Tenants worry what’s next

By Tony Cook

Monday, Sept. 24, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

This is a story of eminent domain gone awry. It's a story about the anxiety that mobile home dwellers experience as the land beneath their homes swaps hands. And it's a story about a bunch of feisty senior citizens who want to know how it got to this point.

The story begins in 1998. The Clark County Aviation Department, which runs McCarran International Airport, decided that the residents of two manufactured home communities near the airport - Las Vegas Mobile Home Park and Treasure Lodge - needed to go to give the airport more breathing room.

So, as required by state law, the county moved the residents it forced out , to a piece of land it owned near Serene Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard South.

They called it Cactus Ridge Mobile Home Community. With fresh landscaping and recently paved roads, it didn't seem like a bad deal. In fact, many residents figured that with the county as their landlord, their homes would be safe and their rents stable. Some residents say airport officials told them they would be able to live there the rest of their lives.

But then things changed.

In a complicated land swap that still leaves most residents scratching their heads, the county transferred the land to real estate developer Howard Bulloch in 2003. Residents saw their modest rents go up. Bulloch said he was just passing through property tax and insurance costs.

Then things got worse.

Bulloch sold the park, which had cost him $8.7 million, for $32 million in December 2004 to a company called Las Vegas Mobile 18, whose owner is listed as Ray Koroghli. Now, twice removed from the initial county ownership, the residents of Cactus Ridge are afraid the new owner might want to convert the land into something more profitable, displacing them once again. They wonder whether the promises made years ago are still remembered.

What many residents consider a troubling clue came in the mail a couple of weeks ago from the property management company. The notice informed them that their rents will increase $200.80 a month, starting Dec. 31. For those now paying $443.55, that's an increase of more than 45 percent.

Most residents of Cactus Ridge are senior citizens and many live on fixed incomes. Some have disabilities.

"Just when you think you are going to get ahead a little bit, someone knocks you down," said Thomas McDonald, a 62-year-old resident.

He leased a spot in the park in 2003, just before the county got rid of the property. He was paying $395 a month with the airport as landlord. Now he's paying $544.65 a month. In December, that will jump to $745.45.

These days, fewer than 50 of the park's roughly 190 mobile homes are owned by those who were moved nearly a decade ago from the Las Vegas Mobile Home and Treasure Lodge parks, homeowners association President Anni Vilches said.

She and her husband, John, are among those who were moved.

"They were promised that they would have reasonable rent and a place to live for the rest of their lives," said John Vilches, 76, who has lost parts of both legs below the knee to diabetes.

Like many of the others who moved, they have a long-term lease that can't be changed by the new owner until it expires. Their lease, which prevents rent increases of more than 10 percent per year, ends in August. If the park owner increases the Vilches' rent by the same amount as others' , their rent will jump from $420.43 to $621.23 a month. The last of the long-term leases end in 2009, Anni Vilches said.

In recent years the new owners have allowed only month-to-month rentals, she said.

Although they've got more time to prepare for an increase than many of their neighbors, the Vilcheses are no less upset. They see it as an attempt to force residents out and make way for a more profitable development, such as the strip malls, subdivisions and casinos that have replaced more than 4,000 mobile home spaces in recent years.

"It looks like they are trying to out rent us," John Vilches said.

Under state law, mobile home park owners must move residents and their homes, which can cost as much as $10,000 per home, if they convert the property to another use. Thus, a park owner could save considerable money by using large rent increases to prod residents to leave .

For now, that remains simply some residents' suspicion, because no alternate use for the land has been proposed. Neither the property manager nor the owner returned phone calls from the Sun.

Residents have managed to get the attention of county commissioners, though.

Commissioners Bruce Woodbury, whose district includes Cactus Ridge, and Chris Giunchigliani, whose district used to include the Las Vegas Mobile Home and Treasure Lodge parks, sent letters Thursday to the owner and property manager outlining concerns.

"When the airport sold the existing park to a private owner, we were all given assurances that the residents, who are primarily senior citizens on fixed incomes, would be protected from major increases such as the one you just implemented," the letter says.

"We feel strongly that you should reconsider this action in light of the history of this park and the devastating effect on so many vulnerable senior citizens."

However, there may be little the county can do because it gave up its stake in the land. State law does not cap mobile home rent increases, Woodbury said.

But, he added: "If and when these people do come in for some land-use change, we'll keep in mind whether they've treated these people fairly."