How the Basalt, Aspen mobile home parks purchase will work if successful

In the past several weeks, four local governments and two private businesses have given written commitments of at least $500,000 or more to two mobile home parks listed for sale in Basalt and Carbondale.

Aspen committed $3 million, as did Pitkin County. Meanwhile, Snowmass committed $1 million, Atlantic Aviation $1 million, Basalt $500,000, and SkiCo $500,000. Between just those five donations, there is $9 million on the table. More Roaring Fork Valley local governments are expected to consider committing money in the coming weeks. 

That substantial sum alone will not be enough to buy the mobile home parks, as the owners are asking for a total sum of $42 million for the sale of Aspen Basalt Mobile Home and Mountain Valley Mobile Home parks. Residents, municipalities, and businesses in the valley who are interested in helping the two communities have set their sights on a $20 million fundraising goal. 

To cover the gap between the $20 million goal for these communities and the $42 million asking price, Thistle ROC, a wing of the Boulder-based Thistle Community Housing nonprofit, is advising and facilitating the communities on converting to a “resident-owned community,” or ROC. 

“We just facilitate, so we’re not the lender,” said Tim Townsend, program director at Thistle ROC. “We get a direct line with ROC USA Capital, who only lends to resident-owned communities. When we go into acquisitions like this, we are not the lenders. We don’t even have any ownership in any of the communities. We’re just there to coach them and help them stay successful.”

ROC USA is a national nonprofit that aims to help mobile home parks like the two for sale in the Roaring Fork Valley become ROCs. 

The loan would operate similarly to a standard 30-year mortgage on the two properties in Basalt and Carbondale. If $20 million are raised as a “down-payment,” then the monthly mortgage payment and operational fees that residents in the two communities would have to pay would be similar to what they are currently paying. 

Townsend said $20 million is the fundraising goal because it keeps rent in the communities similar to what it currently is but likely not identical. 

“We ask (these communities) what their rent threshold is, what the max rent could be for them,” he said. “Because we want to aim to try to get them to a space where they can still hopefully afford it, knowing that it’d be really tough to do, to do this without a rent increase.” 

The loan would be paid off in the same timeframe as a standard 30-year mortgage as well, but due to operational costs for mobile home parks, the rent would never fully be zeroed out. Instead, after the 30-year period, monthly rent payments go solely to paying for management costs associated with ROCs and paying for park-wide services like snow plowing. 

Aspen Basalt Mobile Home Park and Mountain Valley Mobile Home Park are aiming to get their offer in before the end of the 120-day window that Colorado Law provides for mobile home communities to make an offer to owners interested in selling their park.