Fort Wayne’s Redevelopment Commission narrowly approved changes to an extension to several financial benchmarks for the Electric Works project Friday afternoon.
The changes are related to a previous extension approved on April 29, in which RTM Ventures was to meet financial obligations by June 30 with a closing on September 30. The reason for this extension was related to lockdown orders locally and nationwide slowing progress on the project.
With the administration’s support, that April 29 amendment was not formally executed, with the goal of approving Friday’s with changes before it went into effect on June 1.
This amendment is effectively identical with two exceptions, one being a change of the anticipated location of the public market on campus. The other, perhaps more significant addition was an optional 30-day extension for developers on behalf of the city that can be applied to any part of the process.
City attorney John Bomberger says it was a compromise between the developer and the redevelopment commission.
“It’s trying to deal with the fact that they may need just a little bit more time with one or another of the conditions, or a little more time to get the closing accomplished,” Bomberger said.
So for example: if RTM Ventures were to need an extension to its closing date on September 30 for another month, it can exercise that option with final approval given to the redevelopment commission.
In a statement, Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry expressed his support for the changes, just as he supported the original April 29 amendment, saying, "Since the April meeting, we've been able to make progress on the entire economic development agreement that puts RTM Ventures in better position to meet the needed financing and closing requirements."
This extension was approved by the commission 3-2.
