7 minute read
A Potpourri of Notable Individuals
by George Allen, CPM Emeritus, MHM-Master
GGeorge Gradow is a very private land developer, and longtime land lease community portfolio owner/operator. One of his touchstone life events? He’s married to
Barbi Benton, established American model, actress and singer, as well as former Playboy bunny.
Then there’s the late Maurice Wilder, the biggest real estate mogul you’ve never heard of. Maurice began his lengthy career selling mobile homes. In the 1970s he began acquiring (then) mobile home parks; also buying up farms, cattle ranches, and RV resorts, and later, office buildings. His business acumen? Bought the Westin Harbour Island Hotel, in Tampa, in 2005, for $32.8 million and sold it a decade later for $46.5 million. His eclectic interests? Buffalo herds in the
Dakotas, Ostrich farm in Florida, and a classic car auto museum in Branson, Mo.
There are many additional tales of community owners who’ve been topics of conversation, and unique events that have shaped manufactured housing history over the decades:
Jim Clayton. If you haven’t read his “First A Dream,” especially the second edition, then you know little of
Jim’s history as an entertainer (Ever been to one of his
impromptu guitar/vocal concerts at a MH trade show? Really impressive!) Founder of Clayton Homes, and past owner of land lease communities. Get his autobiography from the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart.
Charles “Chuck” Fanaro, in my opinion, is the most visionary individual to impact the combined 1) HUDCode manufactured housing design/production, and 2) land lease community development/operations business model! How so? His Saddlebrook Farms (now under new ownership) in Grayslake, Ill., continues to be the nation’s premier multifamily rental property, featuring upscale but affordable manufactured homes of Chuck’s unique design and manufacture. Read the complete Saddlebrook story in “SWAN SONG”, available via educatemhc.com Perhaps someday the industry will memorialize Chuck’s significant housing and community accomplishments with induction into the prestigious RV/MH Hall of Fame.
Speaking of the”SWAN SONG”, a history of land lease communities and record of HUD Code housing shipments from 1955, don’t miss reading the true short story titled “An Error to Die For”. It describes the only known instance in manufactured housing history, where a mass murderer sought revenge for a failed multi-community acquisition deal gone bad, by murdering his attorneys and their clients in a downtown San Francisco high rise office building on July 1, 2003. Part of the tale (little to nothing is mentioned about the properties involved) is told online under the search heading: ‘101 California Street Shooting’. And we’ve had other ‘bad boys’ during the history of our industry. A Chicago mob bagman – and community owner, during the 1970s. And a murderer of single women for their money, whose wife was a community manager at the time, is still serving his life sentence in prison. Early one, we talked about his interest in partnering to publish an industry newsletter.
I think it important to remember and list names of American military veterans I’ve known during my career in manufactured housing and land lease community ownership: • Dick Ernst, USA, home-only loan finance consultant, RV/MH Hall of Fame • Lou Vela, USA, real estate mortgage loan originator. • George Porter, installation consultant, USA &
Vietnam helo pilot, retired & RV/MH Hall of Fame • Spencer Roane, MHM, portfolio community owner,
USN, & RV/MH Hall of Fame • Andy Reisinger, portfolio community owner, USMC • Jack Holefelder, community owner, USAF, • Gary McDaniel, REIT pioneer, USAF & Vietnam veteran, now retired & RV/MH Hall of Fame • Myles Sampson, portfolio community developer and owner, USA, now deceased • Curt Hames, MHRetailer, community developer/ owner, USA, deceased, RV/MH Hall of Fame • Ron Dunlap, state association exec, USA, now retired, RV/MH Hall of Fame • Burt Dickman, MHRetailer, community developer/ owner, USA, deceased, RV/MH Hall of Fame • Joe Kelly, state association exec, USA, now retired,
RV/MH Hall of Fame • Darrell & Harrell Cohron, MHRetailer & community owner, USA, both deceased, RV/MH Hoff • George Allen, CPM, MHM, community owner/ author, USMC, Vietnam Vet, RV/MH Hall of Fame
And I’m sure there are many more I’ve missed; and to those I apologize for the oversight. »
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Years ago, I penned a feature article for Manufactured Home Merchandiser magazine that identified multi-generation owners/operators of land lease communities. Some continue to be in business, e.g. five generation Holefelder family in southeast Pennsylvania; the Tunnell family in Delaware. (Think Baywood and Pot Nets) is well into its third generation; and the Cohron family has entered its third generation. Harrell and Darrell’s autobiography,”The Trailer Twins”, is available via the RV/MH Hall of Fame. Additional second to third generation family firms include the Hames family (i.e. Hames Homes) in Iowa, Landy family (think REIT, UMH Properties, Inc.) in N.J., and the Scoular family in South Dakota. Sadly, one three generation family recently left the business, upon their selling of the Jensen Communities portfolio. Read their founder’s Horatio Alger-like story in Kris Jensen Sr’s autobiography, “A Danish American”. It’s available only within the book stacks at the RV/ MH Hall of Fame library in Elkhart, Ind.. And there are also two multi-generational fee- management firms: Bessire & Casenhiser in California, and Newby Management in Florida.
Have we had some unique personalities in the manufactured housing industry? For sure. A personal favorite, one I’ve written about before, is Bob Broph (‘Bross’), now retired, living seasonally in Missouri & Florida. Still have a Christmas card he sent me decades ago, where the person’s name – who originally sent it to Bob, is crossed out, and replaced with Bob’s signature, along with the quip:”It’s been a rough year!” Oh, and he was known to attend state association banquets wearing a T-shirt with tuxedo screen print emblazoned on the front. At one time he operated the largest MH retail sales center, and owned more (then) mobile home parks, than any other player in the Midwest. And I must include the late Ron Richardson on this list. Early on in his multi- community ownership career he married Las Vegas model and personality Joanie; then later, his princess Sinni Singh from India. During Ron’s long career he founded, and was past commodore of the Lake Sahara Yacht, and Lake Mead Yacht Clubs. Ron was also one of 19 community owners present at the 8/31/1993 meeting when steps were taken to eventually birth, in early 1996, the National Communities Council division of MHI.
I’ll end this walk through manufactured housing and land lease community history by listing additional autobiographies authored by pioneers and notable ‘players’ over the decades: • John Crean, founder of Fleetwood Enterprises – today a CAVCO Industries firm, wrote “The Wheel & I”. Case bound copies with gilt-edged pages and boxed in heavy cardboard cartons are available for purchase via the RV/MH Hall of Fame. • George Goldman’s “The Road Less Traveled”, provides interesting insights into not only his community investments, but also the Woodall
Publishing Co. that popularized the STAR system of mobile home park quality measurement.
Available via Amazon.com • Alvan L. Schrader penned his”No Respect at
All…A PATH TO MILLION$” as a very personal record of his life and work, but wound up making very timely and insightful remarks about the industry and realty asset class. Get your copy via the RV/MH Hall of Fame. • Most recent addition to this unique reading material is the Scoular family’s “Leap of Faith”. Jim,
Ralph and Jeff write of the manufactured housing industry and their family of “unmovable values”.
Order your copy from the RV/MH Hall of Fame. • George Allen’s recently published “From SmittyAlpha6 to MHMaven” describes his adventure of a lifetime from childhood through a combat tour in Vietnam, and the 40-plus year business career that followed. Visit educatemhc.com MHV
George Allen has owned and fee-managed land-lease communities since 1978. He’s a former MHI Industry Person of the Year and a member of the RV/MH Hall of Fame. He has been designated a Certified Property Manager-Emeritus and a Manufactured Housing Manager-Master. He’s also a senior consultant and staff writer with EducateMHC. Allen can be reached at (317) 346-7156 and gfa7156@aol.com.
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