Another date to sell park passes

The sale deadline for the Greenwood Mobile Home Park to a cooperative of its residents passed yesterday, but the sale didn't happen.

The mobile home park's owner, Jack Hoffner, needed time to clear up certain issues before he can close on the sale, said Margaret Kaplan, an attorney representing the Bennett Park Cooperative. There is some debt against the title and city assessments are also due on the property, she said.

But Hoffner remains willing to sell, Kaplan said.

Representatives of the co-op had expected to meet with Hoffner and close Tuesday on the purchase in St. Paul.

Calls to Hoffner and his son Kevin, who oversees the Greenwood property, were not returned. Hoffner's attorney, Reed Mahlke, declined to comment.

A 2005 lawsuit filed by the Minnesota attorney general accused Hoffner of illegal business practices, including unlawfully reselling abandoned mobile homes, court papers say. Hoffner was to sell the park to its residents as part of the settlement of that suit.

Tuesday's deadline was set during June 19 mediation talks. That deadline is not the first to come and go without a sale, as target dates were also set for last October and December.

Co-op board president Brandon Failing said Hoffner and his attorney "do seem to be trying to close the deal."

"It was a little bit of a letdown," he said, but he is "optimistic" that the sale will happen in the "next week or so."

"It's not all that unusual for things not to go perfectly smoothly" with these kinds of large real estate sales, said Warren Kramer, director of housing development for the Northcountry Cooperative Development Fund.

Despite the delay, representatives of the co-op signed all the necessary paperwork yesterday, and their lenders are "on board," Failing said.

"There's nothing left for us to do," he said. "Everything that we can do is done."

The title company is holding the money for the sale and will release it when the seller's obligations are met. Failing said the co-op will pay $596,000 for the property.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Shane Mercer at (701) 451-5734