A long-awaited meeting between Fort Wayne City Council and the development team behind Electric Works took place in a crowded Citizens Square Tuesday night.
A lack of public updates on the Electric Works project -- a massive $248 million development project at the site of Fort Wayne’s former General Electric campus -- has been a source of concern among several City Council members. Development team RTM Ventures underwent minor corporate restructuring early this year forcing them to seek extensions on requirement deadlines in the economic development agreement.
Those extensions were approved, but added fuel to the suspicions of those Council members, including 4th District councilman Jason Arp who commented that the project’s “uncertainty” was one of the hold-ups in approving Legacy funded projects. 1st District councilman Paul Ensley flatly cast doubt on the entire project based on what he’d heard about its status during an April 16 Council meeting.
An op-ed by the developers and published in the Journal Gazette several weeks ago regarding challenges and uncertainties, which some took as an attack on city officials for the state of the project.
Cross Street Partners -- one of the developers making up RTM -- CEO Josh Parker says that’s not the case. Instead, he says he thought all stakeholders were becoming complacent and sought to "double down" in order to generate renewed enthusiasm. On Tuesday, he says he’s “more energized than ever” about Electric Works.
“I’m pleased to report the response from key leaders and the community at-large has been exactly what was needed, and I believe we’re back on track and moving forward to realize the vision we’ve put together with the community for the last few years,” Parker said.
He affirmed that RTM Ventures is not seeking any more public funding for Electric Works, and noted that leasing commitments exceed the July 1 deadline specified in the EDA with the hopes of beginning construction in the fall.
Parker sought to assure Council further by referencing a meeting with RTM’s bankers in Fort Wayne last week that met with positive results.
“They felt very comfortable with where we are with the current pre-leasing commitments and our path towards meeting the requirement in the EDA pre-leased prior to closing," he added.
“With the folks that have reached out to us in the last several weeks… from where I’m from we call that within spitting distance of where we want to be.”
Parker hopes the closing will take place in November.
2nd District councilman Russ Jehl -- another member previously concerned with the status of the project -- was pleased with the update from Electric Works, and requested more updates in the interest of public transparency. Parker and RTM Ventures agreed, setting a tentative follow-up for “late summer” -- sometime after July 31.
