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EDC wants payment for loan on former Tuckaseigee Mills site
By Justin Goble
Officials from the Jackson County Economic Development Commission say they want to be repaid for a loan they made in 2002.
Commission members Monday (Jan. 22) voted unanimously to call the promissory note it holds on the deed of the Tuckaseigee Mills property.
According to EDC treasurer Jay Coward, the promissory note allows EDC officials to demand payment on a loan within a specified amount of time. If that does not happen, the EDC can foreclose on the property.
At the moment, officials do not know how long that period of time is, since the promissory note has been lost ever since county officials sent deputies to then-EDC Chairman Tom McClure’s office at Western Carolina University to seize EDC records.
That action came in January 2005 after county officials suspended participation in the EDC as part of a controversial five-part motion that removed McClure from all county-appointed posts. He remained on the EDC because he was WCU’s appointment to that board.
Though most of the seized files have been returned, both Coward and Sylva Mayor and EDC Co-Chairman Brenda Oliver said they were unsure of where the note is.
While the EDC would like to see it’s loan repaid, Oliver said the decision to call the note was made so the commission can finish its old business before enacting a new set of by-laws.
“We want to install a new EDC board by July 1,” Oliver said. “We know that it will take them a while to come up with the money, but we want to have a clean slate once the new EDC board is in place.”
The Jackson Development Corporation, the EDC’s property-owning offshoot, borrowed $567,000 from the EDC to help pay $800,000 for the 103,000-square-foot former Heritage Quilt factory and 8 acres, which was purchased in August 2002. Coward said the JDC agreed to pay back that loan within a year with 2 percent interest.
McClure said at the time that two businesses were in negotiations to move into the site, and the JDC would use rent payments to repay the EDC. As many as five businesses could fit on the site, he said.
While one business, QC Apparel, moved in to the building in late 2002 and still operates from the building, Coward said plans for a second company did not pan out.
“There was a big auto parts distributor that was supposed to rent part of the property,” Coward said. “But that deal fell through. We’ve been getting rent payments (from QC Apparel) but basically that has not been enough for the JDC to pay the loan back.”
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