North River Project moves to “back burner”

Derrick Gingery of Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly reported today that the City’s interest in purchasing the former OmniSource property has waned:

Fort Wayne officials no longer are actively pursuing the North River property, which had been considered a potential site for a mixed-use retail and residential development project.

With the city budget being scaled back because of property-tax reform legislation, Community Development Director John Urbahns said he has not talked with the Rifkin family, the owners of the property, for some time.

“With the state of the city budget, we haven’t had any discussions with them,” Urbahns said. “It’s not on the front burner.

[...]

With the city no longer actively trying to buy the property, it is available for private purchase. City officials have their own ideas for how to develop the property, but Urbahns said if it is sold to someone else, any project will be evaluated when it is submitted.

Urbahns said the city never intended to own the property for an extended period.

“Our goal all along was to get it in private-sector hands,” he said.”

This is good news in my opinion.  I didn’t favor the city owning the property outright so it heads back to the open market.  This does raise a few more questions:

1. Now that negotiations are no longer ongoing will the environmental study report finally be released?
2. Is the site being considered for casino development by private investors? (I’m personally opposed to the idea, particularly at this location)
3. Can anything be done in the short term (and at minimal cost) to make this parcel more visually appealing? The site stands ailing as the first glimpse of our city to visitors entering from the North.