Tim Haffner Helps Fort Wayne's Harrison Square Reach Funding Agreement

Tim Haffner of Baker & Daniels helped Fort Wayne and developers move forward with the city's Harrison Square project.

"It's a big step, and a lot of work," Haffner told WANE-TV after developers reached a financial agreement with PNC Bank for the final piece of the project, an $18 million residential, commercial and office building next to Parkview Field in downtown Fort Wayne. Haffner, a Baker & Daniels partner, serves as the city's corporate counsel.

"It's been a while coming, but it feels great," Haffner said in a story by the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. "There's no hip-shooting with a project like this." He added that Mayor Tom Henry deserved credit for "holding (the bank's) feet to the fire" to get the job done despite numerous delays.

Securing a bank commitment for the project has been the main obstacle to it becoming a reality since it was announced more than four years ago. The bank provided a commitment letter after months of negotiation.

"It's exactly what we'd hoped for," Haffner said in a story by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. The four-story building is slated to have retail shops on the first floor, offices on the second floor and apartments on the top two floors.

Haffner said the time involved in getting the commitment letter was due to the project's complexity and the plans to use state and federal tax credits, according to the Journal Gazette story. While the commitment letter does not represent an actual loan, the steps to get to that stage are largely perfunctory, Haffner said.

Mark Hagerman, CEO of The Hagerman Group, and Simon Dragan, president of Whitley Manufacturing Co., are partnering with Chris Schoen, CEO of Atlanta-based Barry Real Estate, to develop the project as New Harrison LLC.