What are we going to put in them there holes?
Posted by AWB in City & County Government, Harrison BoondoggleIt appears from many accounts that White Lodging is spinning out of control. As first reported here on November 16th, White Lodging has be unable to obtain a construction loan for the hotel at Harrison Square.
Yesterday Kevin Leininger reported this:
Although officials with Merrillville-based White Lodging Services say they still hope to begin construction on the 250-room Courtyard by Marriott this year, President and CEO for Investments Deno Yiankes said Friday the company is negotiating with its third would-be lender and that a loan agreement could still be at least months away.
Still hope? Months away? That’s not very definitive, now is it?
No condo’s, no hotel, no retail.
And it appears that White Lodging is giving Austin, TX the shaft as well.
The Austin Statesman reported last month that groundbreaking on a 1,000-room, $275 million hotel [by White Lodging] – originally scheduled for 2008, then this year – is being shelved until further notice.
AWB
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The worst that happens is for a couple of years there is nothing there. It isn’t really a big deal. The temptation is to do something “rash” to fill the space – but if the condo / hotel falls through for now the best thing to do is just to stay calm, don’t develop it, and wait for the economy to turn around.
On a side note, I hadn’t seen any report on the fact they weren’t going through with the condos. Are they for sure not developing those until further notice, or is it just the hotel that we know for sure isn’t going forward.
There is nothing being said as far as I know on The Harrison condo project except they’re working on a redesign for bigger/less condos and hope to get financing.
Harrison Square: Change, Change, Hope, got any spare change?
Seems that my monicker of “Costaplenty Square” will indeed live UP to our expectations…
Or is that DOWN?
So how does the stadeum get paid for?
It was my understanding that the room tax and property tax for the hotel and property taxes from the retail ond others was going to pay the bond. Even a 2 year delay in those funds will put the burden back on the tax payers.
So i would say that a 2 year delay would be a real big deal.
Pitchforks and torches anyone?
Me – The Apple Glen and Jefferson Pointe commercial and retail areas are all part of the TIF district whos property tax revenues are scheduled to pay off the bonds sold to fund the building of the unneeded stadium and unneeded parking garage, even though these two public-owned facilities have absolutely NOTHING to benefit either of them (and that part of the TIF district is scheduled to absorb these revenues for another 44 years from now!).
– Just in case these funds are insufficient to cover the yearly costs, our city administration and the Indian Department of Local Government Finance, agreed to use the city general property tax levies to “back-up” the payment of these costs.
– If “The Jefferson” and the “Courtyard Hotel” are not built, or come on line late, this means that in any year that the projected revenues from the TIF AND the additional income taxes paid by the retail entities and employees working in these two facilities are insufficient to cover the costs, then that amount will be added to all Fort Wayne property tax levies. (This is happening to Fort Wayne next year to cover the repayment of the bonds sold by the Airport Authority to pay for the hanger and parking place for the defunct Kitty Hawk Airfreight Company at Fort Wayne International Airport)
John or Dan,
EIther of you hear any news on UPS or Kalitta Air moving into KittyHawk. I know they were both interested, but Kitty Hawk just shut down one of their repair facilities up north.
Nope, can’t blame this on the economy as many people want too. They try to blame it on the economy because that’s easy and takes little or no thought. This was a train wreck before it left the yard. This was all based on a prayer to revitalize fort wayne. Once again, a typical political buzz word of feeling good and doing what they think is right. There isn’t a city in this country, the size of fort wayne, that has used a baseball stadium to revitalize its downtown. They tried using examples when this was in the planning stage. But oddly enough I don’t see either Sam Talarico Jr. OR John Crawford with there ink pen and checkbook out buying one of these units. Apparently, its a great deal for everyone else just not the people who voted for it!!!!!!!
this is why i wanted to name the wizards/tin caps the black holes.
Is Burlington ready to move back yet?
Hey Mike – I think we should check this out – It’s been 10 years -that was the length of the tax abatement that Toledo came up with to lure Burlington Air Freight to move!
I was invited to check it out at one time, as a former employee… invited to move there at one time actually. I would like to go up and check out their set up when I get a chance… I’ve got tons of point and shoot pictures of the operation in FW as well when i worked there out of school…
Sometimes I wonder if them there holes won’t just fill up with water. Ground water, that is, and that goes for the ball field, too. Isn’t it true that the original plans called for the big hole to be about eight or ten feet deeper that the finished product will actually be, and then the groundwater question was finally raised, so they made it not so deep?
That line of thinking makes me wonder who, if anybody, will be paying the great big “stormwater fee” (on the City Utilities bill) for Harrison Square? Will they get a credit for “Rain Gardens” if the condo and hotel holes stay empty?