Mobile homes going condo

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Mobile homes going condo
Bowless Creek residents told to move by April 30
MELISSA FOLLOWELL
Herald Staff Writer

BRADENTON - New condos and townhomes may soon be replacing some of the area's less permanent waterfront communities.

Residents of Bowlees Creek Mobile Home Court have known for some time that the land they are living on will soon sprout condos.

In January 2005, Gulfside Homes purchased the park for $6.2 million with plans to begin construction on the property in the near future.

Bowlees Creek residents have been told the final move-out date is April 30, but Brian Anderson of Gulfside Homes said he is willing to extend that deadline if construction is delayed.

"We're going above and beyond what the state requires," Anderson said.

Gulfside purchased the park and then purchased the trailers from their owners for more than the state was offering. Some still feel the prices were extremely low.

Resident Tom Derby has nowhere else to go when he has to leave Bowlees Creek Mobile Home Court at the end of April. Derby owned two of the mobile homes in the community.

Mobile home living is not something he would jump into again, even if the money was there. "Not unless I own the land underneath. This is the first and last time I'll buy a home on rented land," Derby said.

Derby worries about his neighbors, especially the elderly ones. "Hopefully they have a place to go. I don't," Derby said.

Anderson said that his company has taken an active role in helping residents find housing, including an elderly woman who has been trying to get into an assisted living facility for some time.

The plan is to build urban-designed townhomes and condos on the property.

"We've worked hard to make sure that it is the appropriate use for the land," Anderson said. "Change is hard but it's more often good than not."

The owner of Holiday Cove RV Park on Cortez Road is looking for options for the park as insurance and property taxes continue to ebb away at profits. The resort park's canal-front slips have been a vacation destination for northern visitors for quite some time but Federal Resort Properties, which has owned the property for more than five years, is looking at three different plans for the park's future.

One option is low-rise condos that would fit with the style of Cortez village.

"We would like to see it fit in with the maritime community," said Kevin Button, operations manager for Federal Resort Properties.

The condos would actually mean fewer units per acre than the property's current use and Button said a traffic study conducted by the company showed a reduction of traffic by about 21 percent.

In its current usage, there are 14 units per acre, if condos were to replace the them, there would only be 8.8 units per acre.

Another option the company is investigating is what Button called "RVminiums." Federal Resort Properties would actually sell the plots to RV owners, who then would be responsible for maintenance and utilities.

"You would always have a place to park your RV as the owner of the site," Button said.

The company has also looked into whether or not the county might be interested in the canal-front property as maybe a place for a local maritime museum or a boat-building business with a boat ramp.

"We're looking into a few different things, the land just isn't going to sprout condos," Button said.

The rumor mill is constantly churning about the future of mobile home parks throughout Manatee County.

Neighboring counties Pinellas and Hillsborough have actually seen more mobile home parks disappear than Manatee.

"Down here, a lot of the mobile home parks went co-op. Once you're a co-op, buying everybody out is a bigger deal because you have to deal with individual owners," said Dale Friedley of the Manatee County Property Appraisers Office.