ST. FRANCISVILLE - Parish President Kenny Havard used his time during the West Feliciana Parish Council meeting to address allegations surrounding a land deal at the center of a WBRZ Investigative Unit report. 

"I guess we'll just start with the accusations. I know that's the 800-pound gorilla in the room," Havard said after walking up to the podium.

More than two dozen people gathered in the council chambers Monday night to get updates about a development plan for parish land and hear Havard's account of what happened leading up to a $12 billion data center being built in St. Francisville. 

From the Investigative Unit--
Parish President Kenny Havard had a lot to say at last night's council meeting concerning the Hut 8 land deal...hear his side tonight at 6 on @WBRZ pic.twitter.com/pmmb5ZLCjo

— Bess Casserleigh (@BCasserleigh) April 15, 2025

"There's been a lot of accusations thrown around about the Port Commission, the land, the property sale down at the river and exactly how that took place between Hut 8 and the parish," he said. 

Havard said that the parish sold 107 acres of land for $500,000 after they cleared the property and sold $300,000 worth of timber that was on it. They agreed to sell the land to M/V Industrial in 2023. He said the land was appraised to be worth between $4,000 and $10,000 per acre and the parish took the low end of the deal with the $4,672-per-acre price tag. 

He said they decided on M/V to make a small industrial-plex for different companies to work out of.

"You would have buildings for say, a valve shop, Red Stick Armiture, places like that," he said. "That's a pretty good deal for us. They made an offer, we accepted the offer." 

During a parish council meeting in 2023, Havard teased ahead to a big economic opportunity for the parish before selling the land to M/V. Following that sale, M/V bought more land in the area and then sold it to tech company Hut 8 in February 2025 for an undisclosed amount of money, which was purposefully left out on paperwork that is typically publicly available. 

"On October the 9th, I stood in front of the council and I think the news media back here - and that's one of the things they're accusing me of - that I knew it was going to sell for billions of dollars and that's simply not true," Havard said.

Port Commission Secretary David Jewell raised questions about the timeline of events. Jewell and a few other port commissioners believe that Havard knew then that the land would resell to a company and be worth a lot of money. Port Commission President Andrew Grezaffi is directly linked to M/V Industrial, which they think is a reason to try and abolish the port commission. 

"There have been some questions about people who sit on this board involved in that deal and that's all we've done thus far is ask questions," Jewell said during public comment. "We've got some help at a very high level to look into those matters. It is currently being looked at - I can assure you. We hope to have some more answers as they follow the money on that deal."

Jewell told WBRZ that he wonders if the land resold for more with no improvements made, why did Havard and the parish council sell it for only $500,000? Havard said the sale price was determined by the appraisal - but he would have given the land away. 

"I'm standing in front of you today and telling you, God, the media, and everybody - I would have given it away had I known it was going to be what it is. It's hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue, hundreds of jobs for this parish."

The parish president said allegations were motivated by power grabs.

"There's people that are trying to be relevant. There's people that have ran for office and are trying to run this parish and run the council. They didn't get elected for anything. They tried and they lost, and they want to try to run things by proxy."

Watch Havard's full address below: