A dust-up over the headquarters of the Country Thunder music festival is happening on the quaint streets of Florence.
The annual festival at the nearby Canyon Moon Ranch draws thousands every year and is in no danger of leaving, event organizers said.
But the town and ranch owner Harry Luge are trying to work out a snag in turning a historic, refurbished building on Main Street into a headquarters for the Arizona event and a similar one in Wisconsin.
"If we had to move we wouldn't skip a beat," said Luge, who rents the building on Main Street. "People are coming to Country Thunder; they are not coming there for our office."
An agreement would be good news for everyone.
The event's office has been on Main Street since 2003 and houses memorabilia from country singers such as Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and serves as a visible storefront for the spring festival, which runs April 1-4 next year.
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The town, which is seeing a renaissance of some of its historic buildings downtown, has a tenant that brings in thousands of dollars in revenue from Country Thunder ticket sales. But the hitch is a lease-to-own arrangement between the town and Luge that isn't going according to plan.
The town had drafted and entered into the agreement that allowed Luge to rent with an option to buy the town-owned property and put the rent money and improvements toward the eventual purchase of the building, said Jess Knudson, the town's spokesman. It turns out it can't be sold that way, he said.
"The lease for purchase was an error on the town," Knudson said. "(We) can't dispose of the property in that fashion."
State law outlines a more complicated process. The property has to be appraised and then be put out to public auction to avoid insider dealing, Knudson said.
Both sides are optimistic an agreement can be reached.
On the line is a building that cost $56,000 and is now worth $150,000, Luge said. The inside of the old building has been stripped to the studs and remodeled for use by Country Thunder's handful of employees. "I want to work this out," Luge said. "When they told me that there was no way they could sell me the property, I said, 'I will talk to my attorney.'"
Town officials also are hopeful, if noncommittal. Luge is now on a month-to-month lease arrangement and may have expressed his intent to buy the property too late, Knudson said.
