More than four years after the South Bend Housing Authority closed it, the city of South Bend is finally ready to demolish the Rabbi Shulman Apartment building on Western Avenue.
The city’s redevelopment commission on Thursday will consider the administration’s request to spend $1.5 million on the demolition. Chicago-based Green Demolition Contractors Inc. offered the lowest of nine bids.
The city expects the company to start working in November to clean out the six-story building and remove its asbestos before demolition. Demolition will continue through the winter and finish by April 15.
The city then plans to work with the housing authority and the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County to build new housing on the site. They’re planning a $43 million project with 208 rental units. 30% will be for the housing authority’s former Rabbi Shulman and Monroe Circle tenants, another 40% will be for tenants at lower incomes, and the rest will be for any income.
The housing authority closed the Rabbi Shulman apartments after a gas leak forced an evacuation. The authority decided the building was too dilapidated to renovate.
