07/16/07 Council Special Meeting Minutes

Home Browse Search

SPECIAL MEETING JULY 16, 2007 just to succeed for five or ten years, but for decades to come. That is why the scale of this project is so important. Reducing the scale of this project would doom it to failure. A small scale project simply cannot sustain a thriving retail environment that serves both the community and the University of Notre Dame staff and students. It is in no one's interest, especially the local residents to undertake a project that ten years from now fails because of lack of scale. This project needs to succeed from day one, to do so; it needs it to have sufficient scale to hold the drift of consumers to the northeast and to pull them back towards the center of South Bend. Eddy Street Commons will be almost literally at Notre Dame's front door. He noted for the record, that it is not and will not be Notre Dame's only involvement with the City and the citizens of the South Bend. Most obviously, they are working with both the City and the State on a new innovation park "A Technology Incubator." They are involved in Downtown South Bend Ina (DTSB) and have a downtown center which houses their community relations office as well as outreach operations for the School of Architecture, the Department of Art History and Design, The Snite Museum and the Institute for Latino Studies. The Law School maintains legal aid clinics in the area and the Business School offers tax help to residents. There are a myriad of other ways that the University interacts, and clearly Notre Dame and South Bend must stay connected. He thanked the Council for the opportunity to speak tonight on behalf of the Common's Project. He stated that he if fully aware that the Council does not have to vote on this issue tonight, but encourage them to do so, because even a small delay in the project now could lead to large problems down the road. Leases to the various merchants in the Eddy Street Commons are premised on completion of the buildings in the spring of 2009. Failure to meet this deadline means that the retail stores will miss the Fall 2009 season, the most important time of the year for them. As a result if the deadlines cannot be met, they will use some of the prospective tenants, consequently timely action on this proposal is crucial. Every project has risks; this decision has large ramifications everyone is looking at South Bend. Is this a place where private enterprise can invest, is this a place where private enterprise can grow and succeed? Everyone is looking at us. The University has much at stake in the success of this project as the City of South Bend, it is at their front door. They are equally committed to this being as successful as the city is; and equally concerned about the architectural controls; equally concerned about students living in the area. The University because of the nature of their industry is not leaving South Bend. Notre Dame is in South Bend, Indiana and they are not going anywhere, they are here for the next 100, 200, 300 years. They have as much committed to the success of this project as the City does, and are equally concerned about all of the issue that have been raised. But there comes a time when one has to take a decision, when one has to say, is this the type of development that we want as a City and want as a Community. He urged the Council very respectfully to consider all the information that has been presented, contemplate what the Council wants for the City of South Bend. He stated that they know what they want for the University of Notre Dame, they want this project, and hoped that they will be able to vote for this project, because time is very, very important. Mr. David M Compton, Vice-President, Kite Realty Group, 30 S. Meridian, Indianapolis, Indiana, stated that he will cover the changes and evolutions that have happened since the last meeting of the Council and the three questions that were brought up at the Zoning and Annexation Committee. He noted that the plan has evolved over a 30 year period. The last seven years being very important in its evolution. Today, they enjoy the support of the NNRO and the NENC. One question that was brought up was that of Kite Realty Groups experience. Kite has over 40 years of retail construction, development and leasing experience in the Central Indiana Area and now across the country and became a real estate investment trust in 2004. Kite currently operates 53 shopping centers and an additional 12 properties are under development. In the area of mixed use development this is a relatively new venture for Kite. They currently have three developments currently in process, one in Delray Beach, Florida, one in Cary North Carolina and the proposed Eddy Street Commons Development. As with any company the composition of a team is the key to its success. They believe with the inclusion of LRK as part of the team as well as the other team members is the best to go forth and execute the plan before the Council today. Buckingham Companies are a For Rent Residential Partner based out of Indianapolis founded in 1984. They own or manage