From Dayco to Walmart: The history behind the transformation

Nov. 1—Long-time residents well remember when the landscape of west Waynesville was dominated by Dayco Corporation, the second largest employer in the county.

It's now the town's largest shopping center, but it took 11 years for the transformation from one to the other.

When Dayco Manufacturing closed in 1997, it displaced 775 employees who worked in the plant manufacturing fan belts, hoses, air brakes and other rubber products.

The October 1996 announcement the company would close as manufacturing processes were transferred to other states cast a pall on the community as it absorbed the news the company that opened in Haywood in 1941 would be gone in 18 months.

The 33 acres of property sat mostly idle for years, according to news reports in The Enterprise Mountaineer during that time.

Federal retraining funds were available to help workers transition to new careers, and the layoffs were phased in, allowing employees an chance to figure out the next steps in their lives.

Thieves stole an unknown amount of copper from the vacant buildings and site contamination hampered efforts to sell the property.

County economic development leaders saw potential in the site and worked to purchase it from Mark IV Enterprises shortly after it closed. The plant was instead sold in March 1998 to Thermal Products, a company controlled by Dean Moses, who tried unsuccessfully for years to open a tankless water heater plant at the site. The company paid $2.5 million for the property — holdings that Mark IV valued at $7.8 million for the real property and $7.7 for the personal property at the time of the sale.

The company eventually became Grand Ridge, pivoting away from the tankless hot water heater idea and instead touting the creation of shopping mall at the site, which also never came to fruition. Grand Ridge and racked up $6 million in debt, sending the property into federal bankruptcy court.

Local control

In 2003, local leaders were successful in buying the property, with both the county and the town of Waynesville putting up $650,000 to seal the deal.

The purchase was handled through the Haywood Advancement Foundation, a nonprofit corporation established in 1991 to handle economic development activities that a government entity could not. The foundation board of directors included representatives from both business and elected leaders from the towns and county.

There were numerous news articles at the time where local leaders were hopeful the Dayco redevelopment efforts would transform many parts of west Waynesville.

But controlling the property was just part of the challenge to bringing jobs to the community by redeveloping the Dayco site.

Negotiations with the railroad to get another track crossing took years, and groundwater/soil contamination needed to be addressed with environmental agencies.

In 2007, the county negotiated a "brownfield agreement" whereby remediation efforts through Mark IV happened on large sections of the property and other areas were designated for use only as parking. The arrangement absolved future property owners from liability as long as the brownfield agreement provisions were followed.

After acquiring the property, economic development leaders were unsuccessful in finding a manufacturing company that would at least partially replace the higher-paying jobs lost through Dayco's closure.

Ultimately a company specializing in retail shopping center development, Ohio-based Cedarwood Development, purchased the site for $2.1 million, allowing the town and county to recover the taxpayer funds put up for the purchase. The remainder was kept by HAF to spend on future economic development projects.

At the time, it was estimated Cedarwood would spend $45 million developing the project — an amount that included everything from Dayco demolition efforts to road development to construction.

The first store to open in the retail complex was in October 2008 when Walmart relocated to the center from Paragon Parkway in Clyde. (The county purchased the former Walmart site, and it is now home to the health and social services departments, as well as development offices.)

Other stores in the shopping center opened over the next two years, and ultimately included 10 nationally recognized retailers, from Walmart to Best Buy to Belk, PetSmart, Michael's, Rack Room Shoes and more.