JAY — Residents of the Hidden Circle mobile home park in Jay are on the way to purchasing the park after the out-of-state owner accepted an offer from a newly formed resident cooperative.

The park, which includes 37 lots, is owned by New Riverside Farms LLC, a Florida-based real estate investment company that also owns the Lambert Street and Pine Haven mobile home parks in Jay.

While the sale has not yet closed, the seller has accepted the purchase offer submitted by the Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative. The agreement is entering a due-diligence period expected to last about 110 days, with a potential closing in mid-May.

Lorri Nandrea, an organizer with the Maine Labor Climate Council, confirmed that the seller accepted the cooperative’s offer but said the transaction is still in its early stages.

The effort follows years of resident concerns about rising lot rents and deferred maintenance under outside ownership.

“The land owners, they do nothing,” resident Tanya Dwyer said during a news conference in late November 2025. “There are a lot of older folks in the community who are wheelchair bound … Some are taking care of young kids who have mental disabilities. Everybody is going through a lot and (the landlords) don’t want to do anything to help.”

Like many manufactured housing communities, residents of Hidden Circle own their homes but rent the land beneath them, a structure that can leave tenants vulnerable when parks are sold to outside investors.

Residents said lot rents increased repeatedly after New Riverside Farms purchased the park about six years ago. At the same time, they reported ongoing maintenance concerns affecting safety and quality of life.

Jay resident JoAn Gray said her lot rent was increased again in October 2025, rising by $50 to $325 per month. “I hate to believe this of people, but they just don’t care about other people,” Gray said at the November news conference. “I truly believe the only thing they’re interested in is getting their lot rent every month.”

Organizing efforts intensified in late 2025 after residents received notice that the owner planned to sell the parks. The notice came just days before a new Maine law took effect granting mobile home park residents the right of first refusal when a park is put up for sale.

With assistance from the Maine Labor Climate Council, the Western Maine Labor Council and the Cooperative Development Institute, residents organized to form the Hidden Circle Residents Cooperative and submit an offer.

Nora Gosselin of the Cooperative Development Institute said the purchase process formally begins once the purchase and sale agreement is finalized, after which the cooperative will work to secure financing and complete inspections.

If completed, the purchase would transfer ownership of the land to the resident cooperative, allowing decisions about lot rents, maintenance and long-term planning to be made locally rather than by an out-of-state owner.

Residents of the Lambert Street and Pine Haven parks also participated in advocacy related to rent increases and park conditions, including public testimony before the Jay Select Board, but were not part of the cooperative purchase.

The Lambert Street park is too small for the resident-ownership model used by lending partners. Pine Haven residents did not reach the threshold required to trigger the right-of-first-refusal process.

Gov. Janet Mills referenced the future Hidden Circle resident-owned mobile home park during her State of the State address on Jan. 27, citing it as examples of efforts to preserve affordable housing across Maine.

Advocates say resident ownership has become an increasingly important tool as investor interest in manufactured housing communities continues to grow statewide.