Trent Goss is a managing partner for Central Equities of Florida, which owns 25 Tampa-area manufactured home communities in its portfolio of 70 commercial real estate assets. He wanted to improve the lighting in some of his properties and came across a photo of a property owned by a respected industry colleague.
“‘Dang, those are great-looking solar lights,’ I remember saying. I called them up,” he said. “I asked ‘Who made those lights?’”
“We did 400 of them in one community, and it gives us that uniform look that functions well,” Goss said. “When we buy a property, we hold it. We never sell it. When we have something to fix, we fix it for the long-term. We want to make a lasting impression and lasting improvement.”
Goss said since that initial purchase, Central Equities has expanded its relationship with Gama Sonic, the Georgia-based company that provided the lights. He said the variety of designs and the flexibility of solar lighting has served the second-generation community ownership group very well.
“Sometimes it’s really hard to get something fixed or replaced in a situation where it’s hardwired,” Goss said. “You need to get into someone else’s space, or it’s just a difficult place to work. These solar lights have really come into their own and make it very simple to get what you want.”
Central Equities started in the 1960s and has grown slowly but steadily over the decades. And, it manages a great majority of its own properties.
“We primarily manage this out of our corporate office. We have a handful of properties where we’ve hired third-party property management, but for the most part we are doing all of the day-to-day management,” Goss said. “We get to see, feel, touch, and deal with every property issue known to mankind. So, you are always learning something new.”
Goss said some of the recent more difficult challenges at his properties have included aquifers filling to capacity and leaching out of the ground destroying parking lots and causing trees to come down. By comparison, community lighting has been simple.
“When we started putting in the lights, we didn’t just load them up and send out a crew,” he said. “We put one in and let residents look at it and asked if they would want one, and about 60 percent will say yes. By the time you’re done putting them in, the other 40 percent have come around saying they’ve changed their minds and would like to have a light installed.”
Matt Cohen from Gama Sonic said swapping conventional streetlights for solar fixtures in a community’s common areas and walkways can create a safer environment for residents while lowering the ongoing electricity costs that come with running grid-powered lighting across a large property.
“I’ve always believed my job is to help customers solve problems, not just sell products,” Cohen said. “Every community is different, so the first step is understanding what the customer is trying to accomplish and then finding the right solution for their property.
“When we can improve safety, enhance curb appeal, and eliminate the expense and disruption of trenching and wiring, we’ve created real value,” he said. “The most rewarding part is when customers like Trent continue to come back year after year because they know we’ll take care of them.”
The Centennial is a sleek-styled fixture. The Modern adds a motion sensor and timer. The Denali is built with what Gama Sonic calls its “Morph” technology, referencing a manufacturing process where monocrystalline solar cells are molded and integrated directly onto the curved and uneven surfaces of the light fixture itself, maximizing the surface area available.
Each light is suited for the kind of high-traffic outdoor areas common in manufactured housing communities.
Gama Sonic’s commercial lights have panels built in so they resemble standard post and wall lights but require no wiring, trenching, or digging to install. That’s a selling point aimed squarely at manufactured housing communities, where lighting often needs to cover sprawling networks of streets, common spaces, and pedestrian paths — areas that can be costly to wire into a grid.
Gama Sonic commercial outdoor solar lights have:
Free energy from the sun in place of utility bills
Weather- and rust-resistant construction rated IP65
Installation in minutes without wiring
A five-year warranty
Goss said he has used the lights at Central Equities’ retail spaces, warehouse and mini-storage facilities, and single-family properties.
“Aesthetically, they are beautiful-looking solar lights,” Goss said. “And it’s really nice to see Gama Sonic show up at these industry events. When you need something, have a question, or want to look at some new options, they are there to talk with you about what you’re encountering.”
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