07/03/2026
šØ THE UNTOLD STORY: Why We Are Fighting for the Survival of Our Businesses šØ
To our clients, partners, and the Asheville community: This is the first official update on this page, and we are breaking our silence because we have hit a critical wall. We need you to know exactly what is happening behind the scenes and why our entire operation has been put in extreme jeopardy.
On June 16th, our facility at 2 Hillsboro Drive was completely shut down. Why? Because a neglected February pipe burst caused by our landlord resulted in a catastrophic toxic mold outbreak. The official air quality testing came back with a staggering 74,833 mold spore count per cubic meterānearly 500% over toxic thresholds.
We were forced to immediately vacate the property for our own physical safety. But the real nightmare started after we left.
Right now, we are being entirely abandoned by the massive insurance corporations who are supposed to protect us:
The Landlord & Allstate (The Landlord's Insurance): There is a complete wall of silence. Allstate has refused to communicate with us, and they are doing everything in their power to dodge accountability and avoid paying to clean our heavily contaminated equipment, tools, and inventory.
State Farm (Our Insurance): Their idea of "helping" us? They actually expected us to risk our health, walk back into a room with a 74,833 toxic spore count, and do our own manual inventory. No proper protective gear, no professional helpājust put your lungs on the line so we can check a box.
Because of this corporate negligence, we just received a formal estimate stating it will cost $48,000 just to have our property and business equipment professionally cleaned. That is on top of the $13,500 we have already burned through out-of-pocket just to survive being displaced.
Meanwhile, I am on my third solid week of zero income, heading into a fourth. Our credit cards are maxed out at 28% interest just from emergency housing costs. Our entire business lifelinesāincluding the transition of our shipping, transportation, and franchise venturesāare being actively choked out today, July 2nd, because two major unfunded payments are due that threaten our credit and our business buyouts.
We are fighting with everything we have through our legal team, but the legal process takes time, and the financial bleeding is happening right now.
If you believe in local business, if you believe in holding predatory landlords and corrupt insurance companies accountable, please stand in our corner.
How you can help right now:
1. DONATE or SHARE our GoFundMe: Even if you cannot donate, hitting the SHARE button beats the algorithm and gets this story out to the people who can help us fight.
2. Spread the Word: Let Asheville know what Allstate and State Farm are doing to small business owners.
š https://gofund.me/209d41d11 š
Thank you for standing with Absolute Shipping and Transportation, Fibrenew Asheville, and our family. We are down, but we are not out.
ā Michael & Kristi