The latest? Harbor Lights, near the VA hospital. The developer made an offer the owners couldn't refuse.
By SHARON L. BOND, Times Staff Writer
Published June 17, 2005
[Times photo: Willie J. Allen Jr.]
John Loder, president of Sun Vista Development Group, plans to build a mix of town homes and condominiums on the site of Harbor Lights Mobile Home Park and Marina, just off Bay Pines Boulevard.
SEMINOLE - The Harbor Lights Mobile Home Park, which looks out on Boca Ciega Bay, is slated for redevelopment as a multimillion dollar luxury residential complex.
Developer John Loder of Sun Vista Development Group has a contract to buy Harbor Lights for $60-million. He plans a $300-million project with nearly 400 residences, including townhomes, single-family dwellings and luxury condominiums. Prices will range from $600,000 to $1.75-million. Buyers will have first choice of boat slips and docks.
Loder, whose family owns Crabby Bill's Restaurants, has put a $2-million deposit on the mobile home park at 9191 Bay Pines Blvd., with a closing scheduled for September. He said he made an unsolicited offer to the Travis family, which started the park in the 1960s and had no plans to sell it.
"To the family's credit, they made us wait and offered the park to the residents," Loder said.
So far the roughly 400 people who live in the 313 mobile homes at Harbor Lights have been unable to come up with the $45-million price for the park. The additional $15-million Loder agreed to pay is for the marina next door.
"We are trying to work out a plan. Anything we can do to stop the sale," said Pat Laczo. She and her husband, Frank, have lived at Harbor Lights since 1989. He is in his 80s; she in her late 70s.
They are among the 40 percent of the park residents who live there year round. The majority are seasonal residents.
"We don't have another home up north to go to," Laczo said. "A lot of veterans and widows of veterans" live in the park. "They are close to the VA (at Bay Pines VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg) and don't want to move."
If the sale goes through, Loder will have to give notice to residents. State law requires he give them six months to move.
"It's a delicate situation," Loder said. "The people are living on rented land. Mobile homes are very dangerous in Florida."
Residents own their homes, and many have spent substantial amounts of money on them. Laczo said she and her husband spent about $60,000 over the years to upgrade bathrooms, buy new appliances and install new carpets.
Others at Harbor Lights recently moved to waterfront lots, spending $140,000 to $150,000, said Mike Rizzo, 78. He is a year-round resident and has lived there for 14 years. Tenants have been coming to him and others with their worries about what will happen to them.
"The last person to buy in bought on the water and spent $155,000," Rizzo said. "That was only four or five months ago."
Another spent almost that amount to get on the water, and it represented his life savings, Rizzo said.
"I had a widow come to me and say she had $700 in savings and thought she would be here until the end of her days." Rizzo questioned why the park's owners would let residents make new investments if they planned to sell.
David Bacon, a St. Petersburg attorney who represents the Travis family, said the owners did not plan to sell.
Bacon said he met with tenants several months ago and told them the family had no plans to sell "whatsoever."
But he also told them "that one day somebody is going to offer a price and there will simply be no way to justify a rental mobile home park with that type of land value."
That's what happened with Loder. He made an offer and the family voted to take it, Bacon said. Royal Travis, son of the park founder, is semiretired, Bacon said, and other family members were not interested in running it.
Thursday, Loder was looking at site plans. He does not have a name for the new development, which he said was being financed by a group of local investors. He would not say who is in the group.
Plans for the complex still are conceptual, so Loder could not say how many buildings would replace the mobile homes. He plans to keep the 300 high and dry racks in the marina and 70 wet slips and possibly add 30 more docks.
Staff Writer Aaron Sharockman contributed to this report.
HARBOR LIGHTS MOBILE HOME PARK
PURCHASE PRICE: $45-million for the park; $15-million for a marina next door
NUMBER OF RESIDENTS BEING DISPLACED: About 400 people in 313 mobile homes
TO BE BUILT: Nearly 400 residences, including town homes, houses and condos priced between $600,000 and $1.75-million
