Saturday, March 31, 2007

Liquored Out

Belmont closes its doors today
Building to be razed for Harrison Square
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/17005918.htm

From the article:

"The liquor retailer will close its downtown retail operation permanently today, as it moves out to make room for a potential downtown hotel."

"Fort Wayne is negotiating with a developer to locate a Marriott hotel where the liquor retailer sits at Harrison Street and West Jefferson Boulevard. The city bought land for a hotel in the area for $2.2 million by using the power of eminent domain. Part of that land included the downtown Belmont Beverage, which the city bought for $1.45 million."

"The city intends to demolish the liquor retailer as well as The Palace restaurant as soon as they are vacant, regardless of whether the current Harrison Square project moves forward."

9 comments:

Jeff Pruitt said...

A shameful and disgraceful situation for all city leaders involved in the seizing of Belmont Beverage to hand off to another private corporation.

This will forever be a black mark on this project and those involved...

barranda said...

Jeff,

Does your position hold true if Harrison Square does not move forward, and the property is simply used for the hotel? I'm just curious.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance to that building, (and parking lot that came with it)...it was one ugly piece of property.

barranda said...

nice.

Jeff Pruitt said...

Barranda,

The hotel really has nothing to do w/ Harrison Square. The land was originally seized to build a hotel to support the Grand Wayne Center. This all happened long before Hardball Capital had even heard of Fort Wayne. So I really see this situation as independent of Harrison Square.

In other words the answer to your question is "YES".

And I fail to see how seizing private businesses and giving them away to other private businesses will give confidence in entrepreneurs to invest in this city. Luckily the state legislature has passed a law to mitigate this kind of abuse of power in the future...

LP Mike Sylvester said...

Fort Wayne absolutely screwed up when it used Eminent Domain to steal property from one private citizen to give it to another...

I think everyone would oppose this.

Imagine how you would feel if this were your proeprty...

Mike Sylvester

Anonymous said...

Even if some of you think that the owners of Belmont Beverage were treated badly by the city in taking over their property, at least they are on the side of downtown redevelopment in saying that they will consider a new store for downtown if they can find a location. Whether or not they ever find that location and do indeed open a new store remains to be seen, but in the meantime, they just haven't snubbed downtown and "taken their marbles and gone home."

Tim Robison

Mike Kole said...

Eminent domain takings like this send a very strong and frightening signal to business owners. If you own a downtown business, should you risk a major renovation or other investment? It just shows that the only way to survive or get ahead is to be politically connected. Does anybody think that's good for Fort Wayne?

I'll give the Belmont folks marks for their courage in returning to another location downtown. I would be wary.

Change Fort Wayne said...

Once again Mike - I'd feel rich.