

Niche Lender
The last piece of the puzzle was to secure financing for the purchase. Walker said that what made the transaction possible was a partnership with Resident Owned Communities (ROC) USA Capital,* a niche lender that lends to resident-owned communities around the country. The financing arm of ROC USA Capital partnered with the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA), who purchased a participation in the loan.

Michael Sloss, managing director at ROC USA Capital, said his organization put down $4.2 million for the Park Plaza property, a substantial percentage of which was purchased by the MHFA. The loan provides the residents a fixed rate of 6 percent, he said.  

The purchase price for the property was $3.85 million, but environmental studies, attorney fees and other costs made the financed amount higher.

Katy Lindblad, assistant commissioner at MHFA, said the agency is excited about the partnership with ROC USA and Northcountry. MHFA decided to become involved, she said, because “we feel preservation is key to meet the housing needs of Minnesotans.

“We know [resident-owned manufactured home cooperatives] have been successful elsewhere and we are happy to provide resources here,”  Lindblad said.

Financial assistance for the deal was also provided by Twin Cities LISC, which provided two feasibility grants for the project amounting to $6,000, according to Walker.  

'It's Finally Here'
But for the cooperative members, it’s not about the money.

“For us it’s all about where we live,” Seefeld said. “We get to go home.” 

In the past few weeks, more residents have joined the co-op. Currently there is a 53 percent membership rate, with 45 of the 85 occupied households part of the co-op, which for now is led by a six-member interim board. 

Nikki Caldas, the interim secretary for the co-op, said that recently people on the fence have said that they wanted to join, and she expects more to do so now that the deal has gone through. 

The next steps for the cooperative include notifying all of the residents of Park Plaza of the change in ownership, Walker said. Then the board will meet with its newly contracted property-management company, New Concepts Management, to work out details of a transition.

The cooperative's first annual meeting will occur within 60 days, at which time members will elect the co-op's permanent board of directors. Once that leadership is in place, they will work with NCF on a capital-improvement plan.

There is also a community-wide celebration planned for April 2.  

As for herself, Caldas said she felt overwhelmed by the co-op's purchase of Park Plaza. 

“It’s finally here,” she said. “It’s just like … wow.”  

*Editor’s Note: We have revised this story. It originally named Resident Owned Communities (ROC) USA, LLC as the lender, but Kevin Walker at NCF said it was in fact ROC USA, LLC's lending arm, ROC USA Capital, that financed the project. Also, we learned after posting this story that the Paul Revere Cooperative in Lexington is the manufactured-home park that Phil Johnson had earlier been involved with selling to a resident co-op and added that fact to the story, along with an additional quote from him.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Fridley