In a story in the Manitowoc Herald Times that ran shortly before the New Mexico announcement, Ken Stubbe, head of the town’s economic development commission, said “LoPresti didn’t seem willing or able to provide a detailed business plan to us, and that’s what we should have before we put together a proposal.” The paper characterized LoPresti’s claims that other locations were offering millions in incentives as an attempt to create an artificial bidding war. “The normal entrepreneur is exuberant and tends to exaggerate. That wouldn’t surprise me and you kind of ignore it, but when it goes over the pale, you have to consider that a red flag,” Stubbe told the Herald Times. Stubbe said he called five of the communities LoPresti said were in the running and, while they offered inducements, none admitted to showering the company in the $16 million to $18 million in incentives that Stubbe said LoPresti officials told him were on the table. The story doesn’t say if Belen was on Stubbe’s call list and the value of the New Mexico package isn’t known.
