Marcus & Millichap Lists Southern California Mobile Home Park for $44.5M

February 12, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

A tumultuous relationship between the city of Poway, Calif., and the mobile home park it owns may come to an end should the park sell – particularly if it sells to its residents.

Poway Royal Estates, a 399-space, 51-acre mobile home community, has been listed for $44.5 million by Marcus and Millichap. The listing price represents $111,529 per space at a 5.75 cap rate.

Even as the city lists the property for sale, residents are making a bid to buy it themselves. According to the North County Times, the city says the residents are welcome to do so, but will be treated like any other bidder.

“We’d like to see this as a resident-owned park,” Poway Royal Homeowner’s Association president Sonny Tirone told the Times. “That’s the goal.”

The city bought the park in 1991 and has since fought two lawsuits from residents: one in 2005 when residents filed suit claiming the city broke a promise to offer them an opportunity buy the park, and the other in 2007, when the homeowner’s association challenged a city decision to refinance the park’s bonds.

Douglas Danny, a vice president of investments and senior director of Marcus and Millichap’s National Manufactured Home Communities Group in San Diego, is representing the city in the sale. Danny said in a statement that the city is willing to carry secondary interest-only financing at 5 percent for 20 years.

“Poway Royal Estates is a high-quality, fully amenitized, all-age community in a prime San Diego County location near all services, schools, transportation, and medical facilities,” he said in the statement.

The park was built in 1972 and is currently 99 percent occupied. It consists of almost all doublewide homes on all doublewide sites, with 396 revenue-generating sites, one vacant park-owned home and two park-owned employee homes. It is built on 45.18 net acres and is surrounded by single-family developments, commercial office space, retail centers and open space.