Business

Auction action set for Seventh Avenue

Business partners Rob Hays and Miranda McCraw plan a sales preview area, auction house and microstores for dealers in covered shed, metal garage and block building at 1050 Seventh Avenue.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 6, 2014

A Hendersonville auctioneer plans to hold auctions and liquidation sales and rent small "microstore" spaces in a block building that used to house the All Creatures Great & Small animal shelter.

Rob Hays, owner of Southern Trust Estate and Auction Co., has applied for city Planning Board approval for the uses in three structures totaling almost 30,000 square feet.
According to a letter he submitted to the city Planning Department, Hays plans auctions, estate sales, business liquidations, dealer consignments and large equipment auctions in the 6,175-square-foot metal garage building. The building has a concrete floor and little to no exterior walls. About 4,800 square feet is open, making it suitable for large equipment auctions.
He plans to use the large shed structure at the rear of the 4.28-acre site as a sales preview space. The steel-frame shed has a concrete floor and open sides.
The 7,700-square-foot block building would be partitioned for ministores that dealers and antique sellers could rent by the month for the sale of "vintage, primitive and antique-type products," Hays said. He plans to divide the open floor space into 8x10 to 10x20-foot retail spaces available for rent for at least 90 days. Each tenant will pay monthly rent plus a percent of sales to cover cashier and network services that Hays will provide.
"We're going to try to do at least two (auctions) a week on Friday and Saturday nights," Hays said. "We've been in the reselling business. We've been in the construction business, we've been in the cleaning business and buy-resale."
"What we do is a little bit different than most places," he said. "We'll have open sellers Friday and Saturday, plus special events like estate, farm equipment or building materials or construction equipment," he said. "Friday and Saturday will be dealer auctions. We're also going to have probably once a month, produce or food auctions, for frozen and canned food. You could buy quite a bit of food at a discount. We're going to have special nights devoted to just food."
Hays and Miranda McCraw are managing partners of the auction business. They also operate Apollo Enviro-Clean and Mountain Shore Realty.
The city planning staff said that the proposed retail use is permitted in the highway business zone. The overall site plan has to be reviewed and approved by the Planning Board because it exceeds a quarter acre in size. The Planning Board review is set for July 14.
"It's going to be a long row to hoe but we're definitely going to be working hard to keep it going," Hays said.