South Bend to Begin Work on Howard Park Project

(rendering courtesy City of South Bend)

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg will join other city and community leaders Wednesday to break ground on the new Howard Park Recreation Center. The more than $12 million project will include a multi-purpose building, a water play and ice skating feature and signature playground in the city’s oldest park.

The project is part of the My SB Parks & Trails initiative, which was announced in August. The new building will serve as a mixed-use community center, which will be LEED certified. The project will also include an interactive water feature which will be transformed into an ice skating rink during the winter.

"The new Howard Park will help turn our attention toward one of our City’s greatest assets: our river," Buttigieg said in a news release. "As one of the central projects in the My SB Parks and Trails Initiative, this revitalized space will be a center of community life upon its completion."

The city says the decision to move forward with the project came after Howard Park’s existing ice rink and recreation building reached the end of their life cycles. The project is being funded through a Regional Cities Initiative grant, a partnership with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, Tax Increment Financing funding and a pending Park Bond.

Construction on the project is expected to be complete in early 2019. You can connect to more information on the Howard Park project and the My SB Parks & Trails initiative by clicking here.