Sep. 17—HIGH POINT — A High Point fleet services company confirmed Thursday that it will establish its corporate headquarters in a downtown building that has sat vacant for nearly six years.

RUD Fleet Corp. is seeking to move its 10 existing employees into 209 N. Main St. by December, once upgrades are made to the space, said company President Drew Haire.

It plans to add 20 full-time jobs within three years.

It is leasing the 13,500-square-foot, two-story building formerly occupied by Huffman Koos, a retail furniture store and showroom that went out of business.

"Our team and our business are growing quickly," Haire said. "I have a passion for the city and I'm really excited to see all the positive things happening in High Point in general and specifically downtown."

The company, which is now located in an office on Eastchester Drive, has been in business for about three years, providing licensing, title work, registration and delivery of new vehicles for its clients.

It landed several large customers early in the coronavirus pandemic, including national leaders in parcel delivery, hospital bed and medical equipment, in-home hospice care and a vaccine manufacturer.

"We're a business-to-business company, so our customers are large, nationwide brands. As they add new vehicles to their business, they're contracting with us to provide new vehicle services," Haire said. "We're connecting two pieces of the supply chain that currently aren't connected very well."

RUD Fleet Corp. and the property owner plan to invest a combined $250,000 to upfit the building from showroom to office use.

"You'll begin seeing work going on there in the coming weeks," he said.

This quarter, the company is looking to fill jobs in human resources and project management, as well as two office roles.

The City Council in April unanimously authorized up to $320,000 in cash grant incentives for RUD Fleet Corp. if it picked the High Point location over other sites it considered.

The company would have to document in a performance agreement with the city that the full investment had been made and all of the promised new jobs created in order to get the full amount of the incentives.

The project made use of a special targeted downtown office incentives policy, which also helped the city land insurance company Key Risk as the anchor tenant for a new food hall and office building beside Truist Point stadium.