Paradise Communities buys Two Rivers Mobile Home Park

BUYER: Two Rivers MHP LLC (CAE Management LLC), Scottsdale, Ariz.
SELLER: Two Rivers Inc.
PROPERTY: 2791 and 2800 E. Manatee Ave.; 2705, 2706, 2708, 2710, 2713 and 2719

E. Third Ave.; 301 and 315 E. 27th St.; and 2711 E. Fourth Ave., Bradenton
PRICE: $6.3 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.6 million, January 1996
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Gallagher & Kennedy PA, Phoenix, Ariz.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Paradise Communities purchased the 112-lot Two Rivers Mobile Home Park and a 13-unit apartment complex for $6.3 million.

The price equated to $50,400 per unit. That figure is lower than the two-year average price per unit for multifamily space ($72,609) in the Tampa Bay area, according to the CoStar Group.

The seven-acre site also features a swimming pool, clubhouse, shuffleboard court and 24-slip boat dock on the Braden River.

Peter Bartys of Sperry Van Ness Commercial Advisory Group handled the transaction.

“Originally the mobile home park owner absorbed some of the surrounding properties and the single-family homes were converted into apartment rentals,” Bartys says. “I've not seen this much mobile home activity in the past several years, that I've seen in the last 12 months or so. There's a lot of cash out there to be invested, and [mobile home parks] are generally lower risk than multifamily. Most mobile home parks are in effect land leases where most of the responsibility for the maintenance and the insurance stays with the homeowners.”

Bartys says very few improvements were needed to the property and that there was some additional space for future potential development.

Paradise Communities is the creation of Charles Ellis, the former vice president of acquisitions for one of the giants of the mobile home/RV real estate industry, Carefree RV Resorts. It purchased its first property, the 105-lot Shady Haven Mobile Home Park in Englewood, last year for $4.1 million.