Downtown Development

We’re here to help businesses thrive in downtown Fort Wayne.

Our downtown development focus is on advancing the goals of the Downtown Fort Wayne Blueprint, the Plan-It Allen County Comprehensive Plan, and other urban revitalization initiatives.

We accomplish this by facilitating…

  • real-estate acquisition
  • redevelopment
  • rehabilitation
  • new construction

We’ve also partnered with the Downtown Improvement District (DID) to create the Downtown Trust, which seeks money and property for short- and long-term downtown capital projects.

Through our committee, which is composed of business and community leaders interested in the success of downtown Fort Wayne development, we provide…

  • project feasibility analysis
  • selective pre-development assistance for downtown and neighborhood corridor projects, including technical, architectural, environmental, engineering, and market analysis
  • collaboration with private and public partners to effectively market specific sites for development projects
  • land banking of key future development sites until the appropriate project and/or development team can be identified
  • liaison services to expedite permitting, application of code, and dealing with regulatory issues
  • assistance to developers seeking to attract financing from a variety of public and private sources
  • assistance in promoting quality urban design
  • partnership with private and public developers to fill financing gaps, mitigate risks, and jumpstart projects (when necessary, also undertaking anchor and other strategic projects on a proactive basis

Committee Members

Scott Glaze, Committee Chair, Fort Wayne Metals
Bill Brown, Downtown Improvement District
Greg Leatherman, City of Fort Wayne
Paula Hughes, Allen County
Jim Sparrow, ARTS UNited
Angela Migues, City of Fort Wayne
Nancy Jordan, Lincoln Financial Group
Steve Brody Therese Brown, Allen County Commissioner
Sharon Feasel, City of Fort Wayne
Zack Benedict, Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana
Mick McCollum, Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance
Tom Smith, City Council
John Urbahns, City of Fort Wayne 
Lisa Updike, Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana

Standing Members

Jim Cook, Chase Bank
Karl Bandemer, Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance

Resources                                                          

Downtown Improvement District - www.downtownfortwayne.com
City of Fort Wayne – www.cityoffortwayne.org
Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana – www.ylni.org

For further information on our downtown development efforts, contact The Alliance.