The developer planning a 298-apartment building on the site of the Chesterfield Mobile Home Park said he wants to minimize disruption to families there, but residents are already organizing opposition to the plan.
Mike Lang, who leads Amerwest Development LLC of West Palm Beach, Fla., said he would be “as equitable as possible†should his deal to buy the site from a company controlled by the Behymer family go through.
That means a relocation package — though Lang didn’t want to offer details yet — and making sure residents of the roughly 140-lot park wouldn’t have to move in the middle of the school year. The soonest they would have to move is the summer of 2018, Lang said. Their lot leases are month-to-month.
“I’m sensitive to the fact that they’re there,†Lang said in an interview. “I’m not interested in creating huge upheaval.â€
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With the likes of Monsanto, Bunge, Reinsurance Group of America and Pfizer building new employment centers in Chesterfield, Lang made it sound as though redevelopment of the 50-year-old park in one of the region’s most affluent suburbs was inevitable.
to cater to young workers who can’t yet afford a home or prefer renting. There hasn’t been a new apartment building in Chesterfield since it was incorporated in 1988.
“Yes, we’re going to disrupt people’s lives,†he said. “But the question is: Am I going to do it, is someone else going to do it?â€
The Chesterfield Mobile Home Park, near Old Chesterfield and Wild Horse Creek roads, was under contract to Bob Brinkmann of Chesterfield-based Brinkmann Constructors, but Lang said he now controls that contract.
With zoning hearings still ahead, his purchase remains far from certain. Park residents planned to gather Thursday at Ascension Church in Chesterfield to plan their talking points for a 7 p.m. Monday zoning hearing at Chesterfield City Hall.
“We’re trying to get a solid front,†said Edward Ernstrom, a chiropractor in Chesterfield who has lived in the mobile home park for 10 years and has become an unofficial resident organizer. “They didn’t give us a whole lot of time to mobilize.â€
Ernstrom moved to the park while he was a student at nearby Logan University. He owns a practice, Ernstrom Spinal Rehab, just down Wild Horse Creek Road and is on the board of the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce.
He plans to stay in Chesterfield, eventually moving into a house as his practice grows, but he said many of his neighbors, a large portion of whom are Hispanic, might struggle to afford another home in Chesterfield.
“There’s people there that don’t have an exit plan,†Ernstrom said. “That was the living style they could afford.â€
Park rules require residents to own their trailers, Ernstrom said, although lot leases are month-to-month. He called the neighborhood “stable†and said the park empties out during the day as people head to work.
“A lot of them work for companies like landscaping companies,†he said. “They work in (Chesterfield residents’) homes. They clean their houses.â€
While he said park residents understand that something like this might happen because they don’t own the land, Ernstrom wants to see some form of compensation to help residents relocate.
Lang said he has experience dealing with the controversy of buying an aging mobile home park for redevelopment. But he said any piece of ground he bought in Chesterfield would likely face opposition from nearby homeowners who don’t want apartments nearby.
Indeed, as apartment developers contemplate Chesterfield, a market that hasn’t seen new apartments built in decades while jobs were created by the thousands, homeowners have already stalled one proposal, , near Highway 40 and Schoettler Road.
“We just thought it would be as noncontroversial as anything,†Lang said.
Another apartment project, the $66 million, 345-unit Watermark at Chesterfield Village, is under construction, and its Indianapolis-based developers paid a premium for land that already had the necessary zoning. It and the 40 West Luxury Living project envision single-bedroom units renting at about $1,400 per month.
Lang said he aims for a price point below that. And he’s not seeking any development incentives.
“We’re building, let’s say, things normal people can afford,†Lang said. “This is a market-rate project that stands on its own.â€
