At mobile home park, half a rent increase better than whole

By Tony Cook (contact)

Saturday, Dec. 22, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

The residents of Cactus Ridge Mobile Home Community are getting relief from steep rent increases, even if the park's owner is making no guarantees about its future.

Ray Koroghli, manager of the company that owns the park, agreed to scale back a $200 increase in monthly rent that went into effect this month. That rental rate amounted to an increase of more than 45 percent for some residents and drew criticism from local politicians because the park's residents are senior citizens. Many live on fixed incomes and some have disabilities.

Anni Vilches, president of the Cactus Ridge homeowners association, said the news would help ease anxiety at the association's Christmas party today.

Her husband, who lost the use of his legs to diabetes, said the extra $100 a month will make a big difference for the residents.

"That's like hitting a home run," John Vilches said. "That's twelve hundred bucks a year for these people."

Koroghli agreed to chop the rent increase in half after meeting this week with Clark County Commissioners Bruce Woodbury and Chris Giunchigliani. The county developed Cactus Ridge in 1998 to accommodate residents of another mobile park that was closed because of expansion at McCarran International Airport.

Only about 50 of the roughly 190 homes in the park, situated alongside Interstate 15 between Richmar and Serene avenues, are owned by those whom the county transferred. Some of them say airport officials promised reasonable rents and a place to live for the rest of their lives. Residents worry those promises have been forgotten.

Many saw the rent increase as an attempt to force them out, clearing the way for more profitable development.

Koroghli denied that as the motivation for the rent increase. He spoke about the controversy for the first time on Wednesday during a meeting with the Sun at the downtown office of his attorney, Todd Bice.

Koroghli said his company had not increased rents since buying the property, even as costs have gone up and he and his investors have lost money.

He has committed to the reduced rent increase for 12 months, at which point he'll reassess market conditions. The original rent increase would have brought the park's rates closer to what is charged at other mobile home parks, he said.

Koroghli said it shouldn't come as a surprise that he and his investors didn't pay $32 million for the land just to run a mobile home park.

Bice, his attorney, put it this way: "It is not a question of if this property will be developed. It's a question of when."

If he decides to close the park, Koroghli said, he will follow all applicable laws, including a state law that requires mobile home park owners to move residents and their homes if the property is converted for another use.

Koroghli said he chose to speak with the Sun because his name and reputation were being tarnished in the media. If residents want to blame someone for broken promises, he is the wrong target, he said. He and his partners did not know about or agree to any guarantees of rent control or future uses of the park when they bought it.

Bice noted that the airport could have put a deed restriction on the land when it sold the park, but that probably wasn't an attractive option because it would have fetched a much lower price.

Randy Walker, the county's aviation director, said federal law wouldn't have allowed the airport to restrict the land's use for reasons unrelated to airport operations. As for any promises made to residents, he said: "If someone told them that who had no authority to say that, then I feel bad. But we have to abide by all the federal laws."