Electric Works on Track for First Phase Opening in Fall 2022
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The first phase of the Electric Works redevelopment is on schedule to open in the fall, officials said this week.
The update comes five years after developers formally announced plans to repurpose the former General Electric campus — an effort that saw fits and starts before finally securing funding and beginning construction.
One of the first tenants to take up space will be Fort Wayne Community Schools, whose STEM-centered “Amp Lab” will place hundreds of 11th and 12th grade students at the site, on the south side of downtown Fort Wayne.
Building 31 — which includes Amp Lab — will be the first to open. Union Street Market, which will eventually host an anticipated 13 food and beverage vendors, is slated to begin operation by October. It will occupy Buildings 20 and 22.
Other aspects of the multi-purpose campus include an outdoor space that will include a large screen television on which events will be shown. It will be in an area designated for concerts and other events.
“There is still a lot of work to be done on the site,” RTM executive Kevan Biggs said. “Again, we are on track, on budget, where we want to be. But there is a lot of work that needs to get done between now and October to finish it.
“We are also focused on continuing our leasing efforts. We are right on our plan of being just over 70 percent preleased by the end of ‘21 (and) our goal is, by the end of this year, in ‘22, we want to be about 85% preleased.”
Do It Best has signed on as a key tenant and will move its headquarters into the rehabbed Building 26 when construction is completed there.