More than 60 mobile home owners at CastleGate Estates near Wentzville have received notices that they must vacate the park, as a developer moves forward with plans to replace part of the community with a shopping center. Residents say the notices gave them as little as 60 days to leave, upending the lives of retirees, families with young children and people with disabilities who have called the park home for years.
According to STLtoday.com, residents were told their mobile homes must be relocated by February 1, 2027. That timeline conflicts with a report from First Alert 4, which says residents were told to move out by December 1, 2026 — leaving an unresolved gap between the two reported deadlines.
Among those affected is Paula Trone, who told STLtoday.com she has no place to go and described feeling anxious, chaotic and a little hopeless. Trone said she worried about being put out on the street in her wheelchair and cane with her two dogs, a fear that underscores how disruptive the move could be for residents who rely on neighbors for groceries or rides to doctor visits.
An 18-Acre Redevelopment Takes Shape
The developer, CastleGate LLC, plans to turn roughly 18 acres of the neighborhood into a shopping center, with the possibility of replacing additional mobile homes with townhouses down the line, the station's report notes. The community sits along Highway Z, south of Interstate 70, in St. Charles County. CastleGate has said the project aligns with the county's 2030 Master Plan, which designates the Highways Z and N intersection for commercial development, per the same account.
The St. Charles County Planning and Zoning Commission approved the project on October 21, with a final vote by the county council expected in November. County officials told the outlet that CastleGate applied for rezoning on September 17 and sent eviction letters to tenants just five days later, on September 22 — before the zoning commission had even taken its vote.
Notice Periods and Payouts Vary by Household
CastleGate has said the majority of homeowners in the impacted area were given 120 days notice, while renters received 60 days, and the company says it will consider extensions beyond 60 days up to 120 days on a case-by-case basis. Families interviewed by the station said they were being offered between $7,000 and $16,000 after completing their moves, though it is not clear whether that range applies to every affected household.
St. Charles County told the station that the eviction is within the property owner's legal rights and that the county has no control over the landlord's decision. For residents, the bigger obstacle may be finding somewhere to go at all: many said other mobile home parks do not accept mobile homes that are older than 10 years, sharply narrowing their options for relocating older units rather than abandoning them.
A Pattern Playing Out Nationwide
CastleGate Estates is far from an isolated case. NPR has reported that mobile home parks are home to 22 million people across the country, even as corporate investors account for roughly a quarter of park sales nationwide — a dynamic rooted in the fact that residents typically own their homes but not the land underneath them. At Lee's Trailer Park in Revere, Massachusetts, NPR found that a sale to an entity managed by Helge Capital led to eviction notices for a new housing development, with roughly 100 people already gone and just 17 mobile homes remaining by the time of that report.
Similar displacement has unfolded elsewhere this year. In Anchorage, Anchorage Daily News reported that South Park Estates was being cleared for a proposed townhome development, with about 35 mobile homes remaining and an owner offering $6,000 to residents willing to vacate. A 2024 city report cited by the paper found Anchorage has 38 manufactured housing communities totaling 4,600 units. In Michigan, MLive reported that residents of Mona Lake Mobile Home Park in Muskegon Heights were given until September 15 to vacate after the owner chose to sell, prompting Public Health Muskegon County to host a resource fair covering housing, moving services, school enrollment, legal assistance and senior services. MLive also noted that the owner of Kristana Manufactured Home Park near Lansing initially gave tenants just four days to move out in 2025 before that timeline was extended.
For now, CastleGate Estates residents are left watching the calendar as the St. Charles County Council prepares for its final vote next month, with no indication from officials on how the conflicting relocation deadlines will be reconciled.
