Arizona-based Carefree RV Resorts closed on the purchase of Seabreeze RV & Mobile Home Park in Islamorada on Wednesday, Seabreeze Associates owner Joe Weiselberg told The Real Deal.
Located at mile marker 87.4, oceanside, on Plantation Key, Seabreeze has 101 RV and mobile home sites, making it the largest mobile home park in Islamorada.
Neither Weiselberg nor Carefree would disclose the purchase price for the seven-acre oceanfront site. As of Thursday morning, the sale had yet to be posted on the Monroe County Clerk’s website.
Bennett Kim, Carefree’s head of acquisitions, said the company plans to rebrand the park, rehab its marina and fix up the property. The Seabreeze renters, most of whom have annual leases and either live at the park full-time or spend the winter there, don’t need to be concerned, he said.
“We’re not going to be throwing anyone out,” Kim told TRD. The property, he added, simply needs some love and care.
With the acquisition, Carefree now counts seven Keys sites within its collection of 103 recreational vehicle and mobile home parks nationwide. San Pedro RV Resort in Islamorada, Riptide RV Resort in Key Largo, Pelican and Ocean Breeze RV resorts in Marathon and Sunset Harbor and Hideaway mobile home parks on Stock Island are Carefree’s other six Keys sites.
Kim said Seabreeze’s Atlantic front locale made the property too desirable to ignore.
“The location is irreplaceable. It’s got a beautiful marina. Strategically, it made sense for us because San Pedro is 500 feet away,” he said.
Seabreeze Associates purchased the park in 2002 for $2.5 million. Soon thereafter, Weiselberg sought to clear out the site and then redevelop it into an upscale RV resort. But the project foundered, first due to strong resistance from the village of Islamorada, which rallied to the cause of park residents, and later due to the collapse of the real estate bubble.
Carefree now counts the 101 Seabreeze rental slips among its 28,000 RV and mobile homes slips nationwide.