Idaho-based firm plans $27.6 million apartment complex in northeast South Bend
SOUTH BEND — An Idaho-based development firm seeks to transform a former medical office building that's been vacant since 2014 into a 69-unit apartment complex at a site between downtown and the University of Notre Dame.
In addition to the planned $27.6 million investment to renovate the building at 511 N. Notre Dame Ave. — located at the northwest corner of Cedar Street and Notre Dame Avenue, just north of St. Joseph High School — the developer also plans to build 25 new owner-occupied townhomes. The townhomes would be built on the north and east perimeters of the parcel.
The developer filed a tax abatement proposal for a mix of 69 studio and one-bedroom units, a number of which are expected to be designated for lower-income tenants. To reuse the old St. Joseph Regional Medical Center building, whose four stories and basement comprise more than 50,000 square feet, the developer would pay to completely gut and redo the inside and to revamp the exterior.
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The South Bend Common Council will vote on the proposed tax abatement Monday. If it's approved, developers plan to begin construction in December and finish before the 2023 fall semester, according to Kyle Copelin, a South Bend architect who helped design the project.
The development would be close to student-centric apartment complexes such as Aurum and Darby Row, as well as existing townhouse complexes Golden View Townhomes and University Parallel Graduate Townhomes.
"The apartment building will fill a void of high-density housing between the Notre Dame campus area and downtown," Erik Glavich, South Bend's director of growth and opportunity, wrote in a tax abatement report filed Wednesday.
The development firm is called ND QOZB LLC, a partnership between two companies based in Utah and Idaho, according to a petition for tax abatement filed Oct. 19. In real estate jargon, "QOZB" means qualified opportunity zone business.
Public Development Partners, of Utah, is partnering with an opportunity zone fund called GPWM Funds, of Idaho. GPWM has projects across the country, while Public Development Partners describes itself as a small development firm.
Griffin Johnson, the project manager with Public Development Partners, did not respond to a Tribune phone call Friday afternoon. A representative of ND QOZB LLC is expected to meet with the Common Council Monday.
"Once operational, the building will be managed and maintained by a local company," Johnson wrote in the tax abatement petition. "While Notre Dame and the City of South Bend continue to expand and improve their presence, we feel this project is in an area that will spur development between Eddy Street Commons and the riverfront."
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Johnson listed that he worked with Shive-Hattery Architecture & Engineering in South Bend for project design. Copelin, a principal architect at Shive-Hattery, said this project is the farthest east that Johnson's firm has ever built.
Copelin said the four-story building won't feature balconies looking over downtown South Bend from the hill on which the site stands. But there will be ample amenity space, including rooms for gaming, podcasting and socializing. There's also planned space for bike storage, given the site's proximity to campus and business districts near Howard Park and downtown.
A South Bend native, Copelin said he sees the site as ideally situated between development-heavy areas on the outskirts of Notre Dame's campus and along the St. Joseph River toward downtown South Bend.
"There's this sort of zone in the middle where there hasn't been a ton done," Copelin said. "It's really attractive to look at this particular property because it's on the top of the hill, and it's in the middle of those two (areas)."
The developer seeks an eight-year tax abatement for the 69-unit complex, which would cut property taxes in half and save the firm more than $1 million. In exchange, it would not only boost the local housing stock but promise to create construction jobs and 10 full-time jobs by the end of 2025.
Troy Warner, the city councilor whose district the project is in, told The Tribune he plans to support it. But he wants to ensure language dedicating roughly 20% of the rooms to lower-income tenants is included in the agreement.
South Bend Mayor James Mueller's administration has begun to leverage the city's power to grant tax abatements by asking housing developers to offer a certain percentage of units to low-income renters, Warner noted.
The Mar-Main apartments in downtown last month agreed to reserve 48 units for tenants with federal housing vouchers in exchange for city money. It's unclear if the Housing Authority of South Bend will be allowed to place tenants from the Housing Choice Voucher, or Section 8, program in the new complex on Notre Dame Avenue.
Despite the abatement, the city will still collect more than $1.1 million in taxes over the eight years of the agreement. Warner said that's far more than the city would collect annually on the unused building, whose assessed value is $850,000, according to the tax abatement petition.
"That area is a lure for not only university employees but folks that are downsizing," Warner said, referencing parents he knows who moved from Granger to South Bend once their children left home. "They want to be near restaurants and shops and shows and sporting events at the university."
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Firm plans multi-million-dollar apartments between Notre Dame, South Bend
