Harding Moving Seeks Protection From Creditors : Bankruptcy: Chapter 11 filing shows no assets, $450,000 in debts for one of the county’s biggest black-owned companies.

ANAHEIM —  Ron Harding Moving Services Inc., one of Orange County’s largest black-owned businesses, has filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors.

The bankruptcy court filing shows that the Anaheim trucking company has $450,000 in debt and no reported assets. The real estate division of Xerox Corp. in Denver is listed as its largest unsecured creditor.

Donald W. Sieveke, the Santa Ana lawyer representing Ron Harding Moving, said the filing was triggered when the firm was served a notice by its landlord, T. Rowe Price Realty Income Fund II, to pay back rent of about $214,000.

The notice, dated June 19, said that unless T. Rowe Price received the payment in three days, Ron Harding Moving would be required to move out of its 96,000-square-foot warehouse at 3140 E. Coronado St.

T. Rowe Price is a Baltimore-based investment advisory and financial services company with offices in Los Angeles.

By filing for Chapter 11 on June 28, Sieveke said his client hopes to get some breathing room to reorganize the company. He said Harding would file a list of assets by July 15.

Ronald C. Harding, chief executive of the trucking company, said he is a victim of the recession. His company rents out portions of the warehouse to large manufacturing companies.

In 1989, Harding moved to a larger warehouse in Anaheim in anticipation of an expanding business relationship with Xerox Corp., his largest client, which accounts for about 30% of the company’s revenue.

“I expanded my business based on the advice of Xerox’s transportation unit that there would be sufficient business from them that will enable me to stay in this business,” Harding said in an interview Wednesday.

But in the past year, Xerox’s business soured as the recession started and it began cutting back its orders with Harding’s company.

Xerox officials could not be reached for comment.

The filing noted that Ron Harding Moving, which employs 32 people, has 116 creditors, of which only six are secured. The largest unsecured creditor is the real estate division of Xerox Corp., which is owed $195,929. Others include Industrial Management Inc., a labor leasing company in Woodland Hills, which is owed nearly $50,000, and Lyle A. Marshall & Associates in Rolling Hills Estates, owed nearly $27,000.

Sieveke said a hearing is set for July 18 in the U.S. trustee’s office in Santa Ana.

Ron Harding Moving reported 1990 revenue of $3.2 million, with a loss of $180,000. In 1989 it had revenue of $3 million and a loss of $70,000. The last profitable year for the company was 1988, when it posted $20,000 in profit on revenue of $2 million.