Minnesota Housing Sues Schierholz & Assoc. to Prevent Closure of Manufactured Home Park

Minnesota Housing announced today that it has sued Schierholz and Associates, Inc., the owner of Broadmoor Valley manufactured home park in Marshall, to prevent Schierholz from closing the park in December 2025. In 2022, as a condition for receiving $500,000 in grant funding from Minnesota Housing through its Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment Program, Schierholz agreed to operate Broadmoor Valley as a manufactured home park with affordability restrictions for 25 years. The lawsuit, filed in Ramsey County District Court, alleges that Schierholz intends to violate the grant agreement by closing the park in December 2025 and that Schierholz has already violated the grant agreement by raising lot rents by 12% in January 2025.

“Protecting Broadmoor Valley residents and preserving the Broadmoor Valley property as an affordable manufactured home park is Minnesota Housing’s priority, and that’s what the agency hopes to achieve through this lawsuit,” Commissioner Jennifer Ho said. “The availability of affordable housing is a growing concern all over Minnesota, both in Greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro area. Minnesota Housing has a finite amount of funding available for affordable housing projects around the state, and we intend to do all we can to ensure that groups that accept state funds are living up to their end of the bargain.”

Schierholz first applied for funding from Minnesota Housing in 2021. Despite agreeing to the terms of the grant agreement in June 2022, Schierholz began to undermine its commitments within months. For example, in January 2023 Schierholz declared chapter 11 bankruptcy in Colorado Bankruptcy Court and attempted to use bankruptcy procedures to remove the protections afforded to residents by the grant agreement. Schierholz then attempted to raise rents by 33% in May 2024 before reversing course after Minnesota Housing stepped in. Schierholz then notified Minnesota Housing and Broadmoor Valley residents that it intended to close the park in November 2024. Despite spending only $150,000 of the $500,000 in grant funds awarded to it, Schierholz has applied for additional funding from Minnesota Housing in 2022 and each year after.

Minnesota Housing’s Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment Program is a grant program to fund infrastructure improvements or the acquisition of manufactured home parks. The program addresses the needs of aging manufactured home communities around the state and prioritizes projects based on health, safety and critical need improvements. It also prioritizes leveraging support from local municipalities or projects converting a community to a cooperative ownership model.