05-18-2007 Studebaker building to get $14 million rehabilitation

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o�sou TH F dx :J b W eFacE � � y� a 1, a2 1865 Office of the Mayor NEWS RELEASE May 18, 2007 11:45 a.m. Studebaker building to get $14 million rehabilitation Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications&Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876- 1564, Jennifer Laurent, City Planner, 235-9336, or Todd Zeiger, Director, Northern Regional Office, Historic Landmarks Foundation oflndiana, 232-4534 The former Studebaker Administration building, administrative offices from 1969 to 2006 for South Bend's public schools, will get a$14 million renovation and restoration from a Utah developer to prepare the century-old facility as a high-tech office building. Mayor Stephen J. Luecke announced an agreement today among the city's Redevelopment Commission and Board of Public Works with Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, the South Bend Community School Corp. and the Heritage Restoration and Development Group LLC of Salt Lake City. The agreement will result in the adaptive reuse of the local historic landmark as a multi- tenant, high-tech office building. "There is no greater symbol of South Bend's 201h_century manufacturing heritage than the Studebaker Administration building. With this announcement, this landmark building will become a new symbol for the high-tech transformation that is occurring in South Bend today," Luecke said. "Where once decisions were made about what kind of Studebakers would speed along America's 201'-century highways, now there will be another high-speed on ramp to the information superhighway of the 21" century." A rich vein of transcontinental fiber optic lines runs through South Bend along railroad lines and the Indiana Toll Road. Union Station,just across the New York Central and Grand Trunk Western railroad viaduct from the Studebaker building, serves as one of the hubs of that network. Since 2003, Union Station has been a home to Global Access Point, a private firm that provides a world-class hub for digital information, accommodating more than 90,000-square feet of computer data center space.