May 13, 2025 - Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker today announced that the City of Fort Wayne has been awarded a $1 million clean-up grant for the former OmniSource south property, now known as the North River site. The grant, through the Indiana Brownfields Program, will be used to safely clean up and prepare parts of the North River property for redevelopment.
Including this grant, the City has been awarded a total of $3.4 million in federal and state funds to test and monitor the site, as well as remove soil that is impacted from previous commercial and industrial uses. The North River site includes 29 acres along Clinton Street just north of the Martin Luther King Jr. bridge. The site was previously used as a rail yard and scrap yard, dating back to 1902. It has not been actively used since 2006; the City purchased the property in 2017.
“City, community and neighborhood leaders have been planning for the revitalization of the North River property for almost two decades,” said Mayor Tucker. “This grant is another step forward in achieving our bold vision for the property and ensuring it becomes a hub of economic and recreational activity for generations to come.”
“The Indiana Brownfields Program is committed to assisting Indiana communities finance solutions to address brownfield redevelopment within their communities and are looking forward to our partnership with the City of Fort Wayne in their efforts to remediate contaminated soil for the Riverfront redevelopment project,” said Andrea Robertson, Indiana Brownfields Program senior environmental manager.
The City’s Redevelopment Department and North River Advisory Committee are currently reviewing 20 submissions of professional qualifications from development teams for a master developer interested in constructing housing, a hotel, parking garage, restaurant, entertainment and retail spaces around the planned North River Fieldhouse. The fieldhouse will serve as a key youth and adaptive sports tourism destination accommodating various sports and activities, including basketball, soccer, volleyball, wrestling, cheerleading, pickleball, baseball, flag football, and more.