LOS ANGELES, CA – Happy Home Communities (HHC), the mobile home park and RV park investment arm of Gelt Inc., a Los Angeles-based multifamily real estate investment and asset management firm, has acquired a mobile home park portfolio in central and northeast Pennsylvania. HHC acquired the three-property 439-space portfolio from Horizon Land Company for $13 million.
“HHC liked this portfolio because it is a stabilized and cash-flowing investment that will produce strong returns for our investors. It also offers value-add opportunities by managing the operating budget more efficiently, and bringing in affordable manufactured homes to fill approximately 48 empty lots,” said Ellie Davis, director of acquisitions and asset management for Happy Homes Communities. “Over the next 36 months we are planning to improve the communities by upgrading common areas as well as adding amenities including playgrounds to each of the properties.”
Davis added that A. Hunter Property Management, Inc., a 23-year old firm focused strictly on the management of manufactured housing communities throughout Pennsylvania, has been retained to take over management responsibilities for the portfolio.
Following is information on each property:
Birchwood Village Estates is a 209-space, 26.26-acre mobile home park located at 1946 Wyoming Avenue in Exeter. It is currently 82 percent occupied. The property is located right off of Wyoming Way, which is a local arterial providing convenient access to Highway 81 and nearby amenities including the Mohegan Sun Pocono Racino and the 900,000-square-foot Wyoming Valley Mall.
Timberend Mobile Home Community is a 153-space, 70.6-acre mobile home park located at 528 Ruben Lehrer Road in Muncy just outside of Williamsport. It is currently 85 percent occupied. The property is adjacent to Highway 180 and is located down the road from the 835,000-square-foot Lycoming Mall, a regional mall for the area.
Wedgewood Mobile Homes Community is a 77-space, 19.16-acre mobile home park located at 23 Minton Drive in Selinsgrove that is situated along Highway 15, a major north-south arterial for the region. It is currently 90 percent occupied. The property is just down the road from the Susquehanna Valley Mall, a 745,000-square-foot regional shopping center.
Jonathon McClellan of Marcus & Millichap brokered both sides of the transaction.
Gelt officially launched Happy Homes Communities in May 2017 and acquired its first mobile home park in Bakersfield, Calif. In addition to this recent portfolio acquisition, HHC has two other properties under contract and plans to acquire an additional 1,000 mobile home park spaces over the next 12 months.
About Gelt, Inc. Gelt Inc. is a regional real estate investment and asset management company that seeks to acquire properties in strategic markets in the Western U.S. Since the company's inception in 2008, Gelt has acquired more than 7,000 apartment homes and mobile home sites valued in excess of $1 billion. The firm’s philosophy is to be a prudent steward for its investment capital, to invest wisely, with confidence and intelligence in emerging, constrained markets. Gelt seeks appropriate risk adjusted returns while achieving income from current cash flow and appreciation through superior performance of its assets.
Gelt consists of a team of real estate professionals that possess a wealth of knowledge and expertise in law, real estate, finance, property and asset management, and construction.
Gelt’s additional entrepreneurial companies include Domuso.com and Gelt Venture Capital. Gelt developed Domuso.com, the first financing-as-a-service resident portal for the $540 billion rental payment industry. Domuso offers online certified and financing options for move-in payments, one-time rent payments, debt payments, refunds, and late payments. The company developed its own proprietary risk scoring model to offer point-of-sale financing utilizing rental application data, property operational data, and historical payment history. Gelt Venture Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in companies capable of making large global impacts. We believe automation, mobility, robotics, artificial intelligence, and space tech form the fundamental technology layer transforming our world and we focus on applications of these foundational technologies.
The firm strives to stay on top of industry trends and is always on the lookout for new technologies that simplify life for its leasing agents and help its properties run smoothly.