Harrison2

Purchase opinions released

On the same day the three City Council opponents to Harrison Square criticized the city for how it purchased the land for the project, the Allen County prosecutor's office found the city followed the law in acquiring the property. Here are the official statements from the councilmen and the prosecutor's office.

Councilmen letter: Download council_opponent_response.doc

Prosecutor letter: Download July27Kalb.07.pdf

Deal exhibits

Here are the exhibits to go along with the development deals between the city and private investors. The exhibits provide more detailed information about certain parts of the deal.

Exhibit for the condominiums and retails: Download exhibit_for_condo_and_retail.pdf

Exhibit for the hotel: Download exhibit_for_hotel.pdf

Exhibit for the stadium: Download exhibit_for_stadium_license_agreement.pdf

Demolition begins

The official demolition work for the Harrison Square project will begin Thursday. The Belmont Beverage store will be the first to get the wrecking ball, followed by the Palace Restaurant.

City officials will be at the site for an event at 11 a.m. to commemorate the occasion.

Contracts online

Here are the development agreements the city signed with the Harrison Square developers. Read them for yourself and let me know what you think.

Agreements with Hardball regarding stadium construction, use and management.

Download stadium_license_agreement.pdf

Download stadium_management_agreement.pdf

Agreement with Barry Real Estate (development partner of Hardball) on condominium and retail construction.

Download condo_retail_agreement.pdf

Agreement with White Lodging Services regarding the Courtyard by Marriott hotel.

Download hotel_agreement.pdf

Development agreements done

Mayor Graham Richard this afternoon plans to release details of the final development agreements for the Harrison Square project. The contracts with Hardball Capital and the hotel developers are expected to offer many details not previously released and are binding.

I’ll have more info for this blog and the paper after the information is released. Richard is expected to discuss the agreements at 2 p.m. today and the agreements will then be discussed by the redevelopment commission later this afternoon.

Hotel changes

Mayor Graham Richard’s most recent announcement about the downtown hotel included several changes from the original proposal, likely none larger than the switch from a potential Marriott property to a Courtyard by Marriott brand.

While it will likely be a few weeks before we determine how much that changes the estimated $47 million in private investment for the project, there were some other noticeable changes announced for the new downtown hotel.

According to a city press release, the hotel will have six stories and 250 rooms, a fairly dramatic change in shape from the 11-story, 250 room hotel originally announced in February. Instead of a 4,000-square foot ballroom and two 1,000 square-feet meeting rooms, as announced previously, the hotel will have about 6,000 square-feet of meeting room space.

Even the swimming pool was changed by bringing it indoors, which was done to get more year-round use, according to city officials.

Negotiating for parking lots

While the city’s negotiations with Hardball Capital and the hotel developers have garnered much of the attention, city officials have also been working to complete a third agreement.

Greg Leatherman, deputy director of development, said the city is working with Lincoln Financial to reach an agreement to take over several of the company’s parking lots in exchange for space in the new parking garage to be connected to the hotel.

The parking lot land dominates much of the area where the project is slated for construction.

Leatherman said the Lincoln negotiations are in about the same stage as the other two, in that they are almost complete. He said discussions are now in the final stages, including determining exactly how many parking spaces are needed.