The Ascentia Story
Our founder, B. M. Vukovich, emigrated from Yugoslavia to Peru during World War II to escape the Communist takeover. He migrated to the United States in 1968 to provide more opportunities for his family. He did not speak English well, when he arrived in the U.S., he started work as a handyman.
Looking for better opportunities, he studied for and obtained a real estate broker’s license and began brokering real estate transactions. Soon, he began investing in those transactions by contributing his commission as his equity in the properties purchased.
BM Vukovich formed Colorado Real Estate & Investment Company (CREICO) in 1972. He bought his first mobile home park in 1974. In 1980, he had built up the investment base to over 1,200 manufactured home spaces. Eventually, he recruited his sons, Boris and Mirko, to help him run the existing communities and acquire new communities. The portfolio expanded to almost 4,900 home sites by the turn of the century, and CREICO began attracting employees who were drawn to the Vukovich family and the principles by which the family lived.
The company changed its name in 2011 to Ascentia Real Estate Holding Company, LLC (Ascentia) and consolidated operations in 2012. Today, Ascentia owns and operates over 40 manufactured home communities offering 7,000 homesites in seven states.
Ascentia has weathered challenging economic circumstances throughout its existence, with the most challenging occurring between 2000 and 2010. Shortly after the turn of the century, the manufactured housing sector of the commercial real estate market crashed. Many manufactured home factories, dealers, and consumer financial institutions failed. Home shipments fell from a high of 373,000 in 1998 to a low of 50,000 in 2009.
In response to the crash, Ascentia created Pelican Finance, LLC, a subsidiary specializing in acquiring manufactured homes and filling Ascentia home sites. Pelican initially provided financing for homes it sold but shifted its focus in 2010 from sales to leasing and now acquires new homes exclusively from the best manufacturers in the country and leases those homes to residents seeking to live in Ascentia communities.
Ascentia serves America’s working families by providing the best housing value in the country. We look to our past and the courage, integrity, ingenuity, and dedication demonstrated by our founder B. M. Vukovich and his two sons as our foundation.
We embrace the present and the opportunity to make a difference in the world with our extraordinary employees, wonderful residents, supportive investors, and skilled vendors. We anticipate the future and continue to serve all of our stakeholders as we climb to new heights and provide our excellent housing product to even more people who want to see what’s possible with manufactured housing.