The former Firestone store at the corner of Fairfield and Jefferson in Fort Wayne has been on the endangered list ever since McMahon Tire moved their truck tire business out of it in 1999. Recently a Starbucks franchisee announced plans to spend $1 million to renovate it and put in a coffee shop with a drive thru.

 

The building has been deteriorating, and parts of it weren't all that great even before McMahon moved out. Over the weekend, a weak section of roof over a garage area in the rear suffered a partial collapse as a result of heavy rains. It pulled the top of an end wall inward and shoved a side wall outward causing it to shed masonry into the driveway.

 

According to the Redevelopment Director for the city, the part of the building that failed was destined for demolition as part of the renovation, so apparently the mishap won't have an adverse effect on the Starbucks plans.

 

 

 

 

 

Older deterioration

 

 

 

 

 

 

Howard Stern for President? Don't you guys have sign rules in Ft. Wayne? LOL.

 

Anyway, that tower is great!

 

Keep us aware of the progress.

Howard Stern for President? Don't you guys have sign rules in Ft. Wayne? LOL.

 

Yeah. We got rules about spray-painting stupid crap on buildings, too. A lot of good it does. :roll:

At second glance, I like how you've got that shyscaper dwarfed in the distance next to the tower in the last pic.

Interesting.

 

If Starbucks is going to take over, why does it still have the "available" sign?

Is that near the downtown library?  I think I remember seeing that building in that area a few years ago and thought it looked kinda cool for being a tire place.

If Starbucks is going to take over, why does it still have the "available" sign?

 

At least in Fort Wayne, commercial realtors leave their signs up until a buyer takes possession. The signs keep their name in front of people shopping for commercial properties, and generate inquiries and opportunities to show potential buyers other properties. The same thing is true in most cases with residential properties.

 

Is that near the downtown library?  I think I remember seeing that building in that area a few years ago and thought it looked kinda cool for being a tire place.

 

Yep! It's a block south and a block west. Washington (westbound) and Jefferson (eastbound) are the major east-west streets through downtown, and that makes them attractive to fast-food enterpreneurs. The recent expansions of the library and the convention center displaced some of those franchises (McDonald's, Arby's, etc.), and they have relocated near that intersection.

 

Incidentally, the library has long been recognized as one of Fort Wayne's premier assets; its genealogy department ranks close to the Mormon repository in Salt Lake City, and people come from all over the country to research family histories. The building is being updated and doubled in size, and the library is temporarily housed in an office building a few blocks east of its permanent home. The new facility looks impressive in scale and design, and I'm eager to see it when it opens, supposedly late this year.