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Joint Ownership Meeting: County Proposes Shakeup in Renaissance Purchase

By Jeff Neumeyer
June 18, 2010 Updated Jul 14, 2009 at 5:19 PM EST FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - Allen County Government officials are asking the City of Fort Wayne to share ownership in two downtown buildings, a plan that would co-locate police departments and head off an emptying of the City-County Building. Mayor Tom Henry listened to a formal proposal Tuesday, promising to give the idea serious consideration. The Allen County Commissioners asked for a chance to “pow-wow” with city leaders, after the mayor announced June 23rd that he wanted to purchase the abandoned Renaissance Square Building to move police there and virtually all city offices from the City-County Building. It left the county with the prospect of losing all its lease payment revenue at the current government center. County officials now maintain, if the city presses ahead and buys the Renaissance property, they are prepared to rent two floors there, co-locating the sheriff's department and city police headquarters. In exchange, the city would keep most of its administrative offices in the City-County Building. Nelson Peters/(R) Allen County Commissioner: " Part of the alternative is to lose 24-million dollars in revenue from the city over 20 years and what we're trying to do is mitigate that and this is a proposal that I think very much does that." Mayor Tom Henry/(D) Fort Wayne: " I think that they have presented a couple proposals that we need to take a very serious look at and we'll get back with the county probably in the next week or two." Even if the city accepts the offer, the county would still have to re-locate more of its employees into the City-County Building, then try to sell off a few vacated properties. The city council has postponed discussion of the proposed Renaissance Square purchase, to afford more time to study the county’s joint ownership proposal.
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