Town’s Forclosure Attempt Against Helicopter Company Continues

October 8, 2008

The Town of Century’s foreclosure against Helicopter Technologies looks like it is headed for court action, the town’s mayor says.

Century Mayor Freddie McCall said that attempts to get the company’s owner, Georges Van Nevel, to sign the building back over to the town have not yet worked.

The Town of Century filed mortgage foreclosure papers against Helicopter Technologies, Inc. in Escambia County Circuit Court on August 26.

McCall said that Matt Dannheisser, the town’s attorney, forwarded papers overseas to Van Nevel with instructions on how to sign the papers at a U.S. embassy.

“Mr. Van Nevel has contacted him (Dannheisser) and agreed to send the deeds back to him,” McCall  told the town council two weeks ago. There have been issues, McCall said, with getting Van Nevel to sign the papers at a U.S. embassy due to long lines of people seeking embassy services. As a result, McCall said, Dannheisser has forwarded additional instructions to Van Nevel how to proceed with the paperwork using a notary.

“We don’t have the paperwork back from him,” McCall said of the current status of the case. “He didn’t say he changed his mind.”

Court records indicate that the town filed for a ruling by default at the end of last month.

The Helicopter Technologies building in the Century Industrial Park was financed by the Town of Century in 1991 for $420,000 according to filed documents. The company currently owes the town about $450,000, Mayor Freddie McCall told the told council at the July meeting at which the council voted to begin emergency foreclosure proceedings.

Dannheisser located Helicopter Technologies owner Georges Van Nevel (pictured left, file photo) in Hong Kong and contacted him by email, McCall said.

“He answered some, but he did not respond to others,” McCall told NorthEscambia.com. In those emails, Dannheisser forwarded legal papers to Van Nevel to sign the building back over to the town, the mayor said, but Van Nevel never signed and returned the papers. The town was prepared to forgive Van Nevel’s entire debt if he signed the building back over to the town.

At the council’s  July 7 meeting, the mayor told the council that Van Nevel told him that the building would be sold to a Pensacola buyer by July 11. NorthEscambia.com learned on July 10 that the sale was off and the buyer was backing out.

McCall said that a clause in Helicopter Technologies’ contract with the town gave the town the option to “take back” three lots around the building, and he said the town would take possession of those lots.


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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News