And the facts are in:

A group of consultants found the cost of moving the prison far surpasses - by an estimated $372 million - the money the state could make selling the land.

The governor says that's all he needs to know. "We will not be moving the prison. We ran the numbers, did the analysis and the numbers simply aren't there," Huntsman said in an interview this week. "We would not recoup the cost from the sale of the land."

A feasibility study outlining the disparity will be released today at a news conference in the Department of Corrections offices.

Huntsman first suggested the idea of moving the prison during the 2004 campaign for the governor's office. Last winter, he persuaded state lawmakers to set aside $140,000 to study whether such a move was feasible. Tooele County, a location near the Gunnison prison in Sanpete County or property next to the Salt Lake City-County Landfill were rumored as possible new sites.

The 673-acre campus is a small, razor-wire-contained world. Home to 3,350 inmates, 1,500 volunteers and 1,200 employees, it is a complex suburb of convicts. Its buildings house everything from a dental lab to a furniture factory. And there, apparently, is the problem. The 54-year-old prison complex is complex. Replacing the greenhouse, chapel, medical clinics and food plant will cost roughly $450 million - much more than the land the prison sits on is worth, Wikstrom Economic and Planning Consultants found.

Karen Wikstrom and a group of real estate appraisers assessed the value of the land based on several different uses. Draper city leaders suggested the land could be redeveloped and zoned for offices, hotels, restaurants and manufacturers - commercial zoning similar to freeway frontage projects in neighboring cities. Wikstrom calculated both commercial and residential uses. If the land were sold as commercial lots, the state would make about $80 million. The acreage could be sold for more money if it is zoned for homes or apartments, but still not enough to cover the cost of rebuilding the prison somewhere else, Wikstrom concluded.

At the same time, Wikstrom identified about 300 undeveloped acres in the northwest corner of the complex that the state could develop as a research park or office complex. The consultant recommended that property should not be "left idle or simply sold as surplus property."

Prison managers are relieved to have the study. Residents of nearby foothill neighborhoods in Draper have prodded local and state leaders to consider moving the complex for years. And in May, Corrections Director Scott Carver said private prison developers started "swarming" after the state listed privatization as an option in a May 10 request for proposals from consultants.

Now, Deputy Corrections Director Chris Mitchell hopes those pressures will ease.

"We did always predict it would be fairly expensive. We're not real estate appraisers. We had no idea what the value of the property was," Mitchell said. "But costs have gone up higher than we had initially guesstimated. It's very helpful to have this kind of information."

Draper city officials were disappointed by the results. They had hoped to turn the prison property into an economic development initiative. Economic Development Manager David Baird said the feasibility study should not be limited to the price of the land, but should take into account sales and property taxes that would be generated by a commercial complex on the prison's prime freeway frontage. Still, Baird hopes to have a role in guiding the development of the 300 acres Wikstrom identified.

"There is a massive amount of land that could be developed into something to contribute to the city almost immediately," Baird said.

Baird figures the prison eventually will move - even if not this year.

Huntsman says the idea will be "off the table" for at least the next three years - the rest of his term in office.

"As the population continues to move south, this will be a public policy question. This would have come up every year," Huntsman said. "We've answered that question now. Right now, it's just not feasible."

The cost of moving a prison:

* $450 million price tag to move the 54-year-old complex, home to 3,350 inmates, 1,500 volunteers and 1,200 workers

* $78 million profit from the sale of 673 acres

* 300 acres identified for future development

* Utahns can comment on the prison feasibility study at a public hearing Nov. 30, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Draper Elementary School, 1080 E. 12660 South. The draft report is available on the state Web site www.utah.gov. Comments can be submitted through Dec. 7 by e-mail to PrisonStudyComments@utah.gov.