FORT WAYNE – Fort Wayne should start enforcing its contract regarding the yet-to-be-built Harrison Square condominium and retail development, according to two members of the City Council.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilmen John Shoaff, D-at large, and Mitch Harper, R-4th, called for the city to begin efforts to collect $5,000 in daily liquidated damages from the owner of the Fort Wayne TinCaps. They both said the action wasn’t a punishment but merely a way for the city to help get compensation for its downtown investments.

The Harrison condominium building was supposed to be completed by June 2009 by developer Barry Real Estate of Atlanta, but construction on the $14.5 million project has not begun. As part of the contract regarding the use of Parkview Field with Hardball Capital – TinCaps owners and Barry Real Estate partners – the city could collect from Hardball $5,000 each day the project wasn’t built, after a 90-day extension.

The city’s redevelopment commission, which approved and has enforcement powers over the contract, informed the developers last summer they were in default. The commission, however, has yet to take action to collect damages.

Shoaff, who opposed Harrison Square from the beginning, said the city has lived up to its end of the agreement by building a high-quality ballpark, but the city has not received the benefit of downtown living and shops promised as a part of the project. He said the damages, which were negotiated into the contract, would provide a way to help promote downtown living.

He said the developers overestimated the market for the project, overpriced its condominiums and chose a poor location for downtown housing, primarily because of the high-traffic streets surrounding the project site.

The development is to be built on the southeast corner of Ewing Street and Jefferson Boulevard.

Shoaff acknowledged he was unaware whether the council had the authority to force the city or redevelopment commission to take action, but he plans to make it a point during the commission’s budget discussion.

“I will tie their choices with their financial needs,” Shoaff said.

Greg Leatherman, redevelopment executive director, said the council won’t have to wait long to hear from him. He and his staff are compiling a report on the status of the project to present to the council.

Work on the presentation began before Shoaff made the request, Leatherman said, anticipating that council members would have questions.

Last fall, Leatherman and others said construction on the condominium project would begin in 2010, but that has yet to occur.

Casey Cox, a City Council appointee to the redevelopment commission, said the commission is still aware of the defaults on the contracts. Last year he suggested the option of renegotiating naming rights revenue if the city were forced to take action.

Cox said the city has been “very patient” partly because the stagnant economy has slowed development across the country.

If things don’t improve in coming months, Cox said the issue would have to be revisited.

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