NCF Cooperative Housing Manager, Julie Martinez, discusses project details with Sungold’s engineer consultant, WSB.

A little after two years since becoming Minnesota’s 9th resident-owned community, Sungold Heights is nearly finished with a $2.6 million infrastructure project. The project replaces the property’s aging water and sewer systems and reconstructs the roads throughout the community. The project, which is slated to be complete by October 2021, has garnered local attention and was featured in the Worthington Globe. A press release can be found on NCF’s website.

The project is funded by grants from Minnesota Housing, a loan from the Southwest Initiative Foundation, and the corporation’s reserves.

A recent MPR story highlighted the problem of deferred infrastructure maintenance in manufactured home communities and the effect that infrastructure failure has on the homeowners who rent the land. As NCF’s Executive Director highlights in the story, landowners often choose not to upgrade the infrastructure in their communities because it is capital intensive and there is little economic incentive to make improvements.

The Sungold Heights project demonstrates the difference that resident-ownership makes when it comes to the upkeep of critical infrastructure systems. When the decisions about what happens to the property are in the hands of the homeowners who live there, there is a built-in incentive to improve the functional use of the property and improve curb appeal.

Stay tuned for announcements about Sungold’s project completion celebration!