Big dreams for downtown
Mixed-use ‘Harrison Square’ would cost $160 million
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/16290239.htm
Some highlights from the article:
- No increase in property taxes will be needed to pay for the project
- Half the cost of Harrison Square’s $125 million first phase will come from private developers
- Phase 1 will include a hotel, 8,000-seat minor-league stadium, 1,000-space parking garage, park, 30,000 square feet of street-level shops and 60 condos, located on about 30 acres of space
- Proposed hotel could include as many as 350 rooms
- Baseball park would be worth $30 million
4 comments:
8000 seat stadium with only 1000 space parking garage? I am pretty sure we don't have 7000 parking spaces nearby downtown. No increase in property tax but the businesses downtown who pay a special tax will just increase their prices so the citizens are still paying for it. If it's such a great idea, why aren't the new Wizards owners paying for all of it instead of only $5 of the $30 million?? I would like to know more details like what shops and restaurants are committing to be downtown or is the mayor just assuming? I don't mind Ft Wayne moving forward but I don't think a baseball stadium is it. Build a water park, something more people in Ft Wayne would get use of. Can you imagine all the tourists we'd get? Lots more than with baseball which is not even year round.
(Deleted my previous entry to add a few details)
8000 parking spaces are not required for an 8000 seat ballpark. No-one is anticipating 8000 single people driving separate vehicles. There are an estimated 7600 public parking spots downtown not including the proposed Harrison Square parking garage. You can read about those numbers on a few different posts on the blog related to parking complaints.
A baseball park would attract over 350,000 people a year at a moderate estimate. (Over 560,000 at a best-case scenario. 70 home games multiplied by a packed house of 8,000 fans a game.) How many people a year would a water park attract?
A water park would have to attract around 1,000 people a day to compare with a ballpark. (1,000 people per day multiplied by 365 days a year equals roughly the same number as the baseball park could attract at the previously mentioned estimate of 350,000.) Let's assume that a water park is open 10 hours a day. (Maybe noon to 10 pm.) A water park would have to average roughly 100 customers per hour, 10 hours per day, every day for a year to compare it to moderate attendance estimates for a downtown ballpark.
Water park users don't appear to be the type of crowd to hit the bars and shops after a swim either, in my opinion.
I am not aware of any water park developers that are also interested in investing millions of dollars in other mixed use developments surrounding a water park. If anyone is aware of such a developer I would be interested in learning more about them.
People have complained that "we already have a ballpark." Don't we already have numerous pool/swimming facilities??
Of course the Wizards play around 70 games a year so they aren't literally bringing 1000 people a day downtown. And I am not adding the thousands of people a year that can use the outdoor ballpark facility for many events other than baseball. All I am saying is a ballpark is a great opportunity to attract hundreds of thousands of people downtown at the best tax dollar value. (Zero property taxes.)
Well said Brian....well said.
Post a Comment