SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) – The city of South Bend is on the verge of a big win in its effort to get more people living downtown.
The proposed $61.5 million project is “a big deal.” The development would be located on the southern half of the current Crow headquarters campus, near Jefferson Boulevard and the St. Joseph River.
Under the plan, the developer would purchase one of the two buildings on the Crow campus, demolish it, and construct 291 new apartments in two four-story buildings. The buildings will be connected by a three-story skybridge and will include parking for 398 cars.
The complex will feature an outdoor pool, courtyard and fitness center.
“We’re definitely going to strive to be the nicest property in town. The average rent will be about $1,988 and the average square footage will be about 900 square feet,” Chandler said, along with developer J.C. Hart.・Mr. Sturgis said. “This is a great opportunity to follow up on the Amazon project in New Carlyle and the Samsung battery factory in New Carlyle, which has brought attention to this area.”
The expanded site has an attached but largely unused parking space, and the office building is mostly vacant. Furthermore, this entire area has long since fallen out of the urban road network.
“Right now, it’s really a bit of a no-man’s land. There’s no way to actually get through the property,” said South Bend Community Investment Director Caleb Bauer.
The development agreement submitted today to the South Bend Redevelopment Commission calls for construction to begin this summer and be completed by the end of 2028.
The agreement also calls for the creation of a riverfront boardwalk allocation area that would allow property taxes generated by the project to be used to repay bonds that are part of the project financing.
“We are excited to build more homes along the river,” Bauer said. “We’ve had success across the board with a variety of income groups and we’re bringing more rental and condominium housing into the city, which is another step forward in terms of actually bringing people back downtown. I don’t know.”
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