Three partners buy Moonlight Bay, and plan to continue running it as a mobile home park, the new manager says.
By ALEX LEARY
Published October 15, 2004
PORT RICHEY - A mobile home park off Grand Boulevard long criticized by city officials as an eyesore has been sold, and its former owner this week paid a bit more than $35,000 in code violation fines.
Ilias Tsolkas said he sold Moonlight Bay mobile home park, which includes 28 trailers situated along the Pithlachascotee River, for $790,000. The warranty deed was recorded Thursday.
"I had it with the city," Tsolkas said, referring to his battles over code violations.
He was at one point talking with city officials about selling the land for a municipal parking garage, but that deal never went far.
The new owners - a group of three investors - have incorporated as Port Richey Mobile Home Park Inc. They are based in New York but also maintain a park in St. Petersburg, said Vinny Scuderi, the new manager of the Port Richey park. Its owners intend to maintain the property as a mobile home park, Scuderi said.
For some, that will come as a disappointment.
"We've been waiting so long for it to be sold and now it's going to remain a mobile home park?" said Robyn Pfeiffer, who owns the bustling Crab Shack bar and restaurant on nearby Baylea Avenue. "I don't know what to think of this. We need something good in there."
City officials, along with residents and business owners in the area, have viewed the mobile home park as an obstacle to redevelopment efforts. Residents say it was frequented by drug dealers and pressed for more aggressive policing.
In a rare move, the city building department went to court last year to obtain an inspection warrant to search the mobile homes. Once granted, the review found dozens of shortcomings, from broken windows to unstable steps, rotted floors, roach infestation and faulty electrical systems.
The city decided against condemning the park because it would disrupt too many families, and gave Tsolkas six months to fix the problems. He made various improvements.
The fines are linked to one trailer, which was more than four decades old. Tsolkas refused for months to remove the trailer, accusing the city of unfairly targeting him.
Tsolkas' lawyers sent the city a check for $35,692.52 to settle fines that had accumulated since July 2003. Port Richey placed a lien on the property.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic," City Council member Phyllis Grae said. "It shows everyone if you violate code, you will get caught and we will go after the fine."
But Tsolkas said he will ask the city to return the money, claiming the inspections were invalid because Bette Farmerie was later fired for not having a building official's license. At the time, though, she was acting as a building inspector, not a building official.
