Harrison Square hotel on hold?

FORT WAYNE, Ind., (WANE) - Harrison Square's new ball park is slated to open in less than 200 days, but the future of much of the rest of the project is still up in the air.

Work on the condos has been stalled due to sluggish sales and now Newschannel 15's learned the new hotel may be in jeopardy too.

"Certainly, we're in a challenging economic environment and that's complicated White Lodging's ability to obtain the construction financing," explains Steve Brody, a consultant for the city of Fort Wayne on the Harrison Square project.

With permits waiting to be issued, securing the money for White Lodging to begin building has become a lot tougher thanks to the credit crunch. Officials have yet to nail down a loan and they're up against a deadline to break ground by December 30th.

Brody says,"I think it's premature to panic or say there's a big problem here. Frankly, they have not violated at this point, any of the stated dates in the agreement."

But even though the project isn't officially behind schedule, not knowing when or if the project will get off the ground's hurting the Grand Wayne center.

Brody is also the President of the Grand Wayne Center Board. He says the facility's counting on having the second hotel to book larger conventions.

"When our marketing teams are out, and they're marketing to potential customers, new and repeat, many of those groups want to know that the hotel is under construction and there's a definite completion date."

Brody says as many as 30 groups were turned away last year because of a lack of what he calls "first class downtown hotel rooms." He's counting on Harrison Square to change that.

"Harrison Square all along has been a lot more than a ball park. The ball park right now is the most visible thing that's happening, but we all look forward to the day when the hotel is sitting next to it to the east and some retail and condos are sitting next to it to the northwest."

Thursday morning the Grand Wayne Center Board will meet to discuss its 2009 budget.

Brody says the group's already taken into consideration having less revenue due to the hotel project being stalled--or behind schedule.

Officials say the hotel still slated to open by the summer of 2010.