Posts Tagged “Chris Guerin”

By Jim Sack

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.

Excel file is here.

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.

By Jim Sack

Finally, after a lot of prodding by Council members John Shoaff, Tom Smith and Mitch Harper, not to mention you and I, the Redevelopment Commission has voted to tell Barry/Hardball that the Atlanta firm is in default. The building they promised would be completed last year is still to be begun. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

September first is the grand opening day of the new hotel adjacent to Parkview Field in downtown Fort Wayne. It should be seen as a feather in the cap of Mayor Tom Henry, and should also call into question the administration’s support for Barry Realty.

When Mayor Graham Richard envisioned the massive central city development there were four components: the ball park, the hotel, the condo/retail building and a parking garage. Three are now operating. Only the Barry Realty promise to build the condo building -four stories, scores of condos, ground-floor entertainment and offices- remains unfulfilled. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jim Sack

I heard the other day about what seemed to be a real blatant bit of insider dealing.  It is a lesson in how Fort Wayne works and how rumors grow into something more.

The story was of a sweet-heart deal and conflict of interest.  It involved a leading citizen and one of his employees sitting on a board making the decision on the matter.

Read the rest of this entry »