Mobile-Home Park Takes New Route In Federal Way

Eager to travel and enjoy the company of people their own age, Don and Rosemary Kendall say they have found the best of all worlds in Federal Way:

The convenience and security of mobile-home park living without the risks.

The Kendalls recently sold their Longview home and moved into Cedar Creek, a new development for people older than 55 and one of the first condominium mobile-home parks in the state.

Rather than lease, they were able to buy the small lot for their three-bedroom manufactured home.

With the purchase came a guarantee against escalating rents or tenant-management disputes long associated with traditional mobile-home parks where spaces are leased.

When Cedar Creek is full, residents will manage common areas and set park rules through a homeowners' association.

About one-third of the 76 homelots in the 9 1/2 acre development have been sold. The spaces - about 4,250 square feet - are selling for from $33,000 to $37,000.

Homeowners are spending another $40,000 to $60,000 for wood-sided homes that range in size from 1,000 to nearly 2,000 square feet. Residents who have moved in pay a $45 monthly condo fee that covers upkeep, water, sewer and cable charges.

Cedar Creek, being developed by two Federal Way businessmen, is one of about a dozen cooperative or condominium mobile-home parks in Washington.

``There's too much insecurity and volatility in parks these days,'' said Joan Brown, executive director of the Washington Manufactured Housing Association.

The instability helps explain why fewer than 20 percent of manufactured homes built today go into parks, she said. Most mobile homes are placed on private lots.

Wendell Verduin, president of the King County chapter of Washington Mobile Home Park Owners Association, says private ownership can bring residents control over how a park is run and can help low- and moderate-income households become property owners.

Even so, he expects traditional mobile-home parks to remain popular.

Many seniors citizens, for instance, prefer to leave the task of operating a park to others, he said.

Because condominium parks are rare in the Puget Sound area, Cedar Creek is drawing attention.

``We will be very interested to see how sales go and how that works,'' said Dan Watson, project coordinator for the King County Housing Authority.

The agency is planning Glenbrook, a mobile-home park southeast of Kent for low- and moderate-income households.

The plan calls for the residents to eventually own and operate the development as a condominium, Watson said.

He said the Housing Authority favors a condominium over a co-op because of the appeal of individual ownership of each lot. In a co-op, each resident, rather than owning the space their home sits on, owns one share in a corporation of all the tenants.