One of Albany’s most blighted neighborhoods may have gotten a new lease on life earlier this month when Darrel Ealum closed on the purchase of the controversial Mimosa Trailer Park on Clark Avenue for a reported $1 million. During an interview last week Ealum vowed to pour in an additional $500,000 to clean up the neighborhood.

“We had been in negotiations to purchase the property (from Mimosa Moble Home Park, LLC of Delray Beach, Fla.) for more than a year, and it was very frustrating,” Ealum said. “I made a final definitive offer, but they still wanted more money. I washed my hands of the deal at that point, then last week they called me back and said ‘let’s do this.’”

At one time the 13.8 acre tract had 94 single-wide trailers on the property. Today, according to tax records and Ealum, just 32 occupied homes are on the site, and four other trailers, stripped of their siding by thieves, are under court-approved demolition orders.

Ealum and his wife, Linda, through Ealum Estates, LLC, own four other mobile home parks in Dougherty and Lee Counties, and he sees the purchase as a win-win for his company and the city of Albany.

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