SHIPSHEWANA — The Michiana Event Center was awarded $3.84 million in Regional Cities Initiative funding Tuesday, allowing owners to move forward with their plans to construct a new facility in Shipshewana.
Presently located in Howe, the event center is expected to complement other tourism attractions in Shipshewana. The $19.2 million project will be built on 24 acres along C.R. 200N (Farver Street), near S.R. 5, and will include a 100,000-square-foot trade-show building and a 55,000-square-foot arena.
The event center was one of three projects to receive funding Tuesday from the Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority, which met inside the Blue Gate Theatre in Shipshewana. Those projects still must be approved by the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
The $12.4 million, 44-unit Posterity Heights Scholar House complex, which would be developed on vacant land in southeast Fort Wayne and is designed to help single parents attend college, improve their financial situations and become employed in in-demand careers, was awarded $2.48 million in Regional Cities funding. The $17.6 million North Buffalo Street redevelopment project in Warsaw also received $3.5 million in funding.
The RDA oversees the $42 million Regional Cities Initiative grant that northeast Indiana won in 2015 from the IEDC. Grant funding is being used to spur “quality-of-place” projects across the region’s 11 counties.
RDA board members unanimously approved all three projects. Newly elected Chairman Bob Marshall, executive vice president of Campbell & Fetter Bank in Kendallville, said the RDA was excited to back the Michiana Event Center.
“Thank you for letting us be a part of it,” he said to those involved in the project.
Michiana Event Center owners announced last year they would seek a new location because they’re running out of space at the former recreational vehicle manufacturing facility in Howe. The plant was turned into an event center in 2010.
The all-new event center in Shipshewana also will include a 75,600-square-foot storage and staging building; a 7,200-square-foot commercial kitchen; and offices.
At the RDA board’s December meeting, Dennis Fry, Michiana Event Center CEO, said construction could start this spring and be completed by September.
The event center hosts home expos, auctions, outdoors shows and the Northern Indiana Woodcrafters Association show, among other offerings.
Shipshewana attracts about 2 million people annually. At the December meeting, Fry said the Michiana Event Center’s new trade-show building and arena could host more than 100 events in 2017-2018 and bring in more than 185,000 attendees.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, RDA board members heard funding presentations for The Landing, a $34.5 million project to redevelop seven buildings and construct a new building along Columbia Street in downtown Fort Wayne.
The project would include more than 29,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, more than 29,000 square feet of commercial space and 72 loft-style apartments.
Steve Smith, CEO and principal of Cincinnati-based developer Model Group, said the project is seeking $6.9 million in Regional Cities Initiative funding.
“There’s a ton of really exciting things happening in downtown Fort Wayne,” Smith said of The Landing’s ability to connect with other nearby projects.
Rick Kinney, owner of the Clyde Theatre, presented his $5 million plan to renovate the historic former movie theater in southwest Fort Wayne’s Quimby Village shopping area into a multiuse entertainment and event center that would include a performance hall capable of holding 2,200 people. He’s requesting $1 million in Regional Cities Initiative funding.
Chuck Surack, founder and president of musical instrument and audio equipment retailer Sweetwater, who along with his wife, Lisa, has pledged $1.5 million toward the Clyde renovation project, said it has the ability to transform the area and host concerts and events for which there presently isn’t a suitable venue in Fort Wayne.
“It really will make a difference,” Surack said. “There’s really no facility like this today.”
RDA board members took both presentations under advisement. The board could vote on the projects at its next meeting Feb. 14.