City and business leaders officially broke ground Thursday on downtown Fort Wayne’s largest new development.
The project is broken up into two components: the “Ash Skyline Plaza” and the “Skyline Terrace.”
A groundbreaking ceremony commemorated the start of construction on the 98 million dollar mixed-use development. The project is funded by the public-private partnership of Ash Brokerage Corporation, Hanning and Bean Enterprises and the City of Fort Wayne.
The development will include business, residential, and retail space, as well as a publically owned parking garage.
Bill Bean of Hanning and Bean says the longer-than-expected development process should pay dividends.
“We’ve gotten through the hard part, and I think that the extra time that we may have taken in making sure all the details were taken care of are going to pay off," says Bean, "because now it should be fairly smooth sailing from this point forward.”
The construction site will continue to be prepped throughout June. Mayor Tom Henry says he has no doubt that residents will begin to occupy the building by this time in 2016.