Barry Real Estate, Harrison Square developers, had been scheduled to give a presentation to the Fort Wayne City Council during their next meeting on the 18th of November. Â Due to an unplanned extra budget hearing and numerous other items on the agenda, this has been pushed back to the 25th of November. Â Also during this time, White Lodging Services will be presenting information to the Council as well.
This is pure speculation on my part, but given the current state of the economy, I have a feeling we could be in for some bad news.
According to the Definitive Agreement signed for the new hotel, permits and approvals were to be obtained by September 1, 2008. Â I made a quick phone call to the Building Department this afternoon to learn that there have been no permits issued as of yet for the hotel area. Â The address I gave them to look up was the address listed on the Tax Abatement application filed by White Lodging. Â Further, when I asked if there had been any activity in that block, I was transferred to the City’s Economic Development Department. Â
The Definitive Agreement goes on to state that construction was supposed to commence by November 1, 2008. Â Nothing has been announced or started on that front either.
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Isn’t it possible that we (the corporate Fort Wayne we) have been subjected to a scam alike to the whole mortgage mess that has led to the financial meltdown we are experiencing? Barry Real Estate was trying to get the taxpayers of Fort Wayne to completely finance their pyramid scheme involving the pre-perchase of condos so that no capital needed to be invested by they and their backers – all of which would have been possible under the lax rules that lenders had been forced to operate under by our federal government over the last 15 years or so. The meltdown ruined their plans – all could have been avoided if Don Schmidt’s request for financial information on Hardball, Barry, et al had not been blocked by Redevelopment and our past mayor King Richard.
Congrats John, You figured out the scam. You are about 92% correct.
In a way this nightmare so many are living through may be the very thing that stops this nightmare from playing out.
What amazes me is when this dies no one will be forced off any of the boards. It is just like the county. The elected people appoint them to the boards and then act like thier paws are clean. So in two years we will vote for many of these same people back into office to reappoint the same dumb dumbs.
Stephen,
The hotel construction date was already pushed back months from the dates that were originally discussed. I have been extremely worried that White Lodging would bail on the hotel and if they did they would use condo failure as their excuse. There is a clause in the contract that says all other parts of the project must happen or there’s no deal.
I sincerely hope that does not happen. If it does then the entire project is dead as the hotel was to provide the biggest chunk of the project revenue.
And before anyone gets too excited about the prospect of the project dieing, remember that we backed these bonds with our property tax dollars so we are on the hook no matter what happens…
When you factor in the circuit breakers and their affect on tax revenues, our newly trimmed City budget (which may or may not receive even more trimming next year), where’s the money to pay for the Harrison Square debt service going to come from? Property Taxes were pledged as back up if the TIF revenues failed. If that occurred, it would result in service cuts possibly extending into Public Safety. We’re talking around $1.4 Million annually for the next 29 or 30 years.
All of this aside, it should be an interesting meeting on the 25th. I really really hope I’m wrong and there is news that will have us all joyfully singing from the roof top of the City-County Building!