SOUTH BEND — The Yard, a family-friendly development that will offer entertainment and food, is closer to becoming a reality in South Bend’s East Bank neighborhood.
“We hope to break ground at two of the three sites before the end of the year,” Frank Perri, principal of Earth Designs, said of The Yard.
South Bend’s Redevelopment Commission approved The Yard’s development agreement at its meeting on Thursday morning.
With an estimated price tag of more than $14-million, the family-friendly development will be located on East LaSalle Avenue between Hill Street and Niles Avenue, according to slides shared at the meeting,
The Yard will include a pavilion building with outdoor space for concerts and games, serving sandwiches and salads, and a bar on the first floor and private event rooms on the second floor, Earth Designs’ Riley Ellingsen said.
There will also be a bagel shop, ice cream and events, Ellingsen said. A bike shop also has plans to move to there, he said.
Admission will usually be free, unless there is a special event, such as a concert, Ellingsen said. On weekends, The Yard will probably be open until midnight or 1 a.m., he said.
“We believe this will be OK financially,” Perri said when commission members expressed concern if he would be able to make a profit.
When the leaves are off the trees, in cooler weather, The Yard plans to have ice sculptures and six or seven fire pits, Perri said. After doing surveys, Earth Designs found that fire pits are “the number one thing people want,” he said.
Perri previously developed The Lauber and the recently-opened Manny’s Sports Bar near where The Yard will be.
The commission approved the development agreement for The Yard on Thursday, Aug. 28, after approving prior the addition of a section in the agreement that should have been included but was left out.
The Cascade to grow on riverbank
The commission also approved a second amendment Aug. 28 to the development agreement for The Cascade development along the river. Perri, along with Panzica Building Corp. under the name Wharf Partners LLC, is the developer for The Cascade.
Additional stories will be added and the amount of the project will increase, Joseph Molnar, the assistant director of growth and opportunity for South Bend, said at the Aug. 28 meeting. Construction is scheduled to start in June 2026 and is expected to be complete in June 2029, he said.
Amendment to Monreaux agreement tabled
Consideration of a second amendment to the development agreement for The Monreaux was tabled until the next Redevelopment Commission meeting on Sept. 11.
An affordable apartment building in the 500 block of South Michigan Street where the former Fat Daddy’s Discount Outlet store site was located, the development has been spearheaded by former Notre Dame women’s basketball star Devereaux Peters.
As The Tribune reported in May, the Redevelopment Commission agreed to increase the city’s share of financial support from $2.3 million to $3.3 million for development of The Monreaux because of increased costs to build it. At the same time, the developers agreed to developers to commit $17.7 million toward the project, up from the project’s original $13.7 million budget.
New meeting location coming
In November, meetings will move to the city’s new office building at the former South Bend Community School Corporation headquarters building at 215 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., officials announced.
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