Mayor Graham Richard today announced that over $1 billion in private investment has been committed in urban Fort Wayne since he set the goal in 2005.  The three-year goal was achieved ahead of schedule, requiring only two-and-a-half years to surpass expectations. Mayor Richard made the announcement at St. Joseph Hospital, the site of one of the investments.

In 2005 Mayor Richard announced his “Invest Fort Wayne” initiative.  The goal of the initiative was $1 billion of urban investment within three years.  That goal was met and exceeded during the two-and-one-half year period from January 2005 to June 2007. The cumulative total as of today is $1.3 billion in private investment commitments.

Mayor Richard was joined at the news conference by Kirk Ray of St. Joseph Hospital, Gil Perry of eXcellon, and Greg Stalcup of Nemcomend.  Each of these companies symbolizes major private investments in their in operations during this timeframe.

“The over $1 billion in private investment we have seen in urban Fort Wayne in the past two-and-one-half years has strengthened our city,” said Mayor Richard.  “The private investments show our community'€™s commitment to gaining and retaining jobs in Fort Wayne.”

The City partnered with the Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance to create this investment partnership.  The partnership aggressively sought the interest of developers and existing businesses to make investments in urban Fort Wayne.

“This was an ambitious goal,” said Mayor Richard.  “We have worked closely with The Alliance to set ourselves apart as a city that is known as a leader in developing the best investment opportunities.”

The urban area in the challenge included St. Joseph, Washington, Adams, and Wayne townships. The attached list shows the amount of each private investment.

icon List of Investments by Company (10.37 KB)