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A $2.5 billion data center planned in West Feliciana Parish has the enthusiastic backing of local officials, but the related sale of a piece of public land — brokered by the parish president — has intensified an ongoing political battle.

Tensions have built for years between some members of the West Feliciana Port Commission and Parish President Kenny Havard, who wants to dissolve the nine-member group tasked with overseeing Mississippi River commerce in the parish.

Now some port commissioners claim Havard cost the parish's taxpayers millions of dollars by arranging the sale of surplus government land to a firm with ties to Port Commission President Andrew Grezaffi. They say the company then sold the land for more than 20 times what the parish received. 

Havard and Grezaffi deny the property resold for that much more than the parish got, though they say the price is confidential by agreement, part of a private business deal not involving the government.

They contend their accusers are creating controversy in an attempt to cling to power. Though Grezaffi is president of the port commission, he's also advocating for its disbandment.

At Havard's urging, the West Feliciana Parish Council on Monday voted to support a bill in the state Legislature to abolish the Port Commission. During that meeting, a port commissioner spoke out against that move — and repeated his earlier criticism of the land sale.

“I can promise you there is an investigation to be had,” said David Jewell, a new commissioner.

The sale

At issue is a 107-acre lot in an industrial park near the southern end of the parish. Next to a paper mill, the property has railroad and river access, and fronts La. 964. It is traversed by natural gas and transmission power lines and is a few miles from River Bend Nuclear Power Plant, making it suitable for energy-intensive businesses.

In 2017, the property and surrounding area was certified by the state as a development-ready site, a step used to market it to industry. Former Parish President Kevin Couhig said in a recent interview that during his tenure, the parish worked for over a year to get the site certified.

"I remember thinking when we approached this project it would be one of the best industrial sites in the Gulf South. The utilities, resources, geology, it was isolated," he said.

In 2018, under Couhig’s tenure, the parish council declared 86 of the lot’s 107 acres surplus. The rest was tagged as surplus in 2022, according to clerk of court records. 

Havard said in a recent interview that when he took office as parish president in 2018, he immediately began trying to market the lot but went years without luck. 

“I told people for years, we needed to get out of the damn real estate business and get it in private hands to make money, because the government doesn’t do anything but spend money,” he said. 

In 2022, the lot was valued at a range of $4,000 and $10,000 an acre, says Rebecca Rothschild, who conducted the appraisal. 

Havard began touting plans for a major development there 18 months ago.

"More than 30 permanent jobs, less than 100," he said at an October 2023 Parish Council meeting. "No smokestacks — none of that kind of stuff. It's going to be a pretty green deal for us."

A few days later, the parish sold the land for $500,000 to M/V Industrial, a Lafayette-based firm headed by Morgan “Chip” Vosburg. 

This February, M/V Industrial bought over 600 acres of surrounding property for tens of millions of dollars. On the same day, it sold the newly acquired property — along with the 107 acres in the industrial site — to Hut 8, a North American energy infrastructure and Bitcoin mining company, public records show. 

Hut 8 has not disclosed the price. In Louisiana, public disclosure of prices is not mandated. 

"This cash sale is made and accepted for adequate and sufficient consideration, recitation of which is omitted at the request of the Purchaser and Seller," reads the bill of sale between M/V Industrial and Hut 8.

The criticism 

Jewell and other port commissioners say Havard undersold the property and that Grezaffi used his position to profit off the deal.

At a public Port Commission meeting in March, Jewell claimed he heard rumors that M/V Industrial sold the formerly parish-owned 107-acre parcel to Hut 8 for "upwards of $12 million."

In a recent interview, Lauren Field, another port commissioner, said she thinks Havard cut a questionable deal.

“I just find it very unjust that he would deprive the West Feliciana taxpayers of $11 million,” Field said.

When asked about the $11 million, Grezaffi said: “We can’t disclose what it was sold for, but I can tell you it was not close to that. They're going to be disappointed if they knew."

Havard said Vosburg approached him about buying the land in August 2023. The two didn’t know each other, said Havard, though he'd heard everything Vosburg "touches turns to gold.” 

“They told me they were going to market it to an AI data center and Bitcoin. I said, what the hell is Bitcoin?” Havard recalled.

He negotiated the deal for the parish to sell the 107-acre lot to M/V Industrial in October 2023 for $4,672 per acre, he said, the lower end of its valuation.

Though the Parish Council did approve the sale, Field said, there was little discussion of it during the meeting.

“The Parish Council in 2023 authorized him without any question to sell that property,” Field said.

M/V Industrial also bought acreage surrounding the lot from multiple landowners, including an in-law of Field's, before selling most of it to Hut 8.

“My husband's family owned the adjacent property,” said Field. “They sold for nowhere near what the parish sold for.”

In three transactions, M/V Industrial bought surrounding land for an average of $14,642 an acre, public sales documents show, before selling it to Hut 8 for an undisclosed amount.

Richard Sykes, a local developer and Port Commission member, said the price the parish gave M/V Industrial seems low, especially for a high-potential property already zoned for industrial and commercial use.

“It's unheard of to sell for $4,600 in the parish,” said Sykes, who opposes Havard's push to dissolve the body.

But Rothschild, the appraiser, said that despite the state certification, factors such as the site's terrain and distance from major interstates and the Mississippi didn't make it as attractive as other riverfront industrial zoned sites in Louisiana.

"Until very recently, is was a less-than-desirable lot," she said. "People were not buying it, even though it was being marketed."

It was only after the AI market began to rapidly develop that buyers saw its potential to supply energy, she said.

Shortly after the sale to M/V Industrial, Havard and Vosburg said, they began to court the next potential buyers.

The two interviewed “four to five” tech firms, including SustainHash and Bitdeer Technologies, before deciding on Hut 8 because it agreed to pay industrial taxes, Harvard said. As part of the deal, Vosburg says, Hut 8 contracted with M/V industrial to buy up surrounding property needed for the facility. 

“This is done all the time," Vosburg said. “It’s very common in development in oil and gas.”

Commission president's role

Grezaffi, port commission president since 2013, says he is a childhood friend of Vosburg's but had no involvement in the initial dealings with M/V Industrial.

Grezaffi said he discussed the matter with the state ethics board and decided to initially stay out of the deal. Even if he did take part, there'd be no conflict of interest because the Port Commission had no authority over the property, he said. 

“I could have had something to do with the property, but I knew there could be some controversy … so I had nothing to do with the initial conversation,” Grezaffi said. "I never spoke to Kenny about it."

Grezaffi said he became more involved a year later as the Hut 8 deal grew near. His holding company, Cedars Management LLC, became a member of M/V Industrial in August 2024, state records show.

“My role was keeping the train on the tracks,” he said. 

Field still sees a problem with Grezaffi's involvement.

"He was a port commission officer and knew about a land deal," she said. 

Two additional limited liability corporations — STB Investments and Pointe Coupee ll — were registered a few months before the sale of the property to Hut 8. State records show Vosburg and Grezaffi with ownership interest in those companies.

Grezaffi says those LLCs were created for other potential, smaller projects.

Despite the political maneuvering, both sides say they don’t want to jeopardize the project. Havard says it could create 1,500 construction jobs and at least 300 permanent ones.

“This is great for the parish, but it’s even better for the state … it's going to create a whole new industry,” Havard said.

"To me, this has turned out exactly how I hoped it would happen," Couhig said.

Reporter James Minton contributed to this story

This story was changed to reflect the number of jobs that could be created.