Minnesota housing agency sues to keep mobile home park open in Marshall

A state agency is suing the company that owns a southwest Minnesota mobile home park.

The goal is to prevent a possible December closure of the mobile home park, Broadmoor Valley in Marshall, said Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho.

“The Broadmoor Valley residents deserve better,” Ho said in a statement Wednesday.

The lawsuit by the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency accuses Colorado-based Schierholz & Associates of not following the rules of a state grant the company accepted in 2022.

A civil summons and complaint, filed Feb. 6 in Ramsey County District Court, says Schierholz & Associates received a grant from Minnesota Housing for $500,000 in 2022.

The money was meant to improve roads and utilities at the park, and came from the Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment Program, which is funded by legislative appropriations.

But there were strings attached to the state grant. The company had to promise to keep Broadmoor Valley operating as a mobile home park for 25 years. And it couldn’t raise the rent by more than 5% per year without approval from Minnesota Housing.

The lawsuit accuses Schierholz & Associates of breaking these agreements. In November, the company sent a notice to Broadmoor Valley residents that the park would close on Dec. 1, 2025, the lawsuit claims.

Minnesota law requires at least a year’s notice for the closure of a mobile home park, and the company agreed to operate Broadmoor Valley until 2047 as part of receiving the grant, court documents say.

The lawsuit also accuses Schierholz & Associates of trying to raise rent multiple times, including a 12% increase in January.

“Manufactured home park owners like Schierholz & Associates that receive our grants commit to keeping lot rents affordable and keeping the park operating,” Ho said. “These requirements are clearly spelled out in the grant agreement. Schierholz has put these basics in jeopardy.”

Broadmoor Valley management and lawyers representing the company did not respond to a request for comment by Wednesday afternoon.

The lawsuit asks a court to say that Schierholz & Associates is breaking the grant agreement. It also wants the court to:

Schierholz & Associates tried to send the money back to the state in 2024 as part of efforts to unilaterally exit the grant agreement, which it is barred from doing, according to the lawsuit.

This isn’t the first time Schierholz & Associates has been sued. Some residents have complained for years about conditions at Broadmoor Valley. Broken windows, frozen pipes, holes in exterior walls and damage from falling tree limbs were just some of the maintenance failures by Schierholz, they said.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office sued the company and its CEO Paul Schierholz in 2021, alleging that Broadmoor Valley’s roads had been neglected. But a jury in early February mostly sided with Schierholz and his company.

Schierholz & Associates has 21 days to reply to Minnesota Housing’s lawsuit.

Broadmoor Valley is home to about 75 households, many of whom receive government assistance to make ends meet.