By Nathan Duke
Staff Writer

About 110 residents from housing parks Medford Farms and the Village of Glen Falls showed up at the Hillsborough County Courthouse, where attorneys for resident group Medvil asked to stop the sale of the housing parks to Hometown America, in order to allow them time to build a case against the park owners. (Nathan Duke Photo)

Attorneys representating residents of two manufactured housing parks have asked for a preliminary injunction to allow time to build a case against the owners of Medford Farms and Village of Glen Falls, whom residents say have violated an agreement to sell the parks to them.

Medvil, which is composed of 208 residents between the two housing parks, alleges that Beverly Kilmartin, who owns the two parks, violated an agreement to sell the parks to the residents and is instead in talks to sell the properties to Chicago-based manufactured housing park operators Hometown America LLC.

Judge Phil Mangones, who presided over the hearing, said he will make a decision for the case to proceed in the court within about a week.

If the case should proceed, Medvil attorney Ovide Lamontagne said they would need 30 to 60 days to collect information before a hearing could take place. Harris estimated such a hearing would take one or two days.

Changing terms

About 110 residents from the two parks filled the courtroom on Wednesday, Aug. 3, at the Hillsborough County Courthouse hearing.

Lamontagne said a contract between Hometown and Kilmartin stipulated that if Medvil could match the $10.55 million asking price for the parks, she would sell it to the residents association.

He said Medvil matched the price, but Kilmartin then pushed it up to $10.7 million, which Medvil again matched.

“If the tenants association comes forward and matches the offer, it means that the agreement (between Hometown and park owners) is terminated and the owners are obligated to sell to Medvil,” he said.

However, after the $10.7 million price tag was reached, Kilmartin switched legal counsel and new terms were made, said Lamontagne.

“Now we are here talking about things that did not appear in the original agreement,” he said. “Everyone knows it is much better to figure out problems outside of a courtroom, but Medvil would like to control its own destiny.”

Scott Harris, an attorney for Kilmartin, said Kilmartin’s hesitation in selling the two parks to Medvil, which she began in 1980, is their upkeep.

“From her perspective, this is not so much about the money, but about the preservation of the legacy that she began more than 20 years ago,” he said. “Hometown America has a long record of managing places like (the two parks), while Medvil has no track record.”

However, Lamontagne said the upkeep of the communities was never mentioned among the original terms of sale for the parks.

“If legacy is so important, it should have been in the original purchase and sale agreement,” he said. “To change the agreement now is nothing more than an onerous attempt to make the purchase (of the parks) for the residents more difficult. Rather than control their own destiny, they would have an out-of-state multimillion dollar corporation controlling it for them.”

Lamontagne said residents could face irreparable harm if the original agreement is violated.

“Real estate is unique property,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, ask people in the courtroom if they think the land on which their home rests is unique.”

Harris said although Kilmartin’s hesitancy to sell to Medvil stems from upkeep concerns, park owners have the right to raise the asking price for the properties.

“Every seller of homes has the right to raise the ante if another potential bidder comes along and wants to sweeten the deal,” he said.

Medvil member Annette Brunette said she hopes the court allows Medvil the opportunity to purchase the two parks. However, she said she had hoped the sale could have been settled out of court.

“It is a shame that it had to come to this, but sometimes you have to get the law involved,” she said.