Eric Mostrom, a 38-year-old Florida businessman, purchased the large, three-story brick building with stone columns on Church Street in downtown Waynesville for $825,000 last week with plans to convert it into an office building with a family-style restaurant on the ground floor.

Mostrom and his business partner, Kevin Patrick, plan to relocate their medical billing business, Advantage Billing, from Boca Raton, Fla. to Waynesville and house it in the building. They will hire six employees by summer with plans of expanding to 30 to 50 employees within five years.

Mostrom, a young entrepreneur, chose Waynesville because he liked the way downtown looked when he visited here one weekend.

“I visited in November and I couldn’t believe the number of people out on the streets at 9 o’clock at night at that time of year,” Mostrom said. “It’s a small town, but it’s a small town with a life. There’s a heartbeat here.”

Mostrom and Patrick, tired of living and working in Florida, initially planned to move the company to Asheville. Mostrom’s family owns vacation property in the Cashiers/Sapphire area, and Patrick’s mother lives in Balsam, so both were familiar with the region and loved it.

Mostrom found a building online in Asheville that seemed suitable. He asked Patrick to check it out while in the region visiting his mom and his brother, who is getting his masters in accounting at Western Carolina University with plans to join Advantage Billing upon graduation.

Both Patrick and his brother drove to Asheville and scoped out the building, but gave it the thumbs down. On their way back to Jackson County, they stopped in Waynesville and saw the “For Sale” sign on the Church Street building. They called Mostrom from the front steps of the building and told him he had to check it out.

“I said ‘Waynesville? What’s in Waynesville?’” Mostrom said. Patrick gave him the number of Southern Exposure Realty from the “For Sale” sign on the building and told him to at least call the number. Mostrom did. Christie Williams, the Realtor who happened to answer the phone that day, ran around the corner and took digital photos of the building and emailed them to Mostrom. When he saw the pictures, he immediately booked a flight to Asheville.

After a few days hanging out in Waynesville, he was sold.

Mostrom said the company will layoff its six employees in Florida rather than relocate them here.

“We believe in hiring locally,” Mostrom said. The company’s existing clients will transfer with the business, as it is all done via computers.

“Our business is all on-line. We can do it from anywhere,” Mostrom said. Mostrom will be running high-speed T-1 lines into his building. While he’s at it, he may put a high-speed wireless antennae on the roof of his building.

“It’s the tallest building in this whole area. I could provide free wireless Internet to all the businesses in downtown Waynesville. Plus, how cool would it be for tourists coming here to be able to sit on the street and get wireless Internet on their laptops,” Mostrom said.

Mostrom’s first business success was in his 20s when he started a small independent phone company in Florida, built it up and then sold it a few years later to the big phone company covering the area.

In addition to housing his own company, Mostrom plans to renovate the second floor for 10 executive suites. It will be designed for solitary businessmen or start-up companies looking for professional office space without a lot of overhead.

Included in the lease will be the use of a large conference room, fax machine, high-speed Internet, dedicated phone lines and a shared receptionist.

“All you have to do is walk in and sit down and they’re in business,” Mostrom said.

Mostrom wants to preserve the historical character of the building. Grabbing a scraggly bush in front of the building, he pulled it back to reveal the old inscribed Masonic stone.

“This bush has got to go. That’s part of the history of the building, that old corner stone,” Mostrom said.

Mostrom is also enamored with interior historical features — the arches in the great hall on the top floor, the old-timey accordion door on the elevator, and the detailed carving in the woodwork and trim. An ancient black electrical circuit box that once powered the building hangs unused in a back stairwell.

“That’s going in a display case,” Mostrom said, pointing to the relic that could pass as junk to some.

The best feature? An old brass peep hole and knocker fixture set into the entrance door of the great hall.

Mostrom plans to alter the façade very little. He wants to replace the single glass and metal door with mahogany double doors. The gray and brown window trim will be painted antique white. Other than that, he plans to give the façade a top to bottom cleaning and leave it as is.

“Instead of being yellowed and mossy, it will be all sparkling white again,” Mostrom said. Mostrom hopes to list the building on the Local Landmark Reigstry and National Register of Historic Places.