The Washington Post Business :  A billion-dollar empire made of mobile homes
 By Peter Whoriskey February 14, 2019
 SMYRNA, Tenn. — It’s not fancy. But in the exurbs of Nashville stands part of a billion-dollar real estate empire. The Florence Commons community consists of about 300 mobile homes of varying vintages, mostly single-wide, many valued at less than $30,000 apiece, set 20 feet apart from one another. The occupants of some will tell you: The floors buckle. The ceilings crack. The doors don’t shut right. Their homes are sinking. “Okay — it’s a trailer park, not a fancy gated community,” said Jessica Boudreaux, 33, who lives there with her two daughters. “If people could, they’d live somewhere else.” Yet Florence Commons, along with more than 200 other mobilehome parks around the United States, has produced hefty returns for Stockbridge Capital, a $13 billion private-equity firm, and its major investors. Their company for mobile-home parks has produced tens of millions for investors in recent years and saw a return on investment of more than 30 percent between late 2016 and the end of 2017, according to documents. Those ample returns arise in part from their willingness to boost the rents of residents of mobile homes. As one investor’s report on the company put it: The “senior management team has a A billion-dollar empire made of mobile homes –  Read more:

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