Thursday was the deadline for groups interested in the former State Theater to give South Bend redevelopment officials their ideas.
Joe Molnar, the city’s assistant director of growth and opportunity, says the city received four proposals, including one from The Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, which envisions movies.
“Their idea was to split the building up a little bit on the interior you’d have four to five screens in individual spaces, not just one big 2,000-seat theater, so you’d be able to do festivals around that, as well as second-run for theaters,” Molnar says.
The other three proposals would seek to return live performing arts to the former theater, including one from Main Stage Inc., the Mishawaka-based nonprofit that produces youth performing arts.
The commission directed staff to come back in mid-July with a recommendation. Molnar hopes by then the state of Indiana will award its current READI/Lilly Arts grant.
“If one of these proposals was able to bring in significant dollars from the state of Indiana, that would obviously be a big point in their favor, but we’ll still have to review all four and interview them and speak with them further.”
