THE SAGA OF SEAL BEACH SHORES MHP
The Refinance of a Resident Owned MHP
Seal Beach Shores is a 125-site resident owned MH park in Seal Beach, CA. The park is not the traditional mobile home park – it’s near the beach, it’s the only “affordable” housing in Seal Beach, and it has homes ranging from expensive double-wides to decades old single-wides (surrounded by conventionally constructed ‘cabanas’).
The SAGA OF SEAL BEACH starts with the original purchase by an affordable housing non-profit (the ‘NFP’) in 2000 using tax-exempt bond financing, combined with loans from the CA MPROP program and the City of Seal Beach Redevelopment Agency (‘RDA’).
The NFP (under duress) bowed out in 2009 and the resident group (Seal Beach Shores, Inc. – ‘SBS’) took ownership of the park, thereby inheriting a very complex financing structure and affordable income obligations under three (count ’em – 3) Regulatory Agreements, with lots of outside supervision.
SBS slogged on from 2009 for about 8-10 years, keeping site rents low while doing their best to maintain and upgrade the park.
About 2017, several Board members contacted Deane Sargent (PMC Financial) about refinancing the park. Interest rates were low, any prepayment penalties from the existing financing were gone – piece of cake, right?
Wrong.
The basic deal is simple – get a new loan, pay off the bonds, move on down the road.
Unfortunately, SBS had to deal with multiple Bond, State and Local entities (and their attorneys), each with their own interests. The RDA had been dissolved years earlier, so even finding out who to contact proved a challenge. There were multiple levels of government approval, all complicated by the Pandemic, and all further complicated by the complexities of the various documents and agreements.
Bottom Line: The refinancing took four (count ’em – 4) years. The lender (the LENDER!) said “In 26 years of commercial real estate lending, this was by far my hardest deal. But, we got it done!!!”
SBS ended up with a $4.637 million 20-year fully amortizing loan with a fixed interest rate of 3.29%. The loan, when combined with various reserves (no longer needed for the bonds), paid off the existing primary debt, paid off various other debts, provided reserve funds for park infrastructure upgrades and contingencies, and lowered the SBS monthly debt service by 40%.
The transaction took a major leap of faith over several years by various Board Members, who are to be congratulated for a huge success. Members of the team (SBS staff, advisors, and attorneys) hung in there through out the process.
PMC Financial Services (Deane Sargent) is pleased to have served as Advisor to the SBS Board and to have arranged the financing.
If you want to refinance YOUR park, contact Deane. (It will probably be easier than the Seal Beach Shores deal.) Deane.f.sargent@gmail.com; 415-271-3919.
Deane Sargent and PMC Financial Services have been helping mobile home park resident groups and cooperatives to organize and find financing to buy their parks for over 20 years.