Allen County pledges $2 million, land to downtown ’boutique’ hotel

By Kevin Leininger | The News-Sentinel

For the third time this week, a local governmental body has thrown its support behind a new $27 million “boutique” hotel in downtown Fort Wayne.

The Allen County Commissioners completed the “hat trick” Friday when they agreed to provide land and $2 million in local economic development income taxes to the project, a joint venture between Vera Bradley co-founder Barbara Baekgaard and Oregon-based Provenance Hotels. The county owns about 19 percent of the the 125-room hotel’s 0.83-acre site at Main and Harrison streets, which is valued at about $850,000.

The county’s investment will be repaid through taxes generated by the improvements, backed up by the city if necessary.

The city’s Redevelopment Commission on Monday agreed to make the city’s portion of the lot available for the project, and the Capital Improvement Board Thursday pledged $2.58 million in food and beverage tax revenues, some of which also will be repaid through the hotel’s taxes.

Construction could start next year.