2 weeks Ago
PITTSFIELD — Over the past week, a small group of Lake Onota Village residents has been knocking on doors through the mobile home park, asking their neighbors to sign a petition that would allow residents to pursue ownership of the park. At a meeting Wednesday night, the residents handed in 33 signed petitions. They must gather an additional 42 to 47 signatures by next Friday in order to submit and execute a purchase and sale agreement by the May 15 deadline.
The organized effort is in response to the notice residents of Lake Onota Village in Pittsfield received a few weeks ago that Crown Communities, a private equity firm based in Wyoming, is purchasing the manufactured home park for $5.5 million in cash. But under Massachusetts law, manufactured park residents have the right of first refusal, giving them first dibs to purchase their park if they can match the sale price.
Some Lake Onota Village residents, who are worried that the park will deteriorate and rents will go up under Crown ownership, have expressed interest in exploring this route. About 38 Onota Lake Village residents gathered in St. Charles Church on Wednesday night to discuss next steps and hear from residents of other manufactured home parks in the Berkshires.
Residents at Wheel Estates in North Adams formed a resident cooperative and purchased their park in 2013, after passing up on an earlier opportunity to purchase. “We had given up the choice to purchase our park back in the early 2000s,” said Sandra Overlock, a Wheel Estates resident and board member. “It was the worst decision we ever made.
” When the 200-household park came back up for sale, the residents formed a cooperative and purchased it for $2.65 million, according to property records. Another $2.
5 million went into repairing longstanding infrastructure problems, Overlock said. In 2023, the residents' cooperative remortgaged and took out $1.2 million to address the park's roads and additional infrastructure issues, Overlock said.
She was unable to provide the mortgage balance by press time. When the residents purchased Wheel Estates, they were paying a lot rent of about $334. The resident cooperative had to increase rent by $48 to purchase the park, after which they did not raise the rent for 10 years, Overlock said.
The resident cooperative raised the lot rent by $68 last year. “People want to come into our community because we’ve increased the value by doing the infrastructure repairs. They know their rent is going to be stable and they know where their money is going — right into the community,” she said.
Residents also heard from members of the newly-formed residents’ association at Berkshire Village in Cheshire. Crown Communities bought that park in 2021 for $900,000, after residents declined to exercise their right of first refusal. That’s a decision some residents now regret, said Berkshire Village resident William Moreau.
“Unfortunately, [the park is] not for sale right now, but we have already heard rumblings, ‘Why didn’t we buy this?’” Moreau said. Infrastructure at the park was old and deteriorating when the previous owners sold Berkshire Village to Crown in 2021, and since then conditions have worsened, Moreau said. The residents’ association has filed three petitions with the Cheshire Select Board regarding septic issues, outdated electric services and unmaintained roads.
“They left us the weekend of Feb. 14 through 17 for over 48 hours with no plowing on the roads at all. If emergency services had needed to get into that park, it would have been horrible,” Moreau said.
To move forward with the process, 51 percent of Lake Onota Village residents must demonstrate their support. As of Wednesday night, residents had compiled about half the signatures needed to meet the 51 percent threshold. Nora Gosselin, the market development and acquisitions specialist for Cooperative Development Institute, told residents that they should aim to gather another 42 to 45 signatures, which will bring them slightly over the 51 percent threshold.
“Crown’s tactic is to try and disqualify [signatures],” said Gosselin. “They’ll basically try and eliminate anyone who they can because they are aggressive in my experience working with residents of other parks.” If enough residents sign the petition by next Friday, Cooperative Development Institute will help the residents submit and execute a purchase and sale agreement.
In the 90 days following, the nonprofit will work with the resident cooperative to survey, assess and appraise the property and obtain financing. “If by [May] 2 you don’t have the petitions, I would probably call it,” Gosselin said. Residents also reviewed their acquisition bylaws and articles of organization on Wednesday night, and began volunteering for positions on the board that will represent the resident cooperative through the acquisition.
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