Residents of two Richmond Highway mobile homes parks are once again facing changes to their home.
Engleside Trailer Park and Ray’s Mobile Home Colony are being sold by current owners, Ahora Company and Rapido Company, to out-of-state real estate investment firm Pacific Current Partners on Nov. 15.
This is not the first time the mobile home park residents have organized to save their community. In 2020, they opposed a proposal to redevelop the 26 acres and increase density on the site. The proposal was part of the Fairfax County Site Specific Plan Amendment Process (SSPA).
Image courtesy of Fairfax County
On Jan. 26, 2021, the Board of Supervisors ultimately voted to move the proposal forward for further study, but only with significant revisions including a 1:1 replacement of affordable housing already on the site and other recommendations resulting from the Affordable Housing Preservation Task Force, due in part to the awareness raised by mobile home park residents. During the meeting, Chairman Jeff McKay acknowledged the unique difficulty mobile home residents face for investing in a depreciating asset that is located on land they will never own.
The parks will also face impacts from the upcoming widening of Richmond Highway by the Virginia Department of Transportation, including a loss of 54 feet between homes and the highway, change in road grade and the removal of 14 buildings.
Residents Mobilize In an Effort to Prevent Sale
Residents of the mobile home parks were surprised to learn in September of this year that their parks were being sold to a West Coast based real estate investment firm, Pacific Current Partners, for $24.2 million. Pacific Current Partners specialized in owning and managing manufactured housing and RV communities, according to their website.
With the help of Tenants and Workers United (TWU), an Alexandria-based non-profit to advance social justice, residents scrambled to come up with an offer of their own. They were able to find a non-profit buyer but the short timeline, complicated process, and the high price of the Pacific Current Partners offer meant their efforts were not enough to prevent the sale which is expected to go through on Nov. 15.
Residents have expressed concerns of what the new ownership might mean for their community like possible rent hikes or displacement. Residents also hope that their experience will lead to improvements at a local and state level to the process for coordinating and presenting a competing resident purchase offer for future mobile home park sales.
Mobile home park residents, Tenants and Workers United and Legal Aid Justice Center will host a press conference providing details about the sale, residents’ efforts and concerns at 10:30 a.m. at 8501 Richmond Hwy., Alexandria, VA 22309.
