<< Back 10/16/02 HAF top bidder, but Dayco deal not final yet By Scott McLeod David Moses, apparently, is not going to go down without a fight as he tries to hang onto the old Dayco building. Many felt the parrying for control of the building was finally going to end last week when the former industrial site in Waynesville was auctioned on the courthouse steps. The buyer was the Haywood Advancement Foundation, a nonprofit economic development group with close ties to the county economic development commission. EDC Director Jay Hinson bid $1.1 million for the 33-acre site that contains about 700,000-square-feet of industrial space. The money for the bid came from two $650,000 donations from Haywood County and Waynesville. But Moses doesn’t appear ready to relinquish his claim to the building. Moses and his brother, along with a few attorneys and businessmen, have fought attempts by anyone else to get the building since it was bought in 1997. The buyers at that time were led by his brother, Dean Moses, and the company at that time was known as Thermal Products. It was going to build tankless hot water heaters and employ hundreds. On Oct. 7, two days before the auction, David Moses sought a restraining order claiming the money to be used for the purchase was donated by the town and county to a nonprofit (Haywood Advancement Foundation) that was not entitled to purchase the deed of trust. The filing also said legal notice proceedings were not followed. However, the auction went as planned and bankruptcy trustee Woodrow Griffin said afterwards that anyone has until Oct. 19 (10 days) to file an upset bid. If that occurs, then HAF would have the opportunity to upset that bid. Waynesville Mayor Henry Foy attended the auction and said he was glad the bid was accepted. Still, he was skeptical that the ordeal has ended. “I think there will be an upset bid or some other tactic,” said Foy. County attorney Leon “Chip” Killian echoed a similar sentiment. “I would hope that the antagonist does not try to upset. Right now, the county’s happy and we hope this goes forward,” said Killian. The skepticism by county officials is borne out of several years of experience. Since 1997, the ownership of the property has remained with Moses and his supporters despite several corporate name changes: Thermal Products became Enterprize Park, which be-came Grand Ridge Corp., which be-came Landmark. The company managed to borrow $700,000 from a limited liability company in States-ville known as CHW and $200,000 from a private investor. The final plan was to turn the site into an outlet mall, and David Moses has made impassioned pleas in the last couple of months to the county board and the Waynesville Board of Aldermen. Since 1997, however, no jobs have been created, no investment has been made to improve the property and county and town taxes have gone unpaid. The county is owed $162,558 and the town is owed about $97,000. The Haywood Advancement Foun-dation has put together a proposal to purchase the building, sell part of it to a rubber manufacturer which still uses a portion of it, demolish a portion, sell warehouse space and then pay off creditors. Dayco’s previous owners, Mark IV, will be responsible for any environmental clean-up.