Chesterfield mobile home residents might have to move as apartment developers eye suburb | Business
The only mobile home park in Chesterfield seems out of place. Since it was built 50 years ago, glass-and-steel corporate headquarters and upscale subdivisions have slowly surrounded it.
In a suburb that means big homes, new shopping centers and shiny office campuses to most St. Louisans, it’s a wonder there still is a place to park a trailer.
But developers have turned their sights to the Chesterfield Mobile Home Park, where roughly 140 mobile homes offer some of the most affordable housing along the Highway 40 (Interstate 64) corridor. If the developers can rezone the land, residents could be forced to try and move their mobile homes.
“This has been sitting here since 1987,” said resident Charlie Oakes, gesturing to the mobile home he lives in with his wife, Lisa Oakes. “We don’t know if it’s moveable or not.”
Despite the political pitfalls of buying land out from under mobile home owners, some of whom may struggle to move their trailers, the developers’ interest shows just how much interest there is to build a particular product in Chesterfield: apartments.
The developers want to rezone the 12-acre mobile home park to accommodate up to 298 apartments, and they aren’t the only ones vying to add some density and swank rental options to Chesterfield.
Site work has just started for the Watermark at Chesterfield Village, a $66 million, 345-unit apartment complex at Chesterfield Parkway and Lydia Hill Drive, just south of Central Park.
Another, 40 West Luxury Living, initially pitched 258 units at Highway 40 and Schoettler Road, but it has run into major opposition from residents concerned its density would hurt property values and tarnish the suburban feel of nearby cul-de-sacs filled with single-family homes.
It’s fair to say residents of the west St. Louis County municipality aren’t used to these types of proposals.
“I don’t believe we’ve had any new apartment complexes built since the city was incorporated” in 1988, said Justin Wyse, the director of Chesterfield’s planning and development department.
But developers are keenly interested in building luxury apartment options to appeal to young workers who are employed at the nearby offices of Bunge, Reinsurance Group of America, Monsanto and Pfizer, all of which have built or are building new offices in the area.
Thomas Kaiman, part of the 40 West development team of KU Development LLC and Maplewood-based Mills Properties, pointed to the “substantial number of jobs” coming to the area and said his group expects many tenants would be millennials. There are few rental options in the area where young professionals can find a place near work, he said.
“Most millennials do not have $100,000 to put a down payment on a house in Chesterfield,” Kaiman said.
But the apartments Kaiman’s group plans are far from studios for low-paid peons. One-bedroom units at 40 West were expected to run $1,400 per month, two-bedroom apartments $2,000 and a few hundred bucks more for three-bedrooms.
Still, it’s unclear whether 40 West can overcome opposition from neighbors. Some 500 people packed a public hearing in September and 1,900 people signed an online petition against it. Kaiman said his group is looking at their options but that the project was not dead.
“We continue to evaluate everything,” he said.
Watermark, the project that is likely to be the first new apartment project in Chesterfield’s history, expects to charge about the same for its units, which should open around the end of next year. It paid a premium for land that already had the necessary zoning and wasn’t right next to single-family homes. A complex of condominiums is just to the south of its site.
“We know Chesterfield has historically been pretty anti-apartment,” said Brian Southworth, a vice president at Indianapolis-based Watermark Residential.
But there’s high interest in markets like it, where good jobs are nearby and empty nesters and young professionals can afford higher rents. Add in the fact that there hasn’t been new product in decades, and Watermark zeroed in.
“Areas like Chesterfield are typically inundated with new apartments,” Southworth said.
Adding apartments to a city more accustomed to homeownership isn’t a bad thing, said Mayor Bob Nation.
“I think you need a mixture,” he said. “I think you need a balance. Not everyone’s circumstances are suited to living in a three- or four-bedroom home.”
The last mobile home park in Chesterfield
While not right next to a single-family subdivision, the project targeting the Chesterfield Mobile Home Park land could become a challenge for another reason.
Moving residents of mobile home parks is always contentious. Some trailers are too old to move or don’t meet codes in other mobile home parks. Some residents can struggle to afford paying to move a trailer.
Deysi Perez said she just put a down payment of several thousand dollars on a mobile home and moved to the park from Florissant. She asked management about rumors the park could be sold but was told they would give her more information later.
“A lot of people live here, and nobody told them,” Perez said. “There’s not only me, there’s my kids.”
Management company Iremco Inc. did not respond to requests for comment. Robert Behymer, whose family is an owner of the park through Laclede Mobile Home Park LLC, declined to comment.
The property is under contract to Brinkmann Holdings LLC, whose principal is Bob Brinkmann, CEO of Brinkmann Constructors. Mike Lang, part of the development team, said the group will provide more information in the coming days on the apartment project — The Villages at Bonhomme Creek — and what it could mean for the mobile home park residents.
Richard Callow, a spokesman for the developers, said a relocation package would be offered to residents should the deal go through, but that any potential relocation is a year or more away.
A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 24 at Chesterfield City Hall.
Oakes, the mobile home park resident, plans to be there.
“There’s a lot of kids here and they go to Rockwood School District, which is supposed to be a good school district,” he said. “What kind of school district are they going to go to?”
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