Saying it wanted to ease headaches with the expansion of Mishawaka Avenue, as well as to close a public safety hazard, the city of South Bend bought Kelly's Pub earlier this spring.
Now, the city wants to spend $125,000 to demolish the property, according to documents filed with the South Bend Redevelopment Commission. South Bend's Common Council approved the purchase of Kelly's for $275,000 in March after the bar was the site of two shootings since December.
A few years earlier in 2019, 10 people were injured and one person was killed in a mass shooting in Kelly's Parking lot. Those incidents banded local residents together to call on the bar's longtime owner — Don Kelly — to sell.
The purchase coincides with some previously planned infrastructure projects, including streetscaping work along Mishawaka Avenue. City officials have told WVPE owning the Kelly's lot will make that work easier when it starts next year. Director of Community Investment Caleb Bauer has said the city will hold the site during construction and then look to sell it afterward to a developer, though what the city wants put in is not decided.
“We think this is an area of opportunity for redevelopment so the city is being proactive in setting those pieces up with the infrastructure work,” Bauer said in March.
The demolition is slated for late July or early August.
There is a bench outside the bar dedicated to Brandon Williams, a man from Niles who was killed in the 2019 shooting. The city says the bench will be put in storage during the roadwork and than put back in place afterward.
