A big housing project planned near Disneyland Resort is off the books.
The Anaheim RV Village, a 293-site motor home park, once was the source of controversy when it was eyed for condominium towers and hundreds of other homes during the peak of the housing boom.
The land, next to Ball Road and Harbor Boulevard, sold recently for $10 million.
Mother Colony Group LLC, a Santa Ana-based investor, was the buyer. The investor’s managing partner, Dudley Frank, also has a stake in two other local mobile home parks, according to brokers.
Anaheim RV Village totals about 9.3 acres and contains 274 recreational vehicle lots, as well as 19 campsites. The sale price also includes a nearby 1.7-acre commercial property, which is just off the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.
Larger retailers, including a major pharmacy chain, have expressed interest in building stores and restaurants at the commercial portion of the property.
The park sold at a land value of about $21 per square foot and a cost per site of about $31,000, according to brokers. It was a cash deal.
The property,which previously was known as Travelers World RV Park,wasn’t expected to be a motor home park a few years ago.
The prior owners, led by Santa Ana-based developer Urban+West, planned a major housing redevelopment when they bought the property in mid-2006.
The price of that deal wasn’t disclosed, although the developers said at the time of the deal that they landed a $17 million loan to help fund the transaction.
The proposed development, called Parc Anaheim, was envisioned to have 449 homes, including two 10-story towers, plus some shops and offices.
Along with a declining housing market, the project also fell in the crossfire of Walt Disney Co.’s battle with the city of Anaheim and other developers,primarily Irvine-based SunCal Cos.,over proposed housing projects next to Disneyland.
SunCal Project
In 2007, SunCal unsuccessfully sought to get Anaheim city approval to build 1,500 condos on 26 acres near Disneyland that were zoned for a hotel and similar uses.
Disney contended that homes didn’t fit well with the area’s hotels, shops and other tourist venues and said the proposed changes could impact the tax base for the area.
The Anaheim RV Village is about a 15-minute walk from Disneyland and falls within the boundaries of the Anaheim Resort District, despite being on the opposite side of the freeway of Disney’s amusement parks. That made development more complicated than the owners first expected.
In mid-2007, the prior owners opted to upgrade and re-open the RV park, which had been closed for about a year, while sorting out longer-term development and entitlement issues for the property.
Urban+West’s plan “was collateral damage” from the Disney-SunCal development fight, said Douglas Danny, senior director of the national manufactured home communities group of brokerage Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.
Danny represented the sellers in the latest transaction. Don Nourse and Jim Nourse, from the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., represented the buyers.
Other Bidders
The listing attracted close to a dozen offers from both developers and mobile home operators, according to Danny.
The current RV park’s occupancy has been close to 25% since reopening two years ago, according to Danny. The new owner is expec-ted to focus on improving occupancy, he said.
Monthly rents run from $750 to $1,150, according to the RV park’s Web site.
The new owners are looking into redeveloping the commercial portion of the site, and will be discussing options with the city in the upcoming months, according to Don Nourse.
