The city's own answer: the Grand Wayne Center and its Hilton, 1985

1985 — present

A hotel as public works: The Grand Wayne Convention Center opened on January 18, 1985, after five years of planning and construction and a $12 million investment, under the Fort Wayne–Allen County Convention and Tourism Authority. The gala opening drew 1,500 people; Lieutenant Governor John Mutz cut the ribbon, and Tony Bennett sang in the facility's Anthony Wayne Ballroom — the ballroom's name carrying the imploded hotel's name into the new building. At opening the center offered roughly 25,000 square feet of event space and, adjoining it, a 250-room Hilton hotel: downtown's first full-service hotel since the Indiana closed, and the first the city had built for itself as an act of policy. An estimated 250,000 guests attended events in the first year. The center was expanded and renovated in a project spanning 2003–2006 (the center's records date the construction 1983–85 and renovations 2003–05; meeting-press accounts date the expansion's completion to 2006). The Hilton stands at 1020 South Calhoun Street, nine floors, attached to the center's east wing; current counts give it 244 to 246 rooms, and it was renovated in 2016. Part of the complex stands on the Keenan's site — the convention trade the Keenan once served, served again on its own ground.

Sources:

1. Grand Wayne Convention Center, "GWCC celebrates 40 years!" (grandwayne.com, January 21, 2025) — the January 18, 1985 opening, $12 million, five years of planning and construction, the Mutz ribbon-cutting, the Tony Bennett concert, 250,000 first-year guests, and the adjoining 250-room Hilton.
2. Grand Wayne Convention Center (reference summaries) and Cvent venue record, Hilton Fort Wayne at the Grand Wayne Convention Center — nine floors, 1020 S. Calhoun St., opened January 1985 (the built 1983–85 and renovated 2003–05 dates in the Cvent record are the convention center's, not the hotel's: the hotel's own renovation was completed in 2003, a $3.6 million project named Hilton Renovation of the Year for 2004, and the 2003–05 work was the center's expansion), renovated 2016; room counts of 244, 246, and 250 across current listings.