Dream Island Sale Fails

Dream Island sale fails
Green Courte's mobile home park contract expires
By Tom Ross (Contact)
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Steamboat Springs — Green Courte Partners’ contract to purchase Dream Island Mobile Home Park no longer is in effect. But representatives of the park’s owner say they are talking without any sense of urgency to other potential buyers.

“We will be looking at a number of options for the property and hope to take the time necessary to pursue a comprehensive plan for Dream Island,” John Eberle said. “Whatever we do, we will consider our residents, partners and the city of Steamboat Springs.”

Eberle is the chief financial officer for Colorado Real Estate Investment Co. in Littleton. The company is owned by members of the Vukovich family, who also own manufactured housing neighborhoods in nine states, and two in Craig.

Eberle confirmed that the contract for Dream Island announced in May has lapsed, as did Jim Cook, Steamboat Springs representative for Green Courte.

Green Courte is the developer of Alpenglow and Howelsen Place, two residential and commercial developments nearing completion on Lincoln Avenue. They are also in the final planning stages for River Walk, on the east end of downtown. They had planned to modernize the housing in the mobile home park to meet the affordable housing requirements generated by a boutique hotel they hope to build in River Walk.

However, Cook said, the due diligence process for the park was complex because of issues related to its proximity to the Yampa River and aging utilities. Time ran out on the contract.

“We had a short fuse on that one,” Cook said. “We had some very progressive discussion with people at the city, but the site was complicated.”

Specifically, Cook said they learned that 16 of Dream Island’s mobile home sites closest to the Yampa River are not just in the floodplain, but also in the floodway.

The term floodway, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, refers to “the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood.”

FEMA requires that, “Communities must regulate development in these floodways to ensure that there are no increases in upstream flood elevations.”

Base flood elevations are shown on FEMA’s official flood insurance rate maps. The relationship between the base flood elevation and a structure’s elevation are used to compute insurance premiums.

Redevelopment of the park’s 16 pads in the floodway would require mediation.

“The only way to do that would be to change the river, but you wouldn’t be allowed to do anything that would increase the (base flood) elevation upstream,” Cook said.

Cook confirmed Green Courte’s contract on the 14-acre mobile home park was for a purchase price just more than $5 million.

Seth Rollert, a real estate broker who has consulted with CREICO on other projects and is passively marketing Dream Island, said CREICO does not feel any urgency to sell the mobile home park.

“We’ve talked to a number of people who have a sincere interest in the property, but we’re not ready to commit to any of those,” Rollert said. “They’ve pretty much made a determination they don’t need to sell it.”

Cook acknowledged his group was dis­­­appointed their contract fell out, saying it would have worked well in tandem with River Walk.

“Who knows, maybe they’ll come back to us in the future,” he said.

— To reach Tom Ross, call 871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com

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