Harrison2

Deal completion looms

As we head into July, city officials are now one month behind their planned schedule of getting final development agreements with Hardball Capital and the hotel developers. Mayor Graham Richard this week said the delay shouldn’t be much longer.

Richard said the negotiations with Hardball and the hotel developers are wrapping up and he hopes to submit final agreements to the City Council by Friday, July 6. This would allow the agreements to be introduced by the council at its July 10 meeting.

Deputy Mayor Mark Becker said the city sent Hardball what could be the final agreement earlier this week, and city officials plan to meet with the hotel developers Friday to try to finalize that deal. Fiday is the same day the board overseeing the Grand Wayne Center votes to give the hotel project $2.5 million, but city leaders said the dates aren’t linked.

Money request scheduled

The Fort Wayne Allen County Convention and Tourism Authority will meet at 9 a.m. Friday to discuss a request to provide $2.5 million for the cost of Harrison Square.

The city will ask the board, which runs the Grand Wayne Center, to provide $250,000 annually for 10 years to help with construction costs for the downtown hotel. City officials have said the money will only go to public parts of the project.

People wanting to attend the meeting should go to the Grand Wayne’s administrative offices on top of the escalator.

Harrison retail

One of the major components of the Harrison Square development is the attraction of new retail stores to the downtown area. The first floor of the condominium building is slated for shops and restaurants to fill a void of retail when many of the businesses left the city’s core.

But who will set up shop downtown? Sherry Slater, business reporter for The Journal Gazette, asks numerous business across town the likelihood of moving or expanding into Harrison Square.

While some businesses expressed interest in the project, others had concerns over the number of available clients or proximity of parking. In one example, The Casa Restaurant Group didn’t think the restaurant was a good fit for the downtown location, partly because of the proximity to another of its restaurants.

The full story will run in Sunday Business in The Journal Gazette.

Harrison divided

City officials presented a map of the different pots of money used to purchase different plots of land for Harrison Square. This shows which land was purchased with Jefferson Pointe tax increment finance money, which land was purchased with a previous CEDIT bond and the site purchased through eminent domain years ago for a downtown hotel.

People may disagree about whether buying land next to a special taxing district, like a TIF, serves that district, but this map at least shows what money was used to purchase what land. The map is a PDF file.

Download purchase_money.pdf

Rezoning request made

City officials today filed an application to rezone the land for the Harrison Square project. Greg Leatherman, deputy director of development, said the entire project area will be zoned as a central downtown district: CM5A.

Leatherman said the commercial zoning is perfect for downtown because it allows for all types of development, including the ballpark.

“It’s a downtown zoning that allows for a mixed use this project represents,” he said.

The rezoning will go before the City Plan Commission in July, but the commission will not hear the project’s development plan. Leatherman said while the commission typically likes to hear rezoning requests with a development plan, it was important to move forward with the rezoning request first to meet timetables.

By getting the commission to debate rezoning in July, it gives the City Council time to approve it in August. The non-binding contract with Hardball Capital calls for construction to start in September.

Leatherman said the city will have the project’s development plan ready to submit for the plan commission’s August meeting. The council does not have to approve development plans.

Many approvals still needed

While the City Council has given what many consider the largest go-ahead for the Harrison Square project, the development still faces many government hurdles before construction can begin.

Rezoning of the land will need to be approved by the City Plan Commission and the City Council, street vacations for the project need to be approved by the City Council, and development plans need to be approved by the plan commission.

The city doesn’t have a specific timeframe yet for the steps, but to begin construction in September, the project would have to have all its approvals by August. This would mean much of the plans would have to be submitted in July.

The Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission will meet Monday to hold a public hearing and give formal approval for the bond needed to finance the project.

Jefferson Pointe connection

Many detractors of the Harrison Square project criticized the city for using Jefferson Pointe property tax money to purchase land for the development. The people who run the shopping center, however, are excited about the new development.

David Mattison, general manager for Jefferson Pointe, called Harrison Square exciting and “a testament to the city leaders’ vision and had work and a great leap forward to enhance the city’s core economic health,” according to an e-mail sent in May. I recently received the e-mails from a public record request to the city.

“Obviously there will be great opportunities for downtown and Jefferson Pointe to work together,” Mattison wrote.

The city plans to set aside about $900,000 per year for 30 years to help finance Harrison Square, which is about half the money available in the special taxing district that now includes Harrison Square and Jefferson Pointe.

Project update scheduled

City leaders and officials from Hardball Capital plan to give an update on the Harrison Square project Thursday morning at the Grand Wayne Center. The announcement comes a few days after city officials said they would be asking the Grand Wayne Center to contribute $2.5 million over 10 years to help with the hotel portion of Harrison Square.

While no details about the update were released Wednesday, it will be the first public presentation by Hardball Capital since the City Council gave the project the go ahead.

The city is also inviting sports reporters to attend the availability, but it is unknown whether Hardball, the owners of the Fort Wayne Wizards, plans to address the performance of the last place team.

Bond limits set

The Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission Monday set the maximum length and payment of a bond to finance the public portions of Harrison Square. The board agreed that the bond can’t last longer than 30 years and its annual payments won’t be larger than $5.2 million.

John Stafford, consultant for the city on the project, said the bond is likely to last 25 years and annual payments will fluctuate between $1 million and almost $5.2 million.

According to preliminary financial reports of the bond, the city will spend more than $84 million on bond payments over the course of the lease, but it will generate an estimated $97 million in revenues to cover the bond payments.

The source of the bond payments are: $11.25 million from the CRED tax credit, $2.5 million from the Grand Wayne Center, $15.8 million from the project’s property taxes, $41.8 million from the Jefferson Pointe taxing district’s property taxes and $26 million from economic development income taxes.

Stafford said the numbers are still preliminary and likely won’t be finalized until the city issues bonds this fall.

The commission will hold a public meeting on June 18 to discuss the bond.

Lawsuits avoided

There will likely be no further legal challenge to the Harrison Square development. Neither John Kalb or Mark Garvin filed a lawsuit against the project by the Thursday afternoon deadline.

Garvin said he made his point in his written letter and speech to the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission and didn’t need to pursue the matter further. Garvin argued against the way the city purchased the land and expanded a special taxing district to finance the project. Kalb couldn’t be reached for comment, but previously conceded it would be a difficult legal fight.

Kalb and Garvin, both private residents, were the only ones to file the necessary written opposition to the project to get the opportunity to file a lawsuit.

With the lawsuit issue out of the way, attention will be shifted squarely to the city’s negotiations with a hotel developer and Hardball Capital. The city and the hotel developer missed a deadline this week to finalize an agreement, but city officials made assurances that things are proceeding smoothly.

At some point deals will have to be finished to allow construction to begin by Sept. 1, which is required in the non-binding contract with Hardball.