By Bill Bregar

 

The old HPM factory in Mount Gilead, Ohio — vacant for five years — soon will be for sale. The price: $117 million.

 

Morrow County Common Pleas Judge Howard Hall authorized the sale on Dec. 26. The order said that is two-thirds of the fair market value. Money from the sale will be used for unpaid taxes, court costs and fees.

The county sheriff will conduct the sale of the property and the land, 81 acres, once the court issues a sale date.

 

Morrow County Prosecutor Charles Howland said the sale date will be announced soon. "This order brings to a close litigation that has been ongoing for almost 10 years," Howland said in a news release issued after the court ruling.

 

The sale will mark another chapter in the long saga of the original HPM in Mount Gilead. The hulking old factory closed in December 2009, ending decades of production of injection molding machines, sheet extrusion lines and die-casting equipment.

 

The court-ordered sale comes in a foreclosure action filed in 2008 by the Morrow County Treasurer against Taylor’s Property Management LLC.

 

Former HPM owner Christopher Filos faces charges related to his alleged failure to pay taxes related to the machinery manufacturing operation. He will have a trial in Morrow County Common Pleas Court, but his trial has been delayed several times. A county grand jury indicted Filos in early 2012.

 

The HPM name lives on, one county to the west in Marion, Ohio, at HPM North America Corp., which sells injection presses and die-casting machines made in China by its parent, Guangdong Yizumi Precision Machinery Co. Ltd. The Marion company is not affiliated with the former HPM operation in Mount Gilead.