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Cook Cup Winner Sparks Revitalization in Fort Wayne
Electric Works wins Indiana Landmarks’ top restoration prize.

Energy Boost
For much of the twentieth century, General Electric (GE) drove innovation from a campus of red brick buildings along Broadway in Fort Wayne. At its height in 1944, the company employed approximately one-third of the city’s workforce, but GE’s slow decline in the late twentieth century, and eventual closure of its Fort Wayne operations in 2015, left residents with increasing concern about the future of the 39-acre Broadway property near downtown.
Inspired by the site’s heritage, location and the City’s track record of investing in its downtown, an affiliate of Ancora Partners LLC acquired the property from GE in 2017 to create Electric Works, a mixed-use innovation district. To honor the extraordinary revitalization, Indiana Landmarks selected Electric Works as the winner of its 2025 Cook Cup for Outstanding Restoration.

Fort Wayne Electric Works
General Electric first acquired the Fort Wayne Electric Works site in 1899 and, within a decade, occupied more than 1.3 million square feet of facilities, manufacturing alternators, dynamos, motors, transformers, and switches for a growing electric industry. During World War II, the factory was retooled to manufacture superchargers for military aircraft.
“In sharing the vision for Electric Works, we were quick to remind people that this whole campus was the result of an innovation district one hundred years ago centered on a new technology called electricity,” says Kevan Biggs, founder of Biggs Group, a development partner. “We had confidence to say there’s a deeply rooted DNA of entrepreneurs and engineers here that we can tap into again to create a space for a center of excellence and innovation.”
Philadelphia architecture firm Harris & Richards largely designed the original factory, incorporating buildings of reinforced concrete with brick facades, large windows, and open floors supported by massive columns to create open light-filled workspaces for manufacturing. Phase 1 of Electric Works prioritized rehabilitating the 12-acre West Campus, which retained eight historic buildings constructed between 1907 to 1942.
The 700,000 square-foot complex demanded an outsized proposal and a constellation of financing to make redevelopment possible, resulting in a public-private partnership including Ancora Partners, local investors, the State of Indiana, Allen County, and the City of Fort Wayne. Phase 1 invested $286 million, drawing on local, state, and federal sources for financing, as well as private equity and debt to restore and redevelop the site. The project utilized $35.7 million in federal Historic Tax Credits and $12.5 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation. National Trust Community Investment Corporation made its largest historic tax credit investment in the company’s history at Electric Works.

Union Street Market, Electric Works
Led by general contractor Weigand Construction, workers updated mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and retrofitted buildings with energy-efficient windows that replicate the originals, while preserving the foundations, concrete and steel structure, exterior walls, and other character-defining features. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management worked with developers to evaluate the property and create a remediation plan. Nearly 20,000 tons of material was removed to prepare for the renovation, with over 79 percent being reused, reclaimed, or recycled. Adding to the challenge, the project battled supply chain and workforce challenges amid the global COVID pandemic, yet sourced around 90 percent of the labor and materials from northeast Indiana, a significant economic impact.
Based on engagement with neighborhood, city, and regional stakeholders, the team developed a master plan and curated tenants to fill needs in the neighborhood and broader city, including a primary and urgent care clinic and pharmacy, a public market and food hall, a public STEAM high school, businesses, and co-working space. Development of the West Campus kicked off in February 2020 with the announcement that Do it Best Corporation would make Electric Works its headquarters.

Electric Works’ West Campus
The site retains the GE Club, a recreation building constructed for employees in 1926 complete with gymnasium and 12-lane bowling alley. Honoring its heritage, the gym continues to serve as a gathering space and community center, hosting programs and concerts.
Since Phase 1’s opening in 2023, Electric Works has brought 1,000 jobs to the former shuttered industrial site and annually draws hundreds of thousands of visitors who patronize its businesses, shop and eat in the food hall, and attend classes, programs, and performances. In its first year, the landmark campus hosted over 200 public, private, and community events.
“The scope and scale of this project allowed us to show what’s possible. A community can reimagine historic buildings through adaptive reuse to really create extraordinary places that support innovation,” says Jeff Kingsbury, co-founder of Ancora.
This article first appeared in the July/August issue of Indiana Preservation, Indiana Landmarks’ member magazine.
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