In a record-breaking deal that closed on Sept. 22, an Arizona RV resort in Apache Junction with 1,119 spaces sold for $88 million.
"The buyer is a market leader in RV Resort Communities," said Derek Harris, founder and principal of HARRI5, a Scottsdale manufactured housing and commercial brokerage, who represented the buyer in the deal. "They will continue to improve and operate this as one of the nation's premier RV resort communities."
While he declined to identify the buyer of the Superstition Sunrise RV Resort, public records show the buyer is CPI Superstition Sunrise Owner LLC, with the address on file tracing to Washington, D.C.-based private equity giant The Carlyle Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CG).
"This is the single largest transaction from a dollar volume standpoint in Arizona's history for a mobile home or RV resort," Harris said. "It's not a portfolio. It's just one single community."
CPI Superstition bought the luxury 55-plus RV resort at 702 S. Meridian Road, Apache Junction, from a general partnership called Superstition Sunrise that developed the park in 1982. According to the warranty deed, the people behind that partnership are Phillip and Mary Weeks, along with Douglas and JoAnn Champlin and Rudolph Mariscal.
Like other large institutional investors, The Carlyle Group has been hungry for these types of communities, previously closing on a $220 million portfolio of manufactured housing communities in Arizona in April, Harris said.
Carlyle officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Harris has sold more than 13,000 spaces in 55 communities totaling more than $900 million in sales over the past few years.
MIchael Escobedo, associate for the National Manufactured Home Communities Group at Marcus & Millichap, said The Carlyle Group has been very aggressive in RV and manufactured housing buys in Arizona.
"They have taken a long bet on both product types," Escobedo said.
Before this $88 million deal, Escobedo has tracked 15 transactions of RV resorts across the state sold so far this year, with the average price per pad at $28,684.
Most of those RV resorts have sold in the $1 million to $2 million range. The largest deal was the 342-unit Val Vista RV Resort, 16680 W. Val Vista Blvd., Casa Grande, which sold for $15 million on March 12. That property was built in 1984.
