South Bend redevelopment officials today (Thursday) approved a deal with a developer and the University of Notre Dame to convert the former South Bend Tribune building into a research and innovation hub to create high-tech jobs.
They’ll call it Colfax Corner, a project that will involve both renovating the Tribune building to create classrooms, labs and offices, and demolishing the building on the corner of Main and Colfax to build a new attached structure. The city will lend Washington, D.C.-based developer Ancora $30.8 million that it will raise through a bond issue, and then be repaid through a mix of incremental property taxes, and state sales and income taxes.
The complex revenue scheme results from the state Budget Committee in September approving the site, and other vacant sites scattered throughout the downtown, as a new Innovation Development District.
”It’s game changing," says Mayor James Mueller. "I mean this will transform the landscape of our downtown and also direct our economy in a positive way. Here we have a committed anchor institution in the University of Notre Dame, really leaning into the relationship and the partnership, and into our downtown.”
