SUPERIOR, Wis. A logging company featured on the History Channel’s “Ax Men” series has three months to find a buyer before its forest and lumber mill goes to a sheriff’s sale, under a foreclosure order issued Monday to Superior Choice CU.
Credit union officials came down to the mill Monday and seized the property and evicted top executives of Wisconsin Woodchuck after the company failed to make payments on an amended loan agreement.
The financial struggles of the mill and its owners were featured on the reality television program Ax Men. The episodes featured efforts to revitalize the company following a Dec. 2011 bankruptcy filing. The company launched a crowd-funding campaign via the TV show to keep the business afloat but the project raised only $8,697, far short of the needed $56,000.
A foreclosure judgment was entered for the credit union in state court against the mill owners for almost $843,000, according to court records. The move is a continuation of foreclosure proceedings the credit union began in November 2011, which were stayed because the lumber company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a month later.
The credit union and the mill owners entered an agreement in which the loggers would come out of bankruptcy protection and pay reduced payments through May as they sought buyers or refinancing options, according to court records. They did not make the May 24 payment of $3,500.
The looming closure of the mill comes as the company was working to disassemble and reclaim about six million board feet of lumber in the 1880s-era wooden grain elevators on St. Louis River Bay.
According to the foreclosure judgment, the company has three months before the elevator buildings and equipment will be auctioned at a sheriff’s sale. The full amount would have to be paid to stave off the sale.
The court order also gives Superior Choice immediate possession of collateral including accounts receivable, inventory, equipment, trade names, customer lists and other intangibles.
About five million board feet of lumber remain on the site.
