New Harrison Marketing Push Launches
Image from www.harrisonsquareliving.com
Press release:
“Fort Wayne, Ind. — Barry Real Estate today announces a new marketing push for The Harrison, the residential and retail component of the signature, downtown Harrison Square mixed-use development. The comprehensive program includes a dynamic new condominium sales team, a new marketing strategy and an inviting, one-stop Web presence, along with other new outreach materials in support of the campaign.
With a front-row view of the downtown skyline on one side and the new ballpark on the other, The Harrison is the anticipated four-story structure located at 301 West Jefferson Boulevard. It features 24,000 square feet of prime retail space on the first floor and 62 contemporary condominiums on the upper three floors.
Spearheading the new condo marketing effort will be the Coldwell Banker Roth Wehrly Graber (CBRWG) brokerage team of John and Argie Bellio. CBRWG’s Harrison team can be reached at 260-416-5000 or at www.cbrwg.com. CBRE/Sturges continues as the broker for the retail space within The Harrison.
“Our goal is to capture the excitement of The Harrison and what living downtown is all about,” said Chris Schoen, CEO of Barry Real Estate. “With the combination of Coldwell Banker and HarrisonSquareLiving.com, we’re confident that this integrated new marketing approach and aggressive campaign will give us the momentum necessary
for success.”As part of the new initiative, Coldwell Banker will utilize their renowned, strategic approach to residential real estate marketing. This includes listing The Harrison on three MLS services in northern Indiana, reaching more than 2,500 real estate agents, and corporate marketing through a relocation network of more than 100 business partners in the region, consisting of many of the area’s largest employers.
Intense ground initiatives include tapping CBRWG’s economic development partners, such as Leadership Fort Wayne and YLNI; intense electronic marketing; special events and community marketing; and leads tracking and follow-through with CBRWG’s exclusive IQ suite. These initiatives are orchestrated by an executive management team with deep experience and a passion for the development.
CBRWG president of sales John Bellio stated, “We’re incredibly excited about the opportunities before us with The Harrison. With our dedicated team of more than 300 CBRWG agents, we’re armed to make things happen. We’ll promote the project through prominent placement in the Homes magazine and our highly trafficked Web site—which features nearly 20,000 unique visitors a month. We’ll follow every lead with our digital newsletter, direct follow-through and responsive communication.”
A key marketing tool for The Harrison is www.HarrisonSquareLiving.com, a new Web site created by local marketing firm One Lucky Guitar, Inc. (OLG). OLG owner Matt Kelley said, “We’re tremendously proud to be part of this revitalized marketing effort for The Harrison. We dug deep in the creation of this site—reviewing the hard demographic data from the city’s Zimmerman/Volk Residential Market Potential research study, studying the marketing success stories from other markets and bottling the distinct magic of our own particular downtown community into a site that will live, breathe and grow with the development. Prior to this site, interested buyers were forced to make a big mental leap to get a real sense of life at The Harrison. It was an obstacle. We’ve put the bridge up for that leap. Come on over and have a look.”
In addition to offering virtual tours, floor plans, feature and amenity packages and extensive information on the residences at The Harrison, www.HarrisonSquareLiving.com showcases an interactive in-progress tool that allows the site visitor to track weekly progress on Harrison Square and related construction. As well, the site features an interactive downtown map that positions The Harrison at the heart of a thriving arts, dining, entertainment and hospitality district with ample parking nearby.
Enhancing the visual appearance of the Harrison Square construction site and ensuring immediate access to contact information about The Harrison for passersby, the fence around the entire block will soon be enfolded in a lively graphic wrap promoting the development.”
Nothing new here - still only sold 6 for sure(at least that’s the last we heard) - Absolutely NO ONE has committed to a square foot of the bottom retail floor - Absolutely no one will provide ANY financing(INCLUDING Barry Real Estate) - The “naming” that was to be a done deal in February HAS NOT OCCURED-No wonder the organization doing the unnecessary hotel required a 16% profit guarantee AND a stipend from the 65% tax supported Grand Wayne Center plus the million dolars from a local foundation. JUST WHAT IS HARDBALL CAPITAL AND BARRY REAL ESTATE PUTTING INTO THIS BOONDOGGLE? In case you haven’t been paying attention, THE ANSWER IS NOTHING - THEY ONLY TAKE!!!! Wat to go Fort Wayner- this is probably the fourth or fifth egg you have laid recently - WITH NOT A ONE HATCHING!
So when it fails, will you be happy? After all it will be your tax dollars that will pay for it. If it fails. You keep posting the same things over and over again, do you have anything new to add to the conversation? How does your post change the risk that our city has taken? Whether you wanted to take that risk is no longer relevant to the conversation as the last time I checked there is a full-fledged building in the ground on Ewing and Breckenridge.
Last “we” heard it was 12 units sold, maybe you’ve heard differently? I’m a supporter of the project and I was ready to ante up my money until I heard the pricing. IMO, that’s where this project missed the boat. The reason all the young professionals aren’t jumping on this despite this being what we want is because we don’t have $150,000 to spend on a 700 sq.ft. living space. The ammenities/pricing pushes this from the young professionals (many of whom are probably still renters) to the middle-aged professionals who already have a home that needs to be sold in an uncertain economic climate.
The other mis-step to the project has been getting information about the condos out to the people. I signed up for information on the Wizards site and again on the initial Harrison Square site, but since I was only saying I wanted information and never checked the box for “interested in purchasing” I haven’t received a single piece of information in my inbox. Now, I could have made an appointment to go down to CBRE/Sturges, but I just haven’t had the time to do that. I suspect I’m not the only person in with a busy schedule.
All that being said, should I give up and hope for the worst? Heck no. I’m glad they are at least figuring out that if they are going to price it at that level, they better find a way to get into peoples consciousness a little better. I’m happy they are increasing their marketing efforts, and it sounds like they are going about it the right way (although, I admit I am by no means a marketing expert). But I have to believe that getting into MLS listings will go a long way in increasing visibility of these units. Now, if they could compromise on these being full luxury with solid surface counters, etc., etc., maybe they can bring the price down to something young professionals can truly afford!
Patrick, I agree the pricing is probably the biggest issue for most people who have not bought in yet. I don’t proclaim to be a marketing expert, but I do have a business degree and took some marketing classes in college. The way you attract customers to anything new is by setting the pricing on the lower end (or by having impeccable service). Then you can raise prices later if necessary when you’ve gotten a good customer base. It seems that CBRE/Barry was unwilling or unable to lower pricing or improve service (seems they could have done a better job of getting info to you Patrick). I’m wondering how long it’s going to take for Coldwell Banker/Barry to realize this and lower the price a bit on these condos.
So Patrick - Since I am 72 going on 73, it’s not my tax dollars that will pay for this non- justifiable venture that ONLY a governmental unit could push through - it’s my kids and my grandkids that will pay it off - as to failure, I agree that there are TWO public-financed buildings up on Breckenridge - an unneeded baseball stadium AND a parking garage needed ONLY to replace the parking lots of Lincoln Life that were absorbed into this boondoggle. As far as your comment about it being a sunk cost, I believe that, reading the contract, Barry Real Estate can be put into receivership until they come up with what they promised. It would take a session in court, but it is a way for Fort Wayne to recover some of the money we spent - also, we can walk away from the promise to repay the “shill” corporation that was set up tp “lease” the ballpark and the parking garage to the city - sure it would put Fort Wayne in a position of being unable to borrow money in the immediate future, but so what - New York city survived when they went broke - so can Fort Wayne. It might even help prevent dumb projects like this from occuring in the future - but probably not - NO ONE IN OUR GOVERNMENT HAS LEARNED ANYTHING IN THE RECENT PAST - I will not bore you by calling out the “failures” that have not helped learning in the past, but you know them.
When I was training to sell real estate years ago I was taught three simple rules of a desirable property; location, location, and location. I’ve been saying this since the whole project came light.