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Homeowners short of goal to buy Bay Pines home park

Mobile home owners lack 32 signatures in a deal to counter the $38-million offered by a developer.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published December 14, 2005

SEMINOLE - A homeowners association fell 32 signatures short this week of keeping their mobile home park out of a developer's hands.

John Loder of Bay Pines Acquisitions LLC had offered $38-million for the park, and Bay Pines residents had 45 days to meet that price to forestall the sale. Their deadline was Monday.

To get that kind of money, about 250 of the park's residents would have had to agree to participate, said Leo Plenski, president of the Bay Pines Homeowners Association. But only about 218 did so, leaving the association 32 signatures short.

But members still have a chance to buy the property if Loder's deal falls through.

Loder's Bay Pines Acquisitions must come up with some earnest money and then has 60 days to make sure nothing is wrong with the property that could derail the deal, Plenski said.

If the deal falls through, that would give the homeowners another chance to buy their park.

"Now that I'm not the first buyer, I want to be the second buyer in case they don't succeed," Plenski said. "I want another shot at it."

Although disappointed that the association was unable to buy the Bay Pines Mobile Home Park, members had some good news Tuesday. A representative of the Bickley family, which owns the park, agreed to limit a rent increase to $30 a month.

Homeowners had gotten a notice in November that the rent on their lots would increase by about 40 percent, or $100 a month.

"He did come down," Plenski said. "They were fair."

Mobile home owners at Bay Pines have been worried since at least last spring about the prospect of losing their homes should a developer buy the land. At that point, they began looking for funding to purchase the park.

They also helped spearhead a statewide movement of mobile home owners to lobby for legislation to help protect them from losing their homes.

Their nightmare became reality a little more than a month ago when residents got a letter from DeLoach & Hofstra, trustees for the Bickley family, that Loder wanted to buy the park.

[Last modified December 14, 2005, 00:14:15]