SOUTH BEND — The South Bend Tribune moved into its longest-lasting home in April 1921, a custom-built building at 225 W. Colfax Ave.
And from the corner of Colfax Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard, The Tribune helped draft the history of South Bend.
The Tribune moved out of the building in November 2019 and continues to draft history in South Bend. And the story of the historic building continues as well.
Leaders from the city of South Bend, the University of Notre Dame and investment management firm Ancora officially broke ground on the 202,000-square-foot Colfax Corner project Thursday, Aug. 13.
“Groundbreakings are, of course, important events, a moment of gratitude. We celebrate the moment when the dirt moves, even though as anyone who has worked on a project like this knows, a great deal has already moved: plans, schedules, a few opinions, occasionally deadlines,” Ancora Chairman and CEO Josh Parker. “But today [is] not really the beginning. It’s the moment that several years of work [are] finally becoming visible.”
The Colfax Corner project aims to reimagine Main Street Row into a new five-story building and preserve the former Tribune building into a research and innovation hub with a focus on artificial intelligence, data analytics and advanced computing.
“We’re excited to get full construction kicked off; there’s a great opportunity at this corner to tell the story of South Bend, building on the tradition of The Tribune telling the story of South Bend,” Parker said. “But it’s a new story. It’s a story of community regeneration. It’s a story for translation of research and great educational benefits coming out of Notre Dame and becoming workforce opportunities, jobs and partnerships in the community.”
According to Parker, the building will allow entrepreneurs to “grow and scale companies,” give space for industry partners to “collaborate with Notre Dame,” as well as community opportunities to utilize meeting space, be a part of events, and enjoy restaurants and retail that will be in the site.
“We looked at a lot of sites and in the end there were a few things. One, pre-central,” said Shannon Cullinan, executive vice president of the University of Notre Dame. “Two, the South Bend Tribune building; the historic context of that drew us here, and we thought we could get a pretty substantial new building potentially out of this.”
He added, “But it was definitely the South Bend Tribune building. It’s 100-plus years old. We were pretty interested in preserving that.”
The total cost of the project is somewhere between $130 million and $135 million, Cullinan said. According to previous Tribune reporting, Notre Dame received a $30 million matching grant from Lilly Endowment’s College and Community Collaboration initiative.
The South Bend Redevelopment Commission approved a resolution Feb. 12 to adopt a downtown Innovation Development District, according to previous Tribune reporting. The IDD establishes eight different tax increment financing (TIF) allocation areas and captures state sales and income tax, which allows the money to be retained within the outlined geography.
“There’s an excitement in South Bend,” Mayor James Mueller said. “As someone who was born and raised here, in the middle of our decline, after Studebaker closed, it’s exciting that we’re seeing this. We’ve turned the corner; that’s the first step. But now we’re looking into the future and seeing vibrancy. And seeing a world-class city being rebuilt before our eyes.”
The project has an anticipated completion date of summer 2028. Once completed, the project could create 400 full-time jobs. And while under construction, 340 temporary jobs. Nearly 125-150 of the full-time jobs will be associated with Notre Dame.
“We love investment and new buildings and nice things,” Mueller said. “But at the end of the day, the projects need to reach and impact people in our community and having good paying jobs here in the center of our city, which is, the center of any city is the economic hub, was critically important to make sure opportunities were here for residents and extended the economic impact of these investments.”
Email Tribune staff writer Juliane Balog at jbalog@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Colfax Corner project officially breaks ground; summer 2028 completion
Reporting by Juliane Balog , South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Juliane Balog , South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
