Fort Wayne mayor Tom Henry presented his annual State of the City address at the Grand Wayne Center downtown Wednesday afternoon.
Much of the mayor’s speech focused on the continued development of downtown and the growth of Fort Wayne as a whole.
In addition to the grand opening of the Promenade Park in June, Henry announced movement on two major hotel projects in 2019: the boutique hotel on Harrison and Main proposed by Barbara Baekgaard of Vera Bradley with Provenance Hotels is expected to break ground in May, and the Hampton Inn & Suites is scheduled to open in July.
Henry also offered a new proposal to City Council: a revised plan for residential tax abatement. He said the idea came from a state ordinance that hasn’t really been utilized in Fort Wayne.
“In our current situation in Fort Wayne with the growth and excitement and momentum we have in our community, we want our residents to invest in our community, to buy homes and to take care of the properties that they have, let’s offer that to residents as well as businesses,” Henry said.
He admitted the proposal needs fine tuning, but expects it will be ready later this year.
Henry is running for his fourth mayoral term, unopposed by Democrats but facing two challengers in the Republican primary: at-large councilman John Crawford, and local businessman Tim Smith. Both attended the speech.
Crawford says he’s optimistic about Fort Wayne’s future, and that the city is “doing well and can continue to do well.” But he adds that he believes the administration is claiming too much credit for Fort Wayne’s successes.
“They did a lot of things too and things are going well, but a lot of those things wouldn’t have happened without City Council, and I don’t think there was enough recognition of that in the speech,” Crawford said.
He noted that Henry was not on Council or the mayor during discussions on Parkview Field in 2007, which Crawford credits for driving downtown development.
Smith also commended Henry for the city’s progress under his watch, but added that all of the projects he touted come at a cost. Instead of raising taxes or offering abatements to businesses to cover costs, Smith wants the city to focus on job attraction at the higher-wage level.
“I am thrilled that Rural Sourcing is coming with their 135 jobs. Thrilled! I’m thrilled that Shindigz chose downtown, it’s wonderful for our community,” Smith said. “We have lost jobs that pay six figures, and replaced them with jobs that pay much less.”
Those jobs are fine and should be here, he says. But Smith thinks Fort Wayne could -- and should -- start aiming higher.
On Henry’s proposal for residential tax abatement, Smith says he was “glad” for the measure; Crawford says he doesn’t have a position until he studies it thoroughly.
