Wednesday, the Fort Wayne Redevelop Commission will meet. Top on the agenda will be the Harrison, the source of great frustration for the administration, its Redevelopment director Greg Leatherman, the volunteers and staff who are the RD Commission, nearly every member of city council, pundits, sages and a few thousand interested citizens. Perhaps I should add to that list of hand-wringers the principles of Hardball Capital and Barry Realty. Everybody is frustrated, angry and befuddled by this project, fingers have been pointed, blame assigned and plenty of citizens have made recommendations, some civil, as to what to do with “that hole.”
Truth is, more than anything else, the market is to blame. Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, Phil Gramm, everyone who cheated on a mortgage application, Freddie, Fannie, sleazy get-rich-quick brokers, six camels in Kuwait and me. I accept full blame. Time to move on.
Central Atlanta Progress, in partnership with Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) of Atlanta, has set the line ups for the breakout panels at CAP’s Eighth Annual 2010 Downtown Development Day, which will take place Nov. 4 at AmericasMart Building 2 WestWing.
Experts from Cousins Properties, Forest City Enterprises, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Atlanta Development Authority and other esteemed companies will offer their knowledge and insight into what’s happening in Downtown. The panels will run concurrently from 10:45 a.m.-12 noon.
Panel 1 will discuss how to attract retail and residential development to Downtown.
Panelists include Jim Borders, CEO, Novare Group; Michael I. Cohn, executive vice president retail investments, leasing and asset management, Cousins Properties; Sarah Kirsch, senior principal, RCLCO; and Harvey Rudy, senior director of development, Barry Real Estate Cos. The panel will be moderated by Herman H. Howard, vice president – Atlanta regional practice leader, HOK.
Monday afternoon the Redevelopment Commission voted to start the clock ticking. A draft of a letter to Barry Real Estate and another to Hardball announce the city’s holds Barry in default of its agreement with the city of Fort Wayne concerning Harrison Square, namely construction of the Harrison, a mix residential/retail building along Jefferson Boulevard. Read the rest of this entry »
Christopher Guerin is President of the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission. Minutes ago he wrote this comment on the blog. See the portion in bold at the end.
Jim,
This is your interpretation of recent events and you’re entitled to it. However, a few facts:
On July 19, the members of the Redevelopment Commission, in executive session, decided that a letter of default should be issued. We would have voted on that publicly at our August meeting if the Scotty’s Brewhouse agreement hadn’t surfaced.
All of this was before John Shoaff spoke out on the $5,000-a-day penalty on August 24th.
What the Redevelopment Commission did yesterday, as it has all along, was continue a process that will, we hope, ultimately result in The Harrison being built, either by Barry Real Estate or some other developer. In other words, we acted to broaden our options, by making it possible legally to talk to other developers. What we did not do was take the punitive measures John Shoaff has argued for.
There has never been any doubt that one day the Redevelopment Commission would seek some remedy for the default, once damages could somehow be quantified, perhaps in the form of a renegotiated stadium agreement.
Again, our priority is seeing that The Harrison is built, and the Commission will continue to act to bring that about.
I stand by every word I wrote in my Journal-Gazette piece.
Sincerely,
Christopher Guerin
Just what is it the Redevelopment Commission doesn’t understand about condominiums being built downtown? It’s a flawed concept. No one is standing in line for a Fort Wayne downtown condo.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the price for condominiums in the Midwest are down 4.1% in 2010 over 2009. To take it out further, the median price has dropped from $195,200 in 2007, to $152,900 in July, 2010. That’s a 22% reduction, and prices are still falling.
As for Midwest sales of condos, there’s a 30% reduction in 2010 over 2009, and July over June of 2010 was down 41.7%
On top of that, you can buy a one-bedroom condo at Midtowne Crossing for as little as $54,900, and there’s more than one for sale.
So I have to ask. Where’s the logic? Why are we still stuck on this condo/retail fantasy? Let’s impose the fine, fire Barry, and then put it out for other developers to take a look at.
Tuesday night I watched Liz Brown with some admiration. During testimony by three different individuals on three different matters Mrs. Brown asked simple and clear questions to which the witness answered in circuitous ways, some, perhaps, either not quite understanding the question, or choosing rather to quickly side step the point of the question to provide a defense rather than a response. Mrs. Brown asked the questions again quietly, and politely. She took her time and got rather interesting answers, albeit, not necessarily to the question posed. Her examination of the witnesses clearly helped enlighten her fellow council members. Read the rest of this entry »
It was a bittersweet moment today for Graham Richard, our former mayor.
Graham stood at the very back of the crowd of 200 or so people, mostly heavy hitters, politicians and affiliates of one downtown organization or another, to watch current Mayor Tom Henry, Redevelopment Director Greg Leatherman and a few others give and take credit for the new hotel adjacent to the ballpark. Read the rest of this entry »
It was almost a jolly city council meeting last night. Even as the troopers were just beginning to trooped in you could see mostly smiles and friendly gestures. Tom Didier, always a happy guy, was the norm rather than the exception last night; the atmosphere during most of the rest of the year as was exemplified during the budget hearings when low grade snarls emanated from around the table. The meeting last night proceeded that way from front to back, only a couple of times did it seem that Liz Brown might go after someone at the table. (To be clear, Harper and Shoaff hardly ever are draw in to the snarling; Shoaff is a very gentile and collegial council member, Harper is highly conscious of the need for polite decorum and fully observes it.)
What’s happening with Barry Real Estate and the failed condo/retail development at Harrison Square? Both the city and Barry have failed to really provide any substantive answers of late.
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Wednesday, the Fort Wayne Redevelop Commission will meet. Top on the agenda will be the Harrison, the source of great frustration for the administration, its Redevelopment director Greg Leatherman, the volunteers and staff who are the RD Commission, nearly every member of city council, pundits, sages and a few thousand interested citizens. Perhaps I should add to that list of hand-wringers the principles of Hardball Capital and Barry Realty. Everybody is frustrated, angry and befuddled by this project, fingers have been pointed, blame assigned and plenty of citizens have made recommendations, some civil, as to what to do with “that hole.”
It was almost a jolly city council meeting last night. Even as the troopers were just beginning to trooped in you could see mostly smiles and friendly gestures. Tom Didier, always a happy guy, was the norm rather than the exception last night; the atmosphere during most of the rest of the year as was exemplified during the budget hearings when low grade snarls emanated from around the table. The meeting last night proceeded that way from front to back, only a couple of times did it seem that Liz Brown might go after someone at the table. (To be clear, Harper and Shoaff hardly ever are draw in to the snarling; Shoaff is a very gentile and collegial council member, Harper is highly conscious of the need for polite decorum and fully observes it.)
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