Small Business Owners vs. City of Fort Wayne

What does the downtown development mean to African-Americans investors? You're not welcome unless you are probably a client of the nonprofit businesses that are in the area both Foellinger Foundation

and the Early Childhood Alliance.

At 436 E. Wayne, The law firm of Van Gilder and Trzynka, moved into the neighborhood close to the end of 2006. The law firm renovated the building that was formerly a body shop into offices for lawyers. It was used once by Spiegels, a catalogue store.

The owners did not disclose how much the building cost purchased for but it was alleged to have over $500,000 in renovation. The lawyers moved from the new Harrison Square district out of the Metro building into their new neighborhood. And guess what Woodson Motorsports, would move into the neighborhood, Indiana’s only distributor of BMW motorcycles. A costly move.

According to Brain Bucket Bikers,

The dealership is owned by Rod Woodson, a former All-Pro in the National Football League, and Tracy Foster, an Indiana All-Star from Homestead who played professional basketball overseas

.

And the business may be the only African-American owned,

is the only minority-owned dealership selling Kawasaki and Suzuki bikes in the country, as far as Ackels knows.

Unlike, the owners of the law firm, the purchased price was discussed.

Woodson Motorsports paid about $500,000 to buy the building at 436 E. Washington Blvd. from the Tippmann Group and plans to spend about $200,000 more to renovate the 20,000-square-foot, retail-zoned space in time to open operations there in January.

I highly suspect the building was not worth the $500,000 that was paid during the 2003 blotched up reassessment, and was more than likely only valued at a third of the assessed value.

So what happen to the city's incentive for this business to do business downtown? According to a news report, the money for redevelopment of $30,000 for the facade was not approved. The three folks who were responsible for determining who gets the $30,000, Sharon Feasel, Greg Leatherman, and Dan Carmody did not even bother to tell one of the business owners they did not qualify for the funds, according to a Wane-15 news report on January 19, 2007.

The business filled out an application in September 2006. The application can be found on the city's website under

The Downtown Fort Wayne CEDIT Incentive Pool which was established by Mayor Graham Richard to help improve downtown Fort Wayne’s competitiveness in attracting and retaining businesses, encourage private commercial reinvestment, stimulate redevelopment and improve downtown property values.

Authority to approve the use of Incentive Pool funds lies with the Mayor of Fort Wayne.

The application says the Mayor of Fort Wayne has the authority to approve. Last I checked the Mayor was named Graham Richard.


This is the second business that has run into problem participating in the downtown revitalization using their own money. On January 25, 2007 a public hearing will be held for a business located on the corner of Pontiac and Lafayette. The building owner was given the wrong permit. The building was temporary condemned, stopping the work on the building.
Yet, those who have little or no money are still pussyfooting around with renovating the Rialto. A nonprofit required to be made up of members of the neighborhood was to receive a year to renovate the building and years later the building is still under construction.

In October of 2003, The Reclamation Project finalized the purchase of the theater and the adjacent Tobacco Road store. Three additional vacant lots were also purchased for parking behind the building.

This place is to offer housing assistance to international folks (sounds a little like Centlivre). It changes everyday, but nothing including, the old in the wall Tobacco Road Store. is being used for its purpose. Nothing.

So who is welcomed in the process of redeveloping downtown?