Corporate buyers target New Hampshire campgrounds amid surge in demand

Note: This is part of our twice-weekly video product, 603 Unfiltered. Watch our video on campgrounds going corporate.

Joseph DiPrima gets one or two calls a week from people looking to buy his campground—and he has for the past four or five years.

He gives them all the same answer: “I’m not ready to sell right now.”

DiPrima has owned Cozy Pond Camping Resort for 16 years and says it’s the most fulfilling business he’s ever run.

“Of all the businesses I’ve owned, I’m most happy with this one,” he said. “It’s just the people you get to see, and you’re outdoors a lot.”

Dave Edgerly hears similar pitches. His campground, Great Bay Camping, has been in his family since 1987, and he gets multiple calls during the camping season from prospective buyers.

The interest reflects a broader trend. About a quarter of New Hampshire’s privately owned campgrounds are now owned by corporations, according to Jeremy Sprince, executive director of the New Hampshire Campground Owners Association.

Camping’s popularity exploded during the pandemic, and investors quickly saw an opportunity. Campgrounds and RV parks remain one of the least consolidated real estate sectors, making them especially attractive for corporate buyouts.

Modern America, a Boston-based real estate firm, now owns 12 campgrounds on their own, most of which were bought shortly after the pandemic.

Edgerly says corporate ownership often shifts the focus away from the experience.

“They’re looking more at the return on a dollar, not the memories and experiences that we provide to the families that camp here,” he said. “With a family campground, you offer a different level of customer service than you get at a resort.”

DiPrima said the rise of corporate ownership can have mixed effects — including higher prices that sometimes drive campers back to smaller operations.

“These companies come in and raise the rates like crazy,” he said. “So people tend to go to the mom-and-pop campgrounds where the rates are more reasonable.”

Anthony Vicari and Nicole Anderson have experienced those changes firsthand. The couple has lived full-time in an RV for five years while saving money, and they recently bought land in New Hampshire with plans to build a house.

They say they’ve noticed shifts in campground availability and operations.

The pair stayed at Meredith Woods Campground in November 2022 and tried to return two years later, only to find it was no longer open that time of year. The campground had beenwas purchased by Modern America and renamed Hunter’s Run RV Park. It’s now only open seasonally. 

They wrote about the experience on their blog, Brighter Than Wheels.

“The thing with New Hampshire is that it still has that nostalgia factor,” Anderson said. “These are places where people have been camping for decades—campgrounds that, before they were sold, were often owned by the same families for generations.”

 That sense of history is now colliding with a surge of outside interest.