City of Fort Wayne still reviewing developers’ proposals for riverfront property

By Lisa Esquivel Long | Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly

The city of Fort Wayne has not yet chosen a new developer for its downtown riverfront project that was to be home to a project called the HIVE.

In March, Fort Wayne’s Redevelopment Commission announced that it was issuing a request for qualifications for teams interested in developing the northeast corner of Harrison and Superior streets, east of Promenade Park. The request came after the commission parted ways with Continental Property Group of Minnesota, which had planned a $61.7 million mixed-use project there called the HIVE. However, the company hadn’t gotten the financing it needed to build it.

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, the city released the names of those who submitted qualifications: Flaherty & Collins Properties, J.C. Hart Company, Great Lakes Capital, Barrett & Stokely, TWG Development LLC and Continental Property Group.

However, the city’s legal department denied the newspaper’s request to see the information contained in their submissions because they contain trade secrets.

When Continental was announced in December 2017 as the developer, it was hoped that construction would start last spring and be completed this fall.