The foreclosure sale of a troubled Vale mobile home park was stopped in its tracks recently when its owner filed for bankruptcy.
That means uncertainty continues to hover over Treasure Valley Mobile Home Park at 1000 Hope St. in Vale. The park has 67 home sites on four block-long streets. Tenants own their homes but rent the property on which they sit. The foreclosure doesn’t affect their ownership.
Treasure Valley LLC filed its petition for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland on April 9 – just one day before the park was to be sold at auction.
Tenants say they largely have been left in the dark. They said they have not heard from the company or the firm retained to manage the park, Sterling Properties. The managers didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
The bankruptcy petition shows that Treasure Valley kept piling on more debt after it bought the Vale property in 2021 for $2.98 million, according to court and Malheur County assessment records. The petition said the property now was worth $4.56 million.
Treasure Valley LLC reported debts totaling $4.9 million, ranging from $1.2 million owed to Kevin Berg, the previous owner, to $350 owed to an Ontario locksmith. The city of Vale is listed as being due $75,741 for unpaid sewer and water services.
The company said the park and money it had on deposit in various places totaled $5.1 million.
The Chapter 11 filing stops any efforts to collect debts from the company. It is owned by Brooke and Christian Torres, now listing an address in Miami, Florida. They now run a company called Cash Cow Capital.
Brooke Torres had said in emails to the Enterprise last month that she expected to resolve a foreclosure started by Berg last year. She hasn’t responded to subsequent questions and neither has her company’s attorney, Mark Passannante of Vancouver, Wash.
“Nobody has reached out,” said one tenant, David Jackson.
Heather Page, another tenant, said she hasn’t been notified about the bankruptcy either.
A meeting of creditors has been scheduled in Portland for Tuesday, May 6. Under a Chapter 11 petition, a business can get time to reorganize its affairs while resolving unpaid bills. Federal courts advise that there is no guarantee what portion, if any, of debts would get paid.
When the foreclosure proceedings started, tenants were directed to pay their monthly rent to a La Grande company, Eastern Oregon Trail Property Management. That money is being held and not passed on to the owner, and that it is now owed $133,949 in rent, Treasure Valley said in court filings.
The documents indicated that the mobile home park generated $381,000 in revenue in 2023 and in 2024.
Berg’s foreclosure notice said that Treasure Valley didn’t make its monthly payments for several months in 2023. The notice said Berg was owed $2,266,066, including accrued interest. The notice said that Treasure Valley LLC failed “to protect, preserve and maintain the property in good condition and repair.”
The bankruptcy filing shows a string of loans to the company from a Vancouver family after the mobile home park was sold. Treasure Valley used the Vale park as collateral to borrow $1.6 million in October 2022, $500,000 in April 2023, $650,000 in April 2024, $350,000 in June 2024 and $500,000 in August 2024.
The bankruptcy documents provide no explanation for the use of those funds, totaling $3.6 million. An attorney representing the family didn’t respond to requests for comment.
There also is no explanation for $380,000 belonging to Treasure Valley LLC that is being held by Passannante’s law firm. He said in a court filing on April 24 that that money was intended to “cure” the unpaid loan from Berg. He didn’t explain where the money came from or how long his firm has had it.
