300 East LaSalle apartments and the East Race Market grocery store are possible, thanks to a partnership with the city of South Bend. In 2017, with the help of Mayor Pete, James Mueller, and the City Council members, the project started.

The two components of the City support are a TIF contribution towards the facade and a property tax phase-in. The tax phase-in lasts 10 years, and then the project will pay considerable real estate taxes (over $650,000 per year). During the initial years of the property tax phase-in, the annual property taxes should be between $500 to $6,000 per year.

Construction Delays and Extension Request
Because of the global pandemic, the project took one year longer to build (as measured by the County Assessor). The current tax phase-in has a 4 year construction period (called a designation period). The project was completed in 5 years. Recently, the City Council granted extensions to 14 different construction projects. The most recent was the Indiana Dinosaur Museum, which received an extension of the construction period from 3 years to 6 years. We need 1 year of extension, from 4 to 5 years.

I asked the city administration multiple times over the last 2 years to help fix this, as they have done over a dozen times by drafting the paperwork and submitting it to the City Council. They declined. We completed the East Race Market grocery store (open 7 days a week since January, please visit), and asked again. Still the city declined to help fix this problem. I called down state, to the Department of Local Government Finance(DLGF), and chatted with Steve McKinney. He was very helpful. He said the mayor’s office doesn’t get to decide.

The decision is up to the City Council, and that it’s very common to extend the designation (construction) period. Construction delays happen, especially during the pandemic. He said several communities don’t place end dates on the designation periods, so they don’t need to extend them when construction projects take longer. He advised reaching out to a city council member to assist with the necessary resolution. I did.

City Council Resolution
Council members Dr. Oliver Davis and Sherry Bolden-Simpson are sponsoring a resolution. The City Council’s attorney helped draft the resolution. It’s on the schedule for Monday, June 10th at 4pm and 7pm.

On Thursday, In an unprecedented move, Allie Dolz-Lane, Deputy Chief of Staff for City of South Bend, issued a statement to try and stop the City Council from even talking about the resolution. She recommended the council withdraw the resolution. This would make the whole project financially infeasible, and also cause the closure of the grocery store. It’s unprecedented that the city staff is trying to stop the city council from considering a resolution. Their main arguments are that there are unpaid property taxes and the litigation from the Redevelopment Commision for not building a grocery store. The grocery store is open, and the back real estate taxes should cancel out once the construction period of the tax phase-in is fixed.

Call To Action
The fix is for the City Council to pass a resolution, just like they’ve done a dozen times in recent years for similar construction projects in our community. These projects were delayed, some by the global pandemic, and many developments received multiple years of extensions. The 300 East LaSalle apartment building was completed 11 months after the deadline. Yes, it did take longer than we planned.

The original plan called for $27 million dollars of private investment. We brought $41 million dollars of private investment. The plans were pre approved by the city before we built. There were many construction delays. The granite countertops arrived 9 months late. Three containers of cabinets were stuck in Chicago. They arrived through Canada, and when they got to Chicago, they were unloaded, and more containers were unloaded over and around them.

We waited 3 months before our trucks could pick the containers up and transport them to South Bend. There were labor & material shortages. It was a very difficult time. In addition, Martin’s Supermarket sold to Spartan-Nash, the city closed LaSalle Avenue for 6 months. We kept working, and completed a wonderful building. We opened the grocery store about 3 weeks after LaSalle Avenue opened up. Some of the businesses on LaSalle closed and couldn’t survive the street construction. It was a difficult time.

We learned how to run a grocery store (we have plenty more to learn). The grocery store has been open every day since January 9, 2024. We built a beautiful pharmacy in the Commerce Center for Healthy U Rx.

We had delays, but we stuck with it, because our whole team believes in the work we are doing to improve the East Bank neighborhood and build up South Bend.

Now I need your help. With the mayor’s administration trying to control the City Council by preventing them from discussing the resolution. We need the council to see and hear support from voters throughout South Bend. Please use the form below to send a letter to the City Council.

Where, When
Please join us on Monday, June 10th at 4pm and 7pm on the 4th floor of the County-City building in the Common Council chambers.

County City Building
227 W Jefferson Blvd, 4th floor
South Bend, IN 46601 

Time: 4pm & 7pm

In person is best, but you can also attend virtually, via Microsoft Teams. 4pm – Teams link, 7pm – Teams link.

It’s critically important that we have a great turn out for these two meetings. Please join, and please bring friends. Please use the form at the bottom of the page here to send a letter to our city council members showing your support.

Thank you,

David Matthews
(574) 500 – 2520