Youth Movement

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"YLNI’s board has come out in favor of Harrison Square, and the group’s Downtown Development Committee held a heavily attended panel discussion earlier this year about the project at the main branch of the Allen County Public Library. One of the featured speakers at the discussion was Hardball Capital’s Freier.

Much of the public’s interest is centered on the proposed minor-league baseball stadium. It’s galvanized both opponents and supporters — but mostly opponents.

“Without a doubt, that is the thing that has drawn the most criticism,” said YLNI committee member Michael Barranda, an attorney at Miller Murphy LLP. “The counter to that is the baseball stadium is the keystone to the project.”

Without the baseball stadium, he said, the other elements, such as the 250-room hotel, likely wouldn’t stand on their own.

He, too, thinks the project could make Fort Wayne more attractive to younger workers. As evidence, he points to a 2006 study done by CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based organization, that said nearly two-thirds of 25- to 34-year-old college-educated professionals decide where to live first, then look for a job in the city they’ve chosen. And more than half of the singles surveyed said they wanted to live downtown or near downtown.

“They move to a city where the amenities are there and they hope to find a job,” Barranda said.

As founder and CEO of Sweetwater Sound, Chuck Surack recruits job candidates from across the country to move to Fort Wayne and work at the company’s headquarters.

The city has a lot of things going for it — affordable housing, arts, minor-league sports teams, quality of life — but he thinks Harrison Square could make Fort Wayne even more attractive.

“I’m disappointed that there’s so much negativity about it,” Surack said. “I think it’s a great project.”