A Fresh start for Minnesota’s newest manufactured home park cooperative

Moorhead, MN—For more than two years, residents of Greenwood Mobile Home Park have been working to purchase their park from its current owner. On Monday, Oct. 22, they became the third manufactured home park cooperative in Minnesota.

Greenwood has had a history of troubled management, deferred maintenance and an owner who was accused of predatory lending practices for nearly 10 years. With its large share of problems, Greenwood was a source of anxiety for the rest of the Moorhead community. The situation escalated to a point where the Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota office contacted the
Minnesota attorney General, who filed a lawsuit against the owner. This resulted in the owner being ordered to sell the park to residents through Northcountry Cooperative Foundation (NCF), a nonprofit cooperative housing developer.

NCF, the lead developer on the project, reached out to many members of the Moorhead community to facilitate the purchase, partnering with People Escaping Poverty Project (PEPP), a local non-profit, to coordinate resident meetings and cooperative education efforts. With the help of PEPP and NCF, residents formed the Bennett Park Cooperative, an organization with a
strong-willed resident board of directors, which has worked tirelessly to finalize the park purchase.

The resident board has also reached out to other community partners to build relationships and help facilitate the purchase.  The cooperative has had several meetings and made presentations to the Moorhead City Council.

Trinity Lutheran Church has donated funds to assist homeowners to purchase their membership in the cooperative, making becoming a member that much easier for many of the families who live in the community.

The Bennett Park Cooperative members are making progress toward their dream of a better community. The co-op was the proud recipient of free design work from the American Institute of Architects, Search for Shelter Design Charrette—support that NCF applied for on their behalf. The residents plan to pursue the aesthetic changes the architects have recommended for their community.

NCF applied for grant funding from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) and received $500,000 for a home repair and replacement program and for capital improvements for the park. The home repair/replacement program was created to assist residents who want to fix their current home, or buy a new manufactured home. A local CAP agency, West Central Minnesota

Communities Action Inc., will help the cooperative administer this program. A predevelopment loan from the Local Investment Support Corporation through Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation assisted the cooperative with due-diligence expenses.

Project financing was provided by Twin Cities Co-ops Federal Credit Union, Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund and Minnesota Housing.

NCF is very excited to announce Bennett Park Cooperative as the third manufactured home park cooperative in Minnesota. Thank you to all of our partners who helped make this happen.

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