DENTON (1080 KRLD) - A restaurant that's become a Denton institution is fighting eminent domain. New York Sub Hub is one of five businesses along Avenue C, on land that is set to be overtaken by the University of North Texas over the coming months. In February, the UNT Board of Regents approved a plan to aquire the properties either by purchase or eminent domain.
Late last month, the businesses started recieving letters from the university offering purchase prices for the property.
"We've given back to UNT," said New York Sub Hub operator Hunter Christiansen. "A lot of their employees and students (are customers)...they've said countless times they support us and they don't want us to leave."
The businesses set to be bought up have started a petition on Change.org, soliciting signatures in support of holding on to their land. As of July 3, nearly 16,000 signatures had been collected. "It's amazing to see how many people are on our side," Christiansen added.
"They gave us 30 days to respond to their offer or not," said Christiansen. "We don't want to sell and we don't want to move."
As for the University of North Texas, in a statement, Bob Brown, Vice President of Finance and Administration said:
"We've grown to a community of nearly 45,000 people, which has overwhelmed our existing space. Geographically, the campus is hemmed in by neighborhoods and interstate, severely limiting where we can seek additional space to build necessary infrastructure. We're drastically short on classrooms, labs and housing necessary to properly serve our community. We have been trying to provide a fair price to the businesses affected in the fairest way possible given the circumstances. The property is part of the overall, long-term master growth plan of the university and has been approved for eminent domain by the Board of Regents. It is inevitably going to become a part of the campus at some point. We are offering more than fair prices for the properties, going well above their appraised market value because we recognize and respect how difficult the situation is, but our options here are limited."
The petition can be found here.