A lack of development at the SYSCO property continues to frustrate Hamlet officials. Beverage manufacturer Common Collabs is planning to set up operations in Knox, creating up to 80 jobs in the coming years. Ron Gifford with the Starke County Economic Development Foundation told the Hamlet Town Council Wednesday that the company was also shown the Hamlet East Industrial Park.
“[They had] no objection,” Gifford explained, “except there’s no water service out there, and given what they’re going to be doing, they need water. They could have had a well, obviously, but they wanted city water.”
The irony is that the Hamlet West Industrial Park has water utilities that were installed but never used. Gifford said the issue is that it’s still controlled by SYSCO. “We’ve given up trying to show that because we can’t get that company to get back with us in a timely fashion to secure a deal,” Gifford said.
Companies like Common Collabs looking to locate in the area typically want to move quickly, according to Gifford. He added that SYSCO still apparently wants to sell the property but, at the same time, hasn’t named a price yet.
Council President Dave Kesvormas felt it’s time to push SYSCO to start making some decisions. “The town and the county and the state have put a lot of investment into it, and I’m surprised there’s nothing we can do to clamp down on it a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t realize until after it was kind of put like that, it’s really our hands our tied, and it’s just not right. I mean, there was an investment made, and I’d almost want to say, on a legal end of it, is there a possibility of recouping some of this?”
Resident Lee Nagai suggested going as far as using – or at least threatening to use – eminent domain. “Lots of units of government have put money into this, so I think they have a vested interest, and I think a strong case could be made for an eminent domain case,” Nagai said. “Obviously, it’ll be a fight and you may decide that you don’t want to carry through with it, but it might at least put pressure on them to poop or get off the toilet.”
But Town Attorney Martin Bedrock wasn’t sure about starting a legal battle with SYSCO. “If you’ve got the money to go against them. I mean, they’re not going to let you take their property,” Bedrock warned.
Another option that was suggested by Kesvormas was removing the SYSCO property’s TIF district. Complicating matters is the fact that while the area has town water service, much of it is actually outside of the town limits, meaning that any decisions would actually be up to Starke County. County officials have expressed interest in acquiring the property for development, with some of them calling for SYSCO to donate it.
