He also said the city will move to narrow Washington and Jefferson boulevards downtown.Any plans Fort Wayne had to buy 29 acres near the St. Marys River north of downtown have tanked along with the economy.
The city spent $25,000 for an 18-month option – extended from 12 months – to buy the land near OmniSource for $4.3 million. The option expired last June.
Since then, talks have stalled, and the city’s plans to purchase the land have been shelved.
John Urbahns, Fort Wayne director of community development, said he hasn’t spoken with the landowners for some time, adding that a tightening city budget has made the purchase unlikely. Just last summer, he said the city was still hoping to buy the property.
“At this time, the opportunity is not there to work forward,” Urbahns said Monday. “Until there’s something else there, it’s not going to be a dead issue.”
Crews were busy clearing the site Monday to make it look nicer and reduce maintenance costs, said Danny Rifkin. His family owns the property west of Clinton Street, south of the former YWCA property and east of Harrison Street.
Rifkin said there have been sporadic discussions since the option expired, but there are no plans for the land. That doesn’t mean his family wouldn’t be willing to work with the city were an opportunity to arise.
“We’re willing to make the property available to enhance the downtown,” he said.
In addition to spending money on a purchase option, the city hired a consultant and spent months planning how to develop the site.
The top recommendation of the consultant and a city task force was to buy the property. But even with money and effort invested, City Council President Tom Smith, R-1st, said it was appropriate to end negotiations.
“That was before the economic crash,” he said. “Things have changed.”
Initially there were fears the land would be developed into something the city may not want, but Smith said that no longer seems to be the case. Now, he said, the ideal scenario would be for a private developer to purchase the land without the city being involved at all.
“Now is not that time to be putting tax dollars into an empty piece of land,” Smith said.
Urbahns agreed the purchase option and other expenses made sense at the time, saying it allowed the city to examine the site and do some planning that still could be used in the future.
“It didn’t work out. It was money appropriately spent,” he said.
While the negotiations have been shelved, Urbahns said the city still does not plan to release environmental studies done at the site. He said doing so would hamper future negotiations with any property owner there, in which some information would have to be kept confidential.
