Once focus of litigation, manufactured home park sold

The Urban Grove manufactured home park in St. Anthony traded hands late last month, according to a certificate of real estate value published last week.

The 32-unit park sits at 2501 Lowry Ave. NE in St. Anthony, about a mile north of the intersection of Interstate 35W and Northeast Stinson Boulevard. It’s at the location of once embattled Lowry Grove, a now-defunct mobile home park that was the source of a contentious debate and lawsuit centered on efforts to block redevelopment of the park.

The Village LLC, a company tied to Brad Hoyt’s Wayzata-based Continental Property Group, sold Urban Grove for nearly $8.8 million on March 31. The property was bought by Performance Realty, a firm that specializes in the ownership, operation, management and development of mobile home parks and multifamily properties.

“All of the homes were new since 2018 when the park reopened after the City’s denial of a promised redevelopment plan,” Hoyt said in an email to Finance & Commerce. Hoyt said he was forced to restore the park and sold it at a loss of more than $14 million.

Continental Property Group bought Lowry Grove — which then had about 100 mobile homes — in 2016 for $6 million, setting off a lawsuit and a probe from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for potential violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.

Nonprofit developer Aeon and residents of the mobile home park claimed the sale violated a little-used state statute that allows mobile home residents or a nonprofit designee to match a purchase offer within 45 days to keep the park open.

Residents pushed back on the sale because Continental had planned to close the park and redevelop it. Aeon submitted a matching offer in an effort to keep the park open.

A couple of months later, then-Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson weighed in on the case, accusing Continental and prior owner Phil Johnson of taking actions to “undermine, circumvent and violate” the state law.

Early plans for the redevelopment were presented days later, showing five multifamily buildings and up to 40 owner-occupied townhomes amassing about 840 units.

After at least a year of legal wrangling, Aeon and its co-plaintiffs — the residents — reached a settlement with Continental. The company said it would sell 2.1 acres to Aeon, which planned 110 units of affordable housing. Continental also agreed to kick in a six-digit donation to Lowry Grove residents who were displaced when the park closed in June 2017.

Development 65 built the 135-unit Hayden Grove Senior Living building at the site. That project recently opened.

The website of the new owner, Performance Realty, says that its investment strategy is rooted in “pro-active hands-on management.”

Urban Grove’s website says that a 1,115-square-foot, three-bedroom home starts at just under $100,000.

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