ST. PAUL — Housing developments in Gaylord and Redwood Falls were among properties selected to receive 2023 Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment funds Thursday.

El Nuevo Amanecer (The New Dawn) Cooperative Gaylord Mobile Home Park was awarded $1,199,258.00 for infrastructure redevelopment.

The cooperative functions similarly to a traditional homeowners association. Cooperative members can vote for board members. The cooperative will make decisions on long-term park management such as homeowner dues, infrastructure projects and other property management decisions.

Gaylord City Administrator Steve Helget said the park is privately owned by Northcountry Cooperative Foundation (NCF) of Minneapolis, operating and acting on behalf of the park owners, which prepared the grant application.

“They’re looking at installing all new water and sewer infrastructure and rebuild the roadway. They’re planning on doing electrical improvements too,” said Helget.

“They became a cooperative last year after Northcountry approached them and applied for the grant for them. Before that, the (31-lot) park was owned by a private party,” he added. “It’s always nice to see improvements that are needed.”

The park purchased was a collaboration between NCF and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency . A Minnesota Housing grant through the Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment program enabled residents to purchase their community out of bankruptcy.

All El Nuevo Amanecer households work at the local agriculture processing facility.

Northcountry Cooperative Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides education, technical assistance, services and programs to cooperative organizations that serve member-owners with self-help resources.

Normandale Mobile Home Park, with 48-units in Redwood Falls, was awarded $440,000 for infrastructure redevelopment.

Mobile home park owner Brian Ertel of Hopkins said he plans to rebuild the storm sewer, roads, curbs and parking pads.

“We may do water and sewer if we have enough money this time around. We have about $900,000 to work with,” said Ertel.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity. I believe in the product. It can be the answer for moderate-priced housing that affords people financial freedom and autonomy at the same time. I’m thankful Minnesota Housing put together a program like this and people including Redwood Falls EDA Coordinator Briana Mumme and City Administrator Keith Muetzel made it happen,” he added.

Ertel said he hopes to begin the project next spring and be complete with it by this time next year.

He talked about why he has funds to add to the 2023 state funding.

“We’ve had bids that exceeded the amount received. We’ll do as much with it as we can. To me, it’s a positive thing. I think it’ll be good for residents, the community, country and employers in town that are having a tough time attracting employees because they don’t have viable housing options. I think it should be good for everybody,” Ertel said.

“We have room to grow. We’re in the repositioning process. We’re bringing in new homes. We have one brand new one and one nearly new,” he added.

For more information, visit https://wwwmnhousing/gov