| Sold - to the highest bidder Trust sells manufacturing plant in Hildale | |
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By Patrice St. Germain patrices@thespectrum.com | |
HILDALE - Tom Davis, owner of Northwest Land, got a bargain Tuesday when he purchased the former Western Precision Building in Hildale at auction for $1.65 million. Davis was one of five bidders for the 55,000-square-foot manufacturing building. The facility sits on just over three acres of land and was sold per the request of Bruce Wisan, court-appointed special fiduciary of the United Effort Plan trust - the financial arm of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The building was sold to raise money for the trust, which in addition to daily expenses, has an outstanding bill with attorney Jeffrey Shields for $500,000 and owes Wisan another $100,000. Davis purchased the building to lease to Champion Safe Company out of Springville. Davis said the company, which manufactures safes, plans to employ between 75 and 150 people and pay wages ranging from $15 to $18 an hour. There were more spectators than buyers at the auction held at noon in the conference room of the building located off Utah Avenue. Bill Shelton, co-owner of Statewide Auction Company, said he was surprised when people still came in saying they knew nothing about the auction until Tuesday. "I was a little shocked people didn't know about it (the auction)," Shelton said. "We sent out 10,000 flyers to all types of business and we've had good response on our Web site." Media outlets throughout Utah also reported the auction. Bidding on the building, which according to auction company co-owner Tom Erkelens was over-engineered, started at $1.2 million. The replacement cost of the building, without the land, was estimated to range from $5.6 million to $6 million. With the exception of the starting bid made on behalf of a buyer who was out of the country, bidding remained between Davis and another bidder who dropped out at $1.6 million. After the auction, Wisan said he was a little disappointed in the selling price. He said he was hoping to get $2 million for the property, but said the sale will help the trust pay its taxes and legal bills. Hildale resident Jethro Barlow said the building was built by members of the FLDS church as a work project. Barlow said construction started on the building in November 2001 and it was ready for occupancy by February 2002. "It was done in a phenomenal amount of time," Barlow said. "It was a concerted community effort." Western Precision Manufacturing moved out of the building and relocated its operation to Las Vegas under the name of NewEra Manufacturing Inc. According to the NewEra Web site, the company is a contract manufacturing facility supplying precision machined components and assemblies for the aerospace, military, medical, recreational and other commercial entities. The company, which is now in a 49,000-square-foot building, applied for a business license in Clark County, Nev. in December. As of Tuesday morning, the business license was still pending approval. | |
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TheSpectrum.com Originally published February 28, 2007 | |
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