The City of Fort Wayne has outlined details of its contribution to the recently announced $71 million development in downtown. It is designed to take up nearly an entire city block and include a new national headquarters for Ash Brokerage, and a residential development led by Hanning & Bean Enterprises.
Of the 71 million dollar public-private partnership, the public portion is 19.5 million.
Only 1-to-2 million dollars of the city’s investment will come from Legacy Funds. The rest is coming from two different sources.
First from what’s called TIF Financing, which is basically a way to borrow against the future value of the property. John Urbahns Director of Community Development for the city explains that “the Tax Increment Financing is a way to establish a district that then you collect property taxes from that district into a special TIF fund. Right now there’s a balance of about 5.3 million dollars in that TIF account that we would be using to purchase the property.”
Subsequent annual revenue from the TIF district would help support debt from construction.
The second source of the city’s investment will come from The Capital Improvement Board, which oversees funding from the city’s food and beverage tax. Their existing funds and future revenue will be used to cover part of the parking garage and site preparation that will be needed.
A breakdown of the city’s funding is still being finalized. The proposal will be presented to the Redevelopment Commission and Capital Improvement Board beginning next week, and use of Legacy Funds will need approval by the city council.
