Fort Wayne City Council hosted its public meeting between officials for Mayor Tom Henry and Electric Works developer RTM Ventures Tuesday, to discuss the now-terminated economic development agreement for the city’s former GE campus.
Last Wednesday, At-Large Democrat Glynn Hines and 3rd District Republican Tom Didier announced their intent to launch an investigation into why the deal fell apart, a move that brought all stakeholders to table during Council’s weekly meeting Tuesday night.
City attorneys contend that RTM was given enough chances to fulfill its end of the deal, noting five deadline extensions, unexpected changes to construction plans (RTM owns the property) and an unspecified “lack of candor.” and the decision came down to reported funding shortfalls on the developer’s side.
During the redevelopment meeting where the deal was terminated, the city reported a $51 million shortfall on RTM’s end of the EDA, which RTM’s attorney argued was closer to $8 million.
One of the lead developers, Kevan Biggs, stands by that number.
“First Merchants Bank is obligated at $10 million and Old National Bank at $12 [million], so that’s $22 million of the $30 [million]," said Biggs. "The remaining $8 million was not present at that meeting, but it was Star Financial Bank and we’d provided documentation to redevelopment that the loan was forthcoming.”
Biggs says as of today, Star Financial has agreed to commit $11.2 million to the developer -- that’s $3 million more than their initial request of $8 million from the bank. The primary chunk of funding missing, he says, is the $62 million in public dollars.
Attorneys for the City of Fort Wayne say the former agreement is dead. This confirms there are no plans to “revisit” any elements of the previous deal, and that the city wants to restructure any deal it applies public dollars toward to something more incremental.
The city’s mixed messaging for the reasoning behind the termination -- between focusing on the financing to criticizing RTM’s handling of the political process around Electric Works -- caught the attention of 6th District Democrat Sharon Tucker.
“Call it my woman's intuition but something is just not sitting well and it just doesn’t make sense. It makes me think there’s more to it than I’m being told," said Tucker. "We can rest on the fact that they didn’t have the money, but… something’s not right.”
City Community Development Director Nancy Townsend, also a member of the redevelopment commission that voted unanimously to nix the deal, put it simply:
“And I can appreciate the woman’s intuition and I agree, a deal’s a deal, and they didn’t meet the terms of the deal,” Townsend said.
In a preliminary vote, Council unanimously approved the resolution, and next week will discuss what they observed Tuesday night, and whether or not it merits a deeper investigation in which Council can invoke subpoena power.
