Former Union Street Market food hall vendor tells all

Hey Locals,

In today’s newsletter, a significant former vendor at Union Street Market speaks out about what’s happening behind-the-scenes there. (We also planned to share some reflections on last week’s primary elections, but have decided to hold that until vote counts are finalized, so stay tuned.)

Now, back to Electric Works. If you’ve been reading our newsletter for more than a year, the recent – albeit abrupt – closure of Chapman’s Brewing was probably no surprise to you. In late 2024, we received several reader emails alerting us that Chapman’s Brewing’s owner, Scott Fergusson, was involved in multiple legal cases, some dating back to April 2020 — before Chapman’s signed its letter of intent to locate at Electric Works in November 2021. 

Knowing this, Electric Works leadership not only made Chapman’s the anchor dining tenant, but also promoted Fergusson in 2024 to manage multiple public-facing parts of the project, including Union Street Market food hall, all bars on campus, events, and coworking through a now-kaput company called 3PO (Three Pillar Operations). (See our interview with Fergusson and Jeff Kingsbury of Electric Works here.)

Currently, Fergusson owes $975,698.18 to Ash Crest Corp., an investment management company owned by a key Electric Works investor, Tim Ash. Sources tell us Chapman’s also owes back rent to Electric Works leadership, RTM Ventures, and this debt contributed to Chapman’s employees being unexpectedly locked out of their building last Saturday and the business being permanently closed. In February, Fergusson left 3PO and daily operations at Chapman’s/Electric Works to accept a new position as Chief Technology Officer at Expansive, based in Chicago. Zach White, the last remaining employee of 3PO and President of Chapman’s Brewing, announced the closure of the brewery on social media.

This all brings us to the present moment, where we find that Electric Works is not only out an anchor dining tenant, but also campus leadership is in flux in several key areas Fergusson formerly managed – Union Street Market, coworking, events, and campus bar operations.

Now, before we further unpack the state of things, it’s worth noting that, as The Local – and Fort Wayne residents, Kara and Michael – we supported Electric Works in its early stages of development, and we continue to hope the project finds a way to become the hub of innovation and cultural activity it was promised to be. The campus certainly looks nice and has arguably delivered on serving area businesses as an office park. But given that the City of Fort Wayne and Allen County Capital Improvement Board (CIB) gave Electric Works $65M in direct public funding, and it has been billed to residents as a “public-private" project, we think it’s worth discussing how various public-funded elements of the project are being managed and whether they’re delivering on their promises to the community.

This week, we’re starting with Union Street Market (USM) and its intended oversight body, the Public Market Trust (PMT), because these were two elements of the project explicitly stated in the city’s contract in exchange for public funding. 

Per the city’s 2020 contract with Electric Works, which we obtained via FOIA, the “mission of the market shall be to create a dynamic and inclusive place that supports the farmers and food producers of Northeast Indiana while enhancing community wellness and providing access to healthy foods to underserved residents.” The contract also mandated the creation of a nonprofit Public Market Trust to oversee the market’s mission and report on its accomplishments annually. 

To learn more about how this part of the contract has played out so far, we talked with an important former vendor at USM, Jain Young of Plowshares. Young and her team operated the market’s only fresh and local produce stall and offered food stamp benefits to residents, arguably allowing the market to achieve its contractual mission. However, earlier this year, Plowshares left USM due to delayed (and ultimately unreceived) federal funding needed to operate its business. Still, reflecting on her experience, Young sees many missed opportunities for USM, dating back to before the market opened.