LOUISVILLE — Nearly all the farmland needed for a parcel that is part of Kentucky's offer to South Korean automaker Hyundai is in hand.

        But there's still one holdout asking $10 million for land that was offered at $1 million.

Land owned by Kenneth Floyd, a farmer, was sold in Hardin County after intervention by his lawyer, James T. Kelley (above) to get a better price. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Negotiators for the state reached an agreement with a Hardin County landowner, ending a lawsuit that threatened the acquisition of land for a Hyundai Motor Co. auto assembly plant.

        “It's all signed, sealed and delivered,” James Kelley, an attorney for Kenneth Floyd, told the Courier-Journal of Louisville. “We're happy with the settlement and feel like we've been well-treated.”

        Mr. Floyd, a farmer, owns 140 acres in a 1,600-acre parcel on which purchase options are being acquired by the Holston Land Co. The CSX subsidiary is helping smooth the way as the Korean automaker ponders whether to build the $1 billion plant in Hardin County or in Alabama.

        By early April, Hyundai is expected to choose the location for its first North American assembly plant — either the site near Glendale, south of Elizabethtown, or a site near Montgomery, Ala.

        Mr. Floyd had agreed to the option on his land, but he filed a lawsuit claiming he was bamboozled into accepting a lower price per acre than what his neighbors would get for theirs.

        Mr. Kelley said Mr. Floyd signed an option to sell for about $3,500 an acre and found out later that his neighbors were offered $8,000 to $12,000 an acre.

        The attorney said the parties to Wednesday's settlement agreed to keep the terms confidential. But he said the settlement “was in line with what the others got.”

        But there is one holdout. Norma and Paul Howlett, who own 111 acres of a site that Hardin County officials want to acquire by eminent domain condemnation, have refused to sign any options. The county has offered $1 million for the land, and the Howletts countered for $10 million.
       

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