Well, not actually the Colts, but the Stadium Authority, but the thread title needed punching up. At the Hurst website you can get Protest T-shirts for free, too. You gotta love these people...
http://hurstbeans.com/ N.K. HURST COMPANY DISPUTES AUTHORITY’S STATEMENT
December 31, 2005, Indianapolis – N.K. Hurst Company today disputed a statement contained in the Dec. 30, 2005 Indiana Stadium Authority Press Release that it had “offered N. K. Hurst $3.7 million and a chance to stay on its present site.”
“No such offer has ever been made to us,” said Jim Hurst, Vice-President of the family-owned bean company. “If the Authority had offered us the right to keep our building and leave us enough land to ensure our continued successful operations without costly changes to our processes, with no other strings attached, and also offered us $3.7 million, we would have accepted the offer. However, that is not what they have offered. We again encourage the Authority to consider a land swap where no money need be paid to N.K. Hurst.”
Hurst provided a copy of a June 16, 2005 proposal from the Indiana Stadium Authority, called a “uniform offer,” which offered $3.7 million for the entire Hurst 4.26 acre property, including the bean factory building. Hurst responded by saying the company wanted to stay where it was, explaining that they were not interested in discussing financial compensation.
In July, Hurst proposed a partial land swap that would allow the company to stay on much of its present land and trade other land with the Authority to accommodate much of the Authority’s parking needs. Hurst claimed their land swap proposal would cost the Authority and taxpayers less, involved no payment to N.K. Hurst, and would still allow the company to stay where it is. Hurst released this plan to the public in September and presented a formal proposal to the Authority decision makers when a meeting was finally granted by Authority President David Frick.
On November 18, the Authority presented a new offer that for the first time proposed that Hurst could retain some land, but only 1.34 acres. The Authority’s new offer did not include the earlier proposed $3.7 million payment. A smaller total amount, based on square footage the Authority proposed to take, would have been applied, but Hurst again declined to discuss financial terms, explaining that the company could not be viable on only 1.34 acres.
Hurst instead proposed keeping approximately 3.3 acres. “We can operate on a little over three acres, with enough space for our trucks to turn around, and enough room to conduct the rest of our business,” explained President Rick Hurst. “If they accepted our compromise, the Authority could have had about an acre of our land for parking.”
The Authority’s most recent formal proposal would leave only 1.7 acres for the Hurst Company. But, according to correspondence between Hurst and the Authority, the Authority has never made a $3.7 million offer except for taking the entire Hurst property and forcing the company to move. Hurst management has retained expert economists and relocation experts who have estimated that the costs of moving the factory alone will be over $7.5 million, not including the cost of acquiring new land and a new building.
