ST. PAUL — Another lawsuit has been filed against the owners of the Broadmoor Valley mobile home park in Marshall. This time, park owners Schierholz & Associates are being sued by the agency that awarded them a $500,000 grant in 2022. The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency filed a civil complaint in Ramsey County District Court on Feb. 6, online court records said.

The lawsuit alleges that by planning to close Broadmoor Valley at the end of this year, Schierholz & Associates broke the conditions of its grant agreement. The complaint also alleges that Schierholz & Associates raised rents at the park by more than 5% without prior approval from Minnesota Housing.

“Protecting Broadmoor Valley residents and preserving the Broadmoor Valley property as an affordable manufactured home park is Minnesota Housing’s priority, and that’s what the agency hopes to achieve through this lawsuit,” Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho said in a Tuesday news release. “The availability of affordable housing is a growing concern all over Minnesota, both in greater Minnesota and the Twin Cities metro area. Minnesota Housing has a finite amount of funding available for affordable housing projects around the state, and we intend to do all we can to ensure that groups that accept state funds are living up to their end of the bargain.”

Court documents said Schierholz & Associates would have 21 days to file a response to the lawsuit.

In November, Schierholz & Associates issued a notice that they planned to close Broadmoor Valley in December 2025. However, since then the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has said the closure announcement did not meet all the requirements of Minnesota law.

The civil complaint from Minnesota Housing focused on how closing Broadmoor Valley would break covenants that were part of the Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment Program grant Schierholz & Associates applied for in 2021. MHCR grant recipients are required to follow certain conditions to keep housing at the manufactured home community affordable for a 25-year period, the complaint said. Those conditions include limiting rent increases to 5% a year, unless Minnesota Housing gives approval for a higher increase. They also include continuing to operate the property as a manufactured home community during the 25-year period.

Starting in 2024, Schierholz & Associates took actions to try and rescind the grant agreement, the complaint alleges. Those actions included sending Minnesota Housing a check for the $153,751 that had already been distributed to Schierholz & Associates. The complaint also alleged that Schierholz & Associates tried to raise rents for Broadmoor Valley residents by more than 5%, without first getting approval from Minnesota Housing.

The complaint also claims that, by announcing plans to close Broadmoor Valley, Schierholz & Associates violated the requirement to operate it as a manufactured home park for 25 years.

Court documents said Minnesota Housing is seeking a judge’s ruling that Broadmoor Valley rent increases announced in October 2024 are void because they exceeded 5%. They are also asking for a ruling keeping Broadmoor Valley from closing before 2047, and for a receiver to review Broadmoor Valley’s books and records.

Court documents said Schierholz & Associates would have a period of 21 days to reply to Minnesota Housing’s lawsuit. As of Feb. 10, online court records showed no additional documents had been filed yet.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office had previously sued the Broadmoor Valley owners in 2021. A trial in that lawsuit was held Marshall in January. Jurors found that Schierholz & Associates had failed to keep the park in clean, orderly and sanitary conditions at some point after August 2019, but that company president Paul Schierholz did not knowingly participate in that failure.