Parking will continue to be scarce for events at the Morris Performing Arts Center downtown South Bend for longer than city leaders hoped.
The city is delaying plans for a parking garage to serve the historic venue.
Rising construction costs since the pandemic have forced the city of South Bend to delay part of an expansion of the Morris, while part of the work is moving forward.
The city two years ago finished a $10 million renovation of the historic city-owned theater. For a second phase, the city had planned a $26 million expansion. It would include a roughly $16 million “encore center” built in the empty space between the Morris and the LaSalle Apartments, and a roughly $10 million parking garage.
Mayor James Mueller says the parking garage will have to wait at least another year but he’s excited to build the Raclin Murphy Encore Center, thanks to a $5 million leading gift from the family.
The center will provide more space for events, meetings, classes, and yet-to-be-developed “equity in the arts” efforts to make the Morris more accessible to people of all backgrounds.
"The goal here is to make sure the Morris is accessible to everyone and that we make sure our youth also have an opportunity to enjoy this new facility," Mueller said. "It's just adding to the vibrancy of an already beloved jewel in our city."
The city’s common council tonight will consider the administration’s request to spend $9 million on the project from the General Fund, and then later reimburse the fund with donations and other tax sources. Mueller said the city has raised almost all of the center’s $16 million cost in private donations.
Work on the Encore Center would begin in late June and finish by next fall.
