This past week J.T. Fisher Properties completed its purchase of the Auburn Auction Park. The developer has plans for a $42 million project that includes 16 indoor basketball/volleyball courts, four soccer/lacrosse fields, and eight baseball/softball fields.
According to a spokesman for RM Sotheby’s, which bought Auburn Auction Park in 2010, the property sale means the end of the classic car auctions that drew thousands of people to Auburn each Labor Day weekend since 1971.
Project developer Joe Fisher wanted to fill a void in the northeastern Indiana area for a large youth sports complex, he said.
The company is looking to sell parts of the property along Interstate 69 about 15 miles north of Fort Wayne for the development of hotels, restaurants, a gas station, and retail stores.
According to some Auburn residents, they had mixed emotions about the planned project. “I think it’s crazy. I think it needed to stay the way it was,” Penny Davidson said. “When the auctions were out there, I thought it was really cool. It’s just sad that it’s no longer an auction place.”
