Dateline – Fort Wayne Indiana September 11th, 2008..
The City of Fort Wayne, Parkview Health (a non-profit entity) and Hardball Capital, a.k.a. Barry Real Estate, today announced that the non-profit healthcare group known as Parkview has agreed to become the signature partner for the new downtown Harrison Square development. Parkview, (which for the record pays “zero” in property taxes), has agreed to make an annual commitment of $300,000 per year, $150,000 of which will be contributed directly to Jason Freier, Hardball Capital and Barry Real Estate.
The new downtown ballpark will be known as Parkview Field.
From the Journal Gazette, January 30th, 2007
One member of the audience asked why building a new stadium is so important when Memorial Stadium on Coliseum Boulevard is perfectly functional. Richard said the new stadium is part of an incentive package to get Hardball Capital, the owners of the Fort Wayne Wizards baseball team, to invest millions of dollars downtown in retail and housing.
Not only has downtown Fort Wayne experienced a lack of major investment for years, but it is unusual for mixed-use development ancillary to a baseball stadium be constructed at the same time as a stadium, the mayor said.
Richard stressed the entire project can be done without spending general property tax dollars.
“I think it’s a great deal,†Richard said. “It’s just vital for us to take advantage of this possibility.â€
[.. Richard also said the city would be interested in selling the naming rights of the stadium to generate more income for the project.
Then on February 23rd, 2007 this.
Q. In conjunction with selling naming rights, is there any possibility for a 50/50 investment split on the ballpark?
Freier: I cannot comment on the precise terms of the deal we are working on with the City until that is finalized but I can say that we have expressed a willingness to, in addition to our investment in the City-owned ballpark and related development, share some revenue streams with the City and assume some of the operating costs in the City-owned facility.
So with today’s announcement we’re giving half of $3 million for the naming rights to Hardball Capital/Barry Real Estate et.al., in spite of the fact that they have not delivered on their promise to “invest millions of dollars downtown in retail and housing.”
So the snake oil salesman Jason Freier has pulled another fast one. The more important question here is what the hell is Parkview thinking? Maybe it’s because of the Wizard’s average “through the turnstile attendance” of just barely 2000 people in 2006, (in spite of reports of average attendance of 3,841). You see, they have this way of counting tickets printed and distributed as “attendance” while through the turnstile numbers are quite different. And maybe they can attract some of those people to their healthcare facilities instead of Lutheran’s because their name is on the gate. Yeah, that’s it.
Is Jon Boscia now running Parkview? No, it’s Michael Packnett, but wait a second, Packnett was also on the North River Task Farce. Not bad for a guy that just blew into town in 2006.
One funny thing I found here (Power Point file), was this.
HARRISON SQUARE
The risk of not doing anything:
Continued Downward Trend in Wages
Hot dogs, get yer hot dogs! I’d like to see the trending numbers once this thing is done.
Oh, and when is that Marriott Renaissance Courtyard going to open up? I can hardly wait to go spend the night there and experience..
Full service restaurant dining
Room service
Valet parking
Concierge service
Fitness center
Full service bar
High quality linens and furnishings
Oops. I mean park your own car, get a yummy pre-packaged cold sandwich from the vending machine and walk to the 412 Club for a cocktail. Oh damn I forget, you can always walk to the subsidized Subway for a sandwich.
Did you feel that?
AWB
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Mike Pachnett came from Oklahoma City in 2006 where that city built a $35 million stadium with all public money. The naming rights were sold to AT&T – It is named AT&T Bricktown Ballpark. It’s a AAA affiliate of the Texas Rangers – the team is the Oklahoma Red Hawks. The stadium opened in 1998 and seats 13,066 fans when full. The hospital that Mike ran in Oklahoma City sure didn’t get involved with the naming rights – but I will bet that he was somehow involved.
WOW Factor! Where’s the return of investment to Fort Wayne citizen tax-paid baseball facility that Hardball Capital promised?
PARKVIEW BASEBALL STADIUM!
Keep the money flowing Fort Wayne!
$300 K for naming rights is a non-for-profit gesture, Parkview.
Oh my, and the Socialism has spread to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Numbers don’t lie, but liars use numbers!!!
Pretty funny about Parkview and its donation for naming rights, when last year for a charity CHILDREN’S auction, I attempted to court them for a table sponsorship OR a donation. We are talking a CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION, not-for-profit, etc. We even had Joe Scarborough as the guest speaker. I sent Mr. Packnett a complete submission package explaining the history of the children’s foundation along with a DVD from our first charity auction. I even attempted to call him, and believe I left a voice mail message. Did I ever hear back from him or anyone at Parkview? NO!! Too bad, this auction is/was for a very worthy cause. Must not have fit into Parkview’s budget, agenda or enough publicity wasn’t involved. Will the team be called the Packnett’s Pinchers?
Denise,
Don’t worry he is one of the many who pop into town, tell us what we need, and then climb the ladder one more step as they move out….
At least you will have a new CEO to approach in a year or so. Maybe it will be some dumb butt from Fort Wayne, who understands our city.
I have experienced the same none-response in donation requests from Parkview. The sad fact is, Packnett right now cares more about name recognition than actually helping the community.
They have effectively pissed off the entire northeast quadrant of the town by planning to shrink the Original Parkview…top that off with the fact that Dupont is kicking their A$$ with customer satisfaction and they are generally not seen as the First or even Second choice for health care in Fort Wayne. They should have never built Parkview North where they did. That community was already being served by Dupont and the people on that side of town realize it.
On top of that, St. Joe now will have a lock on all southeast side business with the recent expansion. Poor decision were made a parkview and more are being made. Let’s see how long they it is before the get bought by a for profit network.
The only thing lately that Parkview did that was probably good for their business was to beg Anthem to add them as an approved provider…considering the fact that Anthem insures more indiana residents than any other insurance provider. At least they could start trying to get some of that business that has been going to the Lutheran Health Network for years. Hell, I live three blocks away from Parkview and still have had all my recent procedures done at St. Joe or Lutheran.
And a name on a stadium sure as hell isn’t going to change that.
Boy the part I like is they still are 80,000.00 a year short on the maintainence costs! Why does Frier need to make a cool 150,000.00 a year for nothing over our Parks’ name?
Why did we not get the 230,000.00 and let Frier only make 70,000.oo. Are the people downtown really that stupid?! Jason Frier should be run out of town on a rail.
Mark – The “people downtown” are not stupid – they know exactly what they are doing -pushing their agenda at our expense! The only question left is, ” When will anyone in Allen County and Fort Wayne Government finally understand, ‘Let private capital drive our cities growth’” The lessons of Kitty Hawk, Downtown Hilton, the tax-eating Grand Wayne Center, Mid- Town Crossing, et al to infinity have not been learned – and now it looks like the only way out of the morass of inactivity on “The Harrison” will be to fall back on good old Fort Wayne property tax levies. They are not stupid, but they are also not very smart1
“When will anyone in Allen County and Fort Wayne Government finally understand, ‘Let private capital drive our cities growth’â€
At the risk of repeating myself again and again, Matt Kelty DID understand and wanted to stop the “bleeding” of the citizens for “pet” projects. Not only is he a friend of mine, but I sincerely agree(ed) with his politics. Ok, so maybe there was/is NOT a conspiracy against him and/or his campaign, but there sure was/is a concerted effort targeting him. I wonder why?
Dan, why don’t I ever see retorts from Kevin Knuth on your website? Is he AFRAID of you, or did you kick him off permanently? He should be writing if I said something positive about Matt. He sure can write/spin a good statement. Once again, numbers don’t lie, but liars use numbers.