A resident-led cooperative formed by the 98 households in Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park — located between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs — went under contract this week to buy the property for $23 million.
Their offer, submitted in early June, was accepted this week by the park’s corporate owner, Maryland-based Horizon Land Management.
“Todavía se me enchina la piel, y muy esperanzada de haber logrado esto,” said Maria Judith Alvarez, a resident of Cavern Springs. “Más de un año [hemos] trabajado en esto, así que me siento muy esperanzada, no solo por nuestras familias, sino por lo que pueda pasar en este valle.”
(“I still get goosebumps, and I feel very hopeful that we were able to accomplish this,” said Maria Judith Alvarez, a resident of Cavern Springs. “We have been working on this for more than a year, so I feel very hopeful, not just for our families, but for what this could mean for the future of this valley.”)
Alvarez is one of about 300 people who live at Cavern Springs and is the president of the Sopris Mountain Collective, a community governing group residents formed as they transition to a cooperative-ownership model.
Mobile home residents typically own their homes but rent the land beneath them, leaving them vulnerable to displacement or rent spikes if the land is sold or redeveloped. In resident-owned parks, residents collectively purchase and govern the land through a nonprofit cooperative, paying monthly fees toward a loan much like a mortgage.
Alvarez and her fellow residents first learned Horizon intended to sell Cavern Springs last May when they were notified that a Texas-based investment group, Axia Realty Partners, had submitted a competing offer. The same bidder competed last year with Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley residents to buy their mobile home parks, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
Under state law, Cavern Springs residents had 120 days to purchase the park themselves, but they were granted an extension to June 13 after they found a discrepancy between the English and Spanish sale notices.
The resident-led Sopris Mountain Collective and their nonprofit partners — Mountain Voices Project, West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, and Boulder-based Thistle Community Housing — have since raised about $11.1 million toward the $23 million purchase price.
“Se siente un orgullo y satisfacción y de poder decir que ahora tienes algo que puede ser tu patrimonio, porque puede ser la casa para tus hijos, para tus nietos,” Alvarez said. “Este es un beneficio a largo plazo para las familias, no es para este momento, pero sí para un futuro.”
(“It feels like a pride and satisfaction to be able to say that now you have something that can be your legacy, because it can be the house for your children, for your grandchildren,” Alvarez said. “This is a long-term benefit for families. It’s not for this moment, but for the future.”)
While the successful offer marks a critical milestone for residents, Alvarez said the coalition still hopes to raise an additional $1.9 million before closing on the property in October to help reduce monthly loan repayments.
The fundraising goal is based on current borrowing and infrastructure cost estimates. That subsidy is intended to help keep residents’ monthly loan repayments affordable and cover potential capital improvement costs.
Local governments have contributed $5.5 million — the majority of funding so far. Their funding contributions are structured as forgivable loans in exchange for preserving the park as affordable housing. Contributions include $2 million from the city of Aspen, $1.5 million from Pitkin County and $1 million from the town of Snowmass Village. The town of Carbondale and city of Glenwood Springs have also pledged to contribute $500,000 each. Garfield County, Eagle County and the town of Basalt declined to contribute.
Residents and their nonprofit partners also received a $4.5 million contribution from the Colorado Health Foundation last month and have raised about $1 million over the past year through community fundraisers and other private donors.
Even with the subsidies, residents will they’ll still have to secure the remaining funds through loans. Their primary lender is ROC USA Capital, the national affiliate of Thistle, which helps manufactured home parks transition to resident-owned communities, or ROCs. Another smaller loan will be provided by the Impact Development Fund — a regional financial institution that provides flexible loans for affordable housing.
Monica Muniz, the vice president of Sopris Mountain Collective, has lived at Cavern Springs for over three decades and runs a salon in Carbondale.
“It’s been a long road, and it’s not over yet,” Muniz said. “We had a lot of money to raise, and we got a lot of no’s at first, but here we are.”
Many of the residents and families at Cavern Springs have lived on the property for decades and earn below 80% of the area median income, according to the housing coalition.
Muniz said raising the additional $1.9 million could also help create a rent-assistance fund.
Cavern Springs residents and their lending partners have also budgeted about $2 million for potential infrastructure upgrades. This estimate could change in the coming weeks, however, depending on the outcome of property and engineering inspections.
Once the due diligence period is complete in August, the resident-led cooperative will review final loan terms, interest rates, capital repair costs and projected average monthly loan repayments to decide whether to proceed with the purchase.
After nearly a year and a half of organizing, negotiating, and fundraising, Muniz and Alvarez said they are determined to keep loan repayments affordable and close on the deal.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way, … and not giving up hope is the biggest thing,” Muniz said.
The coalition will continue fundraising until September 30.
Editor’s Note: The Spanish-language interview quotes were transcribed in both Spanish and English with assistance from Bianca Godina at Sol del Valle.
This story was produced through a social justice reporting collaboration between Aspen Journalism and Aspen Public Radio.
