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Letter to the editor

Mobile home tiff heads to court

Suits are filed by both the homeowners association and the park's owners who want to evict the tenants and build townhomes.

By NICOLE JOHNSON
Published May 4, 2005

The new owners of Anchor North Bay mobile home park and some angry park residents are setting the stage for a legal boxing match.

On April 25, new park owners Alex Sullivan and Adam Schoenbaum filed a defamation lawsuit against Raymond E. Brooks, president of the park's homeowner association, over statements they said he published on a Web site.

Four days later, the association fired back with a lawsuit contending the businessmen concealed their intentions for the park and have failed to maintain the facilities. Both sides filed their suits in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court.

Sullivan and Schoenbaum, who recently paid $3.5-million for the 7.8-acre park in West Oldsmar, seek at least $15,000 in damages.

Sullivan, the son of Outback Steakhouse co-founder Chris Sullivan, and Schoenbaum, both 25, are operating as SAB Investors LLC. The corporation served park residents with a six-month eviction notice in March. The businessmen say they plan to build luxury townhomes on the site overlooking Old Tampa Bay.

Their four-page defamation suit claims that between March 22 and April 12, Brooks used the Web site, www.frontstreetassociation.com to defame their character. The complaint lists six statements that it contends Brooks said or published on the Web site, including a suggestion of criminal wrongdoing, that the suit says were false.

Neither Sullivan nor Schoenbaum returned phone calls, nor did Robert W. Boos, the plaintiffs' attorney.

Brooks calls the defamation claim "all lies."

He said he created the Web site about a month ago to keep residents and the public informed about the homeowners' plans to oppose SAB.

"I created it in self-defense," said Brooks, 54, a computer network contractor."They (SAB) were trying to take over our place, and we wanted the world to know about it."

The residents' lawsuit, which lists 52 plaintiffs, claims that Anchor North Bay residents should have been given the right to buy the park from the former owner, Hometown America of Chicago. It also contends that once SAB purchased the park, the buyers concealed their intentions of changing the use.

There are 11 instances listed in the suit where residents contend that Sullivan, Schoenbaum or both told residents that they did not intend to change the mobile home park's use.

The suit also claims that SAB violated the park's written policy of giving 12-month eviction notices.

The 31-page lawsuit also alleges that SAB did not remove downed trees or electrical wires in the park and did not fix lighting and plumbing problems.

"What my clients want is to be treated fairly. They don't want to be paying full dollar and not getting what they should," said Joe Magri, the residents' attorney. "They want to get the rights the statute envisioned for them."

Magri said the residents would ultimately like a judge to stop the eviction and give residents a chance to purchase the park.

Nicole Johnson can be reached at njohnson@sptimes.com or 727 771-4303.

[Last modified May 4, 2005, 00:58:13]