Fort Wayne leaders taking trip to Greenville, SC to gain new perspective

By Michael Kuhn | WANE

Leaders from the Fort Wayne community will take a trip to Greenville, South Carolina this week. 

The group will include 25 elected officials, business leaders, and other influential community members. 

They'll spend three days checking out successful public and private developments around the city of Greenville. 

The idea is to look at what the city is doing successfully, and then bring those strategies back to Fort Wayne. 

Greater Fort Wayne has been leading trips like this since 2005 when they took their first trip to Greenville. Leaders believe the impact of the trips can already be seen around the Fort Wayne community.

"We're seeing the benefit right now from all the trips we've taken over the years," John Urbahns, Greater Fort Wayne Executive Vice President said. "Whether it be to Greenville, Denver, Providence, Wichita, or Chattanooga,  you're seeing aspects from that coming into play in the things that we're doing here in the community."

Now the group is hoping to gain new perspective from the progress Greenville has made since the very first inter-city trip. 

"We wanted to go back now 13 years later and see how much momentum they've had and how it's carried them forward," Urbahns said. "We think there's a lot of similarities between Greenville and Fort Wayne. And the momentum and the resurrection that we've seen here is what they've seen as well."

Greenville now has a successful arts and culture scene, world-class restaurants, riverfront development, and a downtown grocery store. Those are all things Fort Wayne leaders want to continue to develop here in Fort Wayne. 

The group will return to Fort Wayne on Friday. From there, they'll work to plan strategies to implement what they learned and how to get the rest of the community on board.