Offices could fill Harrison Square site

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Construction on it was supposed to be finished by now, but there's yet another new proposal to get the ball rolling on the Harrison Square condo site.

Only NewsChannel 15 uncovered how this latest proposal could generate more money for the city.

As you drive by the finished stadium downtown, it’s covered by a greenish advertising curtain. Behind it, you can see the harsh reality of an empty plot of land that's nothing more than a big hole in the ground.

"We continue to look at that location as being unique,” said City of Fort Wayne Redevelopment Director Greg Leatherman.

An animation released in 2007 shows what should fill that “unique” space. Since the beginning, the city has wanted it be a mixed-use development: retail on the first floor, condos on the rest.

"Residential has been the most difficult thing to do at this point because of the economy and the mortgage crisis and the lending crisis and there's an oversupply of houses right now,” Leatherman said.

In an effort to drum up sales, developer Barry Real Estate has tweaked the design: making the condos bigger, even eliminating a floor. But it hasn't worked.

"The price point for that particular location has been higher than what it appears our market wants to pay,” Leatherman said.

So why not change the development to lower the price?

"That would conflict with the very nice baseball park and the parking deck and the park that's there and the new hotel that's being built,” Leatherman said.

Now comes new information that office space may now play a role in the equation. The city reports a handful of businesses have expressed an interest in opening an office in what could be condos. Only NewsChannel 15 uncovered that office space could actually make the city more money than condos. That's because this is a TIFF zone, which doesn't collect any residential property taxes. It could, however, collect big bucks from offices taking the space instead. That could place less pressure on the need for the hotel's success.

"We're very flexible to understand what the economic market today will sustain and support and if that's an office space right now for a couple of big users, then that would be great,” Leatherman said.

Again: The idea of office space is all in the talking phase at this point. No matter what, the city wants retail to fill the first floor of space with things like stores and restaurants. They say that will be the main draw of this third and final part of the Harrison Square development.