Notre Dame buys historic South Bend Tribune building downtown

SOUTH BEND — The University of Notre Dame has purchased the historic South Bend Tribune building, which has sat mostly vacant since 2019 after the newspaper moved its operations.

University officials said Tuesday that Notre Dame's purchase of the century-old property at 225 W. Colfax Ave. is part of a renewed mission for "meaningful investments in science and engineering and further collaborations to advance economic well-being in the South Bend-Elkhart region."

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University leaders refused to share specific plans for the property, but they said Notre Dame will "activate the building and develop a comprehensive plan for the surrounding area."

"We hope that a collaborative project in downtown South Bend will create a destination and a catalyst to propel the region’s momentum further, especially via this notable venue,” Shannon Cullinan, Notre Dame's executive vice president, said in a press release.

County property records show Notre Dame closed the deal in late September. How much the university paid for the property is unclear, but its assessed value is listed at $2,280,800.

While The Tribune's former printing plant is the new home for South Bend City Church, the main building's three floors have gone unused for four years. The building had been owned by Schurz Communications, the local company that also owned the South Bend Tribune newspaper until 2019.

The newspaper used the 1921 building until late 2019, when it moved to Union Station. The Tribune's offices are now in the former Studebaker main assembly plant, at 635 S. Lafayette Blvd.

“We are delighted that the University of Notre Dame will renew and redevelop the South Bend Tribune’s historic home for the benefit of the broader community,” Todd Schurz, former president and CEO of Schurz Communications, said in a press release.

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The paper is now owned by Gannett, a media company that owns USA Today and nearly 400 daily or weekly newspapers nationwide.

Notre Dame's purchase tracks with the university's increasing investment in South Bend over the last few decades.

In Notre Dame's 2033 Strategic Framework, the words "South Bend" and "Indiana" — omitted from past official planning documents — are used for the first time. The plan notes the perennial challenge of recruiting and retaining professionals in a Rust Belt city whose population increased in the last census for the first time in decades. Among private universities in the Association of American Universities, Notre Dame is in the third-smallest economic market.

The framework notes: "In the modern knowledge economy, the advancement of any global research university is wedded to the capacity of the surrounding community."

"The University of Notre Dame's commitment to the greater South Bend region is as strong as ever, and we're thrilled to advance our shared vision of a thriving community with more opportunities for all,” South Bend Mayor James Mueller said in a press release.

Last month, Mueller announced the city will hire Pittsburgh-based Urban Design Associates to form a comprehensive plan for how downtown South Bend can rebuild from its late-20th century struggles. The firm will host public engagement sessions early next year that will allow residents to have a say in how best to harness an expected $1 billion in private investment downtown.

Challenges of redeveloping the building

Chris Dautel, vice president of strategic planning and corporate development for Schurz Communications, said in a phone interview at least a handful of potential developers had walked through the building, mostly in the few winter months after it closed and before the pandemic began.

They generally were looking into a mix of uses, including retail for the first floor, offices on the second floor and residential space on the third floor, Dautel said.

But none had come as close to a purchase as Notre Dame. He refused to name the purchase price.

“The bones are very good,” Dautel said of the structure.

So is the brick façade and exterior, he noted. The HVAC system, which Schurz has run through the winters to keep pipes from freezing, is “functioning,” he said.

The interior could be used as is, Dautel said. But, while he doesn’t know anything about Notre Dame’s plans, he said any new owner may have to gut the interior to adapt the spaces for their new uses. After all, it’s designed for news operations.

A historic home: South Bend Tribune a fixture on Colfax Avenue for nearly a century

Much of the first floor, apart from the customer service desk, was where the original presses and inserting equipment ran, a large warehouse sort of space with wooden floors. The newsroom was on the second floor with an open area and pillars along the western windows, then other office spaces, a library and a customer service call area to the east. The third floor had more general office spaces.

Schurz had paid a maintenance company to walk through the building multiple times per week and to ensure that the heat ran in the winters, Dautel said.

Altogether, The Tribune’s old complex encompassed 150,000 square feet. But that includes the former press building, built in 1994, which is now undergoing renovations by South Bend City Church. The church also acquired the second-story structure that serves as a bridge between the 1994 building and the more historic portions.

Todd Schurz, now a senior adviser to Schurz Communications, spoke from his home in Austin, Texas.

Schurz said, from the rough ideas he’d heard from Notre Dame, that the university had a “compelling” case for reusing the building.

He compares it to the Schurz sale many years ago of its former WSBT Stations building in downtown South Bend, which now houses public TV station WNIT.

“We did not want to leave a vacant building for a long time in downtown,” he said. “For us, it was, ‘Can we find the right partner for this project?’”

While he acknowledged that there are some emotions over the old building, Schurz said, “They are much less so than selling the paper itself and … the people who were no longer working together.”

“The paper and the people matter much more than the building for me,” he added.

Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09.

Email Tribune reporter Joseph Dits at jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame buys South Bend Tribune building downtown