BANGOR, Maine — Residents of Cedar Falls Mobile Home Park in Bangor are coming together to try to secure ownership of their community.
Forming a cooperative, they successfully submitted an $8 million bid to buy the land to prevent a corporate sale.
A new Maine law requires mobile home park owners to give residents 60 days notice before selling. During that time, residents have the chance to make an offer to buy the property if more than 50% of them agree to do so.
The law aims to help homeowners avoid potential lot rent increases from corporate buyers.
Last month, residents of Linnhaven Mobile Home Park in Brunswick became the first to benefit from the law, purchasing their park for $26 million in loans and grants. Inspired by that success, Cedar Falls residents are determined to follow suit.
"We're on our road to success of owning our park," Ronnie Pinkham, president of the Cedar Falls Resident Cooperative, said.
Pinkham, a 12-year resident of Cedar Falls, and her neighbor, Al MacNevin, treasurer of the cooperative, are leading the effort. They began their push to buy the property after learning a Canadian developer had put in a bid and planned to raise lot rents.
"We really took the bull by the horns," MacNevin said.
Pinkham said her first thought was that a corporate takeover “can't happen.”
"This is our home. This is the home of many elderly people and people who do not have a lot of money. They're on a fixed income,” Pinkham said. “People here need to be able to live."
Chris Howard, owner of Flintstone Properties, the company that initially bid on the property, said it planned to increase monthly rent by $35 a year. Right now, lot rent at Cedar Falls starts at $450.
“We were quite excited to come in and improve things at this community…we would have been able to provide 80 new affordable homes in Bangor for around $100,000 a piece or less,” Howard said in a statement to NEWS CENTER Maine.
The resident cooperative’s $8 million offer was accepted by the park’s current owner. Now the residents must secure the funding.
They are working with the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI), a nonprofit that supports co-ops, to raise the money through loans and grants.
Nora Gosselin, Market Development and Acquisition Specialist at CDI, said they’ve seen a trend of out-of-state developers buying mobile home parks, and are working to put control in residents’ hands.
"Most of these areas do not have any form of rent stabilization, so there's no limit to what they can charge year after year on the rent," she said.
MacNevin said though the work has been challenging, it’s been rewarding, and has brought the community together. He and his wife moved into the park in 2007. His wife passed away almost five years ago, so for MacNevin, his community is more important than ever.
"It’s given me new energy," MacNevin said. "This community feels like an extended family, it really does."
Residents remain optimistic they’ll secure the $8 million in funding before their mid-January deadline. "We can succeed, this is gonna happen," Pinkham said.
Cedar Falls residents will continue to meet weekly with CDI as they work toward their goal.