Hynes Group Selling Holiday Acres
and Everything Else They Own

Jan. 15, 2019

At the January 3rd Selectmen's meeting, Tara Reardon of the NH Community Loan Fund (ROC-NH) and reps. from a local bank spoke about their work providing loans for mobile home residents who wanted to purchase their mobile home park and turn it into a locally-owned cooperative park. Current residents would not have to join the co-op, but they might be charged a higher park fee.

The residents at Holiday Acres first learned that the Hynes Group was selling the park when they all received certified mail on November 20, 2018. That mailing contained copies of a Purchase & Sale Agreement between the Hynes Group and Ryman Hospitality Properties (RHP in Michigan is one of the largest owners of manufactured home parks).

The second page of the mailing contained the following amazing facts. The Hynes Group was selling all their properties. This included Holiday Acres in Allenstown, King's Towne Park in Epsom, Pine Tree Park in Maine, Tanglewood Mobile Home Park in Keene, Lamplighter Mobile Home Park in North Conway, and Spring Valley Mobile Home Park in South Carolina. According to the agreement, the purchase price for the whole shebang was $78,000,000.

State law (TITLE XVII HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT, Section 205-A:21) requires the owners to first notify the residents of the price, terms, and conditions of the offer, and give the residents 60 days to come up with their own P&S agreement. So the clock started ticking on Nov. 20th.

RHP wanted the properties and had already put $1,000,000 down, so the residents may have to match the asking price. Meetings are being held at the parks in Allenstown, Keene, and North Conway as those residents try to work through the process of buying their parks.

The purchase price for Holiday Acres was stated as $18 million for the 183 acre property. That's about $98,000 per acre, which seemed awfully steep, but it's unknown how many of the mobile homes are owned by Hynes and what value they were assessed at. According to Exhibit G of the agreement, the purchase price consisted of $13,500,000 for real estate, $4,450,000 for "the goodwill associated with such Manufactured Home Communities," and $50,000 for personal property. Who knew that goodwill could be that expensive?

The CAI Tax Map for Allenstown shows a total tax value (TOTTXVAL) of $9,635,200, which must be a recently assessed value, but again is that the value of just the land? It was not known why the sale price was almost double the assessed value.

At the Selectmen's meeting, Ms. Readon stated that the residents had until Jan. 18 to complete their own P&S Agreement and then until Jan. 28 to get funding.

What You Can Do

Get in touch with people you know at Holiday Acres and lend them your moral support and your honest advice. If you live in a co-op park in town (Catamount Park for example), you can offer your insights about how your park was able to convert to a co-op. This is definitely a hard decision for all of them, especially when it comes to the financial burden involved.