South Bend allocates $350K to secure and weatherproof the State Theater
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The South Bend Redevelopment Commission on Thursday approved $350,000 for preventive repairs and retroactively agreed to an additional 15 days for the due diligence period for the city’s planned purchase of the State Theater.
To prevent further long-term damage once the city closes on the property, the money will go towards immediate roof repairs to prevent further moisture infiltration, clearing scuppers and external downspouts, securing all doors and windows.
“This budget request would allow us to clear out the debris, paint over any graffiti and get it back to a decent shape that we can walk people through,” South Bend Executive Director of Community Investment Caleb Bauer said. “It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be ready to be occupied; there will still be a lot of work necessary to get it back to active use.”
Excess funds would be reserved for day-to-day property maintenance and other miscellaneous items, the city said.
In February, the commission approved the city’s plan to purchase the property for $800,000.
If closing does not occur, the city said the funds will be returned to the River West Development Area. If the transaction does not go through for any reason, Bauer said the likelihood of eventual demolition would increase, and would potentially cost another $2 million.
“Our goal right now is to stabilize the building, prevent weather conditions from deteriorating it further. That will then buy us time to consider multiple options,” Bauer said. “Our strong preference is (to) find a buyer who would want to redevelop the building and/or working with other partners to redevelop the building in some sort of joint redevelopment.”
Commissioners recognized the historical value of the State Theater, but said that the city needed to see a return on the investment and asked why officials thought the venue could be successful this time after a litany of businesses had tried and failed.
“There are differences today than there were in previous attempts to save the State Theater. There’s $1 billion of private investment planned downtown that includes a significant amount of new residential units,” Bauer said. “The goal there is bringing more people downtown, improving the viability of retail and commercial businesses downtown that can include things like entertainment venues.”
Adding that the number of people living downtown was at an all-time high, Bauer said purchasing and redeveloping the State Theater fit into the city’s plan to ride the momentum happening downtown.
The city would also explore removing the current easements on the property’s façade to remove future legal restrictions on the redevelopment plans.