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An offer from residents of two mobile home parks in Old Orchard Beach to buy the properties has been rejected by the current owner.
Residents of Old Orchard Village and Atlantic Village learned earlier this year that the owner had a pending offer of $40.4 million for the neighborhood. A state law enacted last fall gives residents a chance to form a cooperative and attempt to buy the parks themselves.
The Old Orchard residents formed the Seacoast Village Cooperative and matched the $40.4 million offer but learned Thursday that it had been rejected.
"The residents met every obligation," said Nora Gosselin with the non-profit Cooperative...
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The park owner got a legitimate offer of around $40 million for his 370-lot park. The tenants mistakenly thought that simply by saying they would match the price the park owner would opt to sell to them. But here’s the catch:
- The park residents have no money.
- The park residents have no experience in buying or operating parks.
- For the tenants to buy the park will require non-profit subsidies and loan guarantees.
- Putting all this together will take a year.
- he corporate buyer can probably close in 60 days with no time, effort or risk to the seller.
There is a thing in life called “time urgency” and if the seller waits a year for the tenants to buy the park and they then fail miserably (which is a 99.9999% certainty) the seller will lose the good corporate buyer who will have moved on. Once again, any sane person would understand that.