New plans for The Landing redevelopment unveiled
Fort Wayne -
The vision for “The Landing” has been unveiled and we’ve learned that one building will be torn down in order to make room for another. The big news was revealed at The Landing Unveiled event downtown at the Arts United Center.
The plan is to mix in with all the old is something brand new: a multi-story mixed use building. Restaurants and retail on the 1st floor, a 2nd floor office space, and remaining floors residential. In order for that to happen the Rose-Marie building at 111 W. Columbia will have to come down. The idea is not just to revitalize Columbia street, but to reinvent it.
“[It’s] restored historic architecture,” said Steve Smith, President and CEO of The Model Group. “It was beautiful when it was built so really we want to restore that beauty. There will also be a new construction component that will not attempt to mimic the historic rehab. In fact you wouldn’t want it to.”
Renderings for the redevelopment of The Landing, a collection of buildings and parking lots on the westernmost block of Columbia Street, were unveiled Thursday. The Fort Wayne Downtown Development Trust, City of Fort Wayne and the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne were apart of the presentation.
For the last three years, the Downtown Development Trust, in concert with the City of Fort Wayne and Greater Fort Wayne, have been working to procure grants, solicit funds and purchase land along Columbia Street. The Downtown Development Trust spent nearly $3 million acquiring seven buildings and two parking lots along the block, totaling 110,000 square feet of available development space with plans to turn the area into a potential art district with a mix of housing, businesses, and entertainment, according to a press release from Greater Fort Wayne. According to Smith there’s already interest from local entrepreneurs
“They are very creative and they are authentically Fort Wayne,” said Smith. “These are Fort Wayne entrepreneurs that are going to hire For Wayne employees and live in Fort Wayne and tat’s what we want. We’re not trying to duplicate the experience you can get in another city or at an expressway interchange. We want something that’s uniquely Fort Wayne.”
