NEWPORT BEACH : Residents to Buy Mobile-Home Park

The 268 residents of the Bayside Village Mobile Home Park closed a deal Tuesday with the Irvine Co. to purchase the park for $12 million, according to an Irvine Co. spokeswoman.

“We have been told by our escrow company that our tenants have met the requirements of the agreement,” said Dawn McCormick, spokeswoman for the Irvine Co. “It has been a long process and we appreciate the diligent work that they put into this.”

This concludes a yearlong effort by the residents to buy the 56 acres beneath their mobile homes and a 279-slip marina. The residents have wanted to purchase the property to prevent rent hikes that could be imposed by their leaseholder, the DeAnza Assets Corp. of Beverly Hills.

Residents hope the purchase will give them control over their monthly rental rates. But that control comes at a price. Each resident--most of them are senior citizens on fixed incomes--will have to pay an extra $200 to $300 per month to finance the loan.

The average rent in the park is currently $870 and ranges from about $600 to a high of $1,600, said attorney Gerald Gibbs, who represents the Bayside residents.

The DeAnza Assets Corp. owns the lease on the property and can collect rents for the next 18 years.

Residents were able to come up with $1.3 million for a down payment in September so the deal could go into escrow. The remainder of the loan, about $11 million, came from the Far East National Bank and a private party, Gibbs said.