SOUTH BEND – The south end of downtown has been bustling with activity lately due to projects aimed at bringing more residents, businesses and visitors downtown.
Construction of 150 new apartments on the previously vacant lot on South Lafayette Boulevard between Monroe and South Streets is already underway. On the other side of Lafayette Boulevard, work on a $45 million expansion of Four Winds Field is scheduled to begin at the end of the season.
Other projects include the 60-unit apartment building that former Notre Dame basketball star Devereaux Peters is developing in the 500 block of South Michigan Street.
In total, 222 market-rate and low-income apartments and some commercial space will be built in the south downtown area, according to Caleb Bauer, the city’s executive director of community investments.
A series of deals
Those plans are already in the works or nearing implementation, but a number of other recent deals with Renaissance District developer Kevin Smith could prime the southern part of downtown for additional development in the coming years.
Smith has reached a point in his life where he wants to scale back some of his ventures. Four years ago, he sold Deluxe Sheet Metal, which he founded with his father and grew for nearly 50 years.
And he plans to complete the sale of a sizable data center business called Global Access Point, which he has built since 1987 in a large monolithic building on West South Street, between Four Winds Field and the Norfolk Southern tracks.
The data center, which is connected to Union Station, is housed in what was once the railroad’s freight depot. At a time when the south side of town was awash in abandoned buildings, Smith and his father turned the empty warehouse into Deluxe Sheet Metal’s first official location in 1979.
Saving Union Station, which opened on the east side of the complex in 1929, became a true labor of love because of the building’s Art Deco design and the fact that it was reminiscent of South Bend’s early glory days when Studebaker thrived.
Smith estimates he probably spent $10 million restoring and maintaining Union Station, which eventually became the main entrance to the data center and serves as offices for University of Notre Dame staff who maintain the research computers located nearby.
Smith said he had been working to sell the data center business for about a year, but the deal was delayed because potential buyers wanted Union Station as part of the deal to allow for future expansion, among other things.
That problem was solved when Smith approached the city about purchasing the nearby Claeys Candy building on the west side of Four Winds Field, which she acquired when Claeys moved to a new facility on the northwest side of the city in 2023.
Smith was able to purchase the Claeys building from the city for $1,000 so it could be used along with the data center operations to support potential future growth. And that allowed him to sell Union Station to the city for $2.4 million.
“Claeys will be an expansion area for energy infrastructure,” Smith explained.
Timing is everything
The timing was perfect for both Smith and the city.
“I wanted to sell the data center because it was taking up about 60 percent of my time,” Smith said, adding that he also wanted to reopen the old train station to the public.
“I’m biased, but I think it’s definitely one of the most beautiful buildings in the city,” Smith said, adding that there may not have been another chance to reopen the historic building to the public.
Meanwhile, South Bend was in talks with Amtrak about moving its train station from 2702 W. Washington St. to Union Station.
“Our top priority is to explore Amtrak’s options,” Bauer said, referring to the city’s purchase of the station. “The existing station on the west side is not ideal.”
With a mezzanine full of office space above the ground floor, Union Station looks much the same as it did decades ago, and it’s easy to imagine it becoming a gathering place with restaurants and shops, and perhaps rail travelers, in the future.
The station has 46 parking spaces and has additional parking nearby, making it attractive to the public. Since the station is in the hands of the city, the downtown area is also interesting for a station with light rail and Amtrak service in the future.
South Shore officials have indicated at this point that they would prefer to offer a faster connection between Chicago and South Bend International Airport before tackling the more complicated and costly project of a direct connection to downtown.
But the station’s existence would certainly pave the way for those talks to continue in the future, as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg supported the idea during his tenure as mayor of South Bend.
New train station in South Bend: Lots of money for studies. No progress. No location set.
“A lot could be done with the station,” said Bauer.
The contracts with Claeys and Union Station, as well as the data center, are expected to close in the next few weeks. And a separate development agreement between Smith and the city for the former Studebaker administration building at 635 S. Main St. is also expected to close in a few weeks.
The administration building south of the railroad overpass and also along Lafayette Street has been deteriorating since the South Bend Community School Corporation moved out in 2005.
As part of a plan to preserve the building for future use, the city’s Redevelopment Commission would contribute $825,000 in tax increment financing for lead and asbestos abatement, and Smith would contribute $3.3 million to replace the roof and temporarily seal the windows.
Knowing that the building could be safely decommissioned for possible future use, Smith subsequently purchased it from the out-of-town owners—ultimately giving him the massive Building 84 project on Lafayette’s west side and the administration building to develop, with Building 113 largely completed.
Open a corridor
Smith envisions a day when Union Station is back in operation, drawing people downtown, possibly with a tunnel leading from the station to a loading dock for train traffic.
This tunnel could ultimately create another pedestrian connection to the former Studebaker buildings on the south side of the tracks and connect those buildings to the growing developments on the north side of the railroad line.
Anyone familiar with the southern part of downtown knows that crossing under the railroad overpass along Lafayette is a psychological barrier for pedestrians. However, no decision has yet been made to solve this problem, Bauer explained.
“That’s something we’re going to look into,” he said. “The tracks are an obstacle and we’re aware that improving the connection is something we need.”
Even if the further course of events is difficult to predict, data operations will remain intact, Union Station can be used by the public again, and at least the administration building will remain safe.
It may be some time before trains return to Union Station, but the facility would be a great location for a market hall or a bookable event venue, Bauer said.
The city’s investment in the administration building offers an opportunity to reuse the once magnificent building at some point, said Bauer. “If we do nothing, we risk having to spend a lot more on demolition in the future,” he explained.
And as for the city’s purchase of Union Station, Bauer said it will allow the city to accommodate future public transit while also returning an important historic building to public use.
“Without him, the station building would have been demolished decades ago,” said Bauer. “I give him great praise for protecting it so that it could be made accessible to the public again.”
Email Tribune Editor Ed Semmler at [email protected].
