Fort Wayne City officials are both excited and nervous about the sale of five parcels of land near the Harrison Square project.

The deal suggests Harrison Square will drive up land values near the project, but it also suggests controlling development in the surrounding area will be an ongoing challenge.

National Oil and Gas Incorporated out of Bluffton paid about $450,000.00 for three homes and two empty lots on the western fringe of the baseball stadium development.

That is between two and three times more than those parcels previously sold for.

National Oil and Gas is known for building convenience stores.

That is not the preferred choice of Ft. Wayne's Deputy Mayor.

Mark Becker/Ft. Wayne Deputy Mayor: " Obviously, long term we want to see more mixed use pedestrian oriented kinds of businesses and more housing downtown and so on, and that's been part of the planning that's gone on for the Harrison Square plan, but the zoning allows the kind of use that we assume they're proposing here and obviously, we'd work with them."

We want to emphasize National Oil and Gas has not committed to building a convenience store, the company would also consider turning around and selling the properties for profit.

If Harrison Square is successful, expect more battles over how the land near the project is used, because more people will want to get in on the action.