11-14-11 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING NOVEMBER 14, 2011 Mr. Frank Perri, residing at 234 S. Coquillard, South Bend, Indiana, d/b/a Earth Designs Real Estate, LLC, 3617 E. McKinley, South Bend, Indiana, made the presentation for this bill. Mr. Perri advised that he has been involved trying to acquire and develop this parcel for approximately nine (9) years. Previous to his current ownership which took place approximately three (3) years ago, was involved in trying to purchase the property from the former owner of the Target store. He stated that it was a Canadian owned company. Mr. Perri stated that he came close to a deal but didn’t quite make one. At that time it would have been the entire twenty-five (25) acres and they would have been before the City Council with a similar type of PUD, only more expansive in the fact that they would have twenty-six (26) acres and they would have had to had some re-designs and reuse for the current 120,000 square foot building that sits on the site. He stated that there have been a lot of market conditions since purchasing the property. He stated that when he had taken ownership, the tenant Steve & Barry’s was a viable business. Since that time they vacated and the company has since gone under and unfortunately the property has seen a lot of vandalism, tagging and theft. He stated that it is unfortunate, but it is what happens when you have a deteriorating condition. He stated that he has been unable to attract the kind of infrastructure investment from the City of South Bend necessary to do what he would really like to do which is a large residential development, probably mixed types, single-family and multi-family uses. Mr. Perri stated that after purchasing the property it has a CB zoning, Community Business. Community Business zoning has been in place since 2004, and prior to that it had both a commercial zoning and a multi- family zoning so it does have history for a multi-family and commercial both on this site. He stated that he believed developing it as a commercial site would be more detrimental to the neighborhood than in fact most of the plans that he is presenting tonight under the single-family and multi-family uses. He stated that he could put the property closer to the neighbors and could build as high as 50’. He stated that he feels that would be detrimental and his intent is not to be detrimental; his intent is to develop market rate product as well as his can to meet the market needs. He did a market analysis of the surrounding properties of both the commercial and residential properties and unfortunately we are in a bit of a declining market. Now that is partially due to current market conditions but as a backdrop that has been one of the difficulties that he has had in trying to attract capital to the site. He stated that he needs the PUD zoning because he has to have flexibility in design. The flexibility allows him to do a number of different development types, such as mixed single family maybe with some duplexes; and some multi-family. That will allow for greater market desirability and possibly a feasible plan of investment. Mr. Perri stated that even in the best of circumstances, larger parcels of this type are difficult to develop in just one plan, one concept. A plan quite often cannot be fifteen acres in size which is very large. He stated that he is going to anticipate and plan to do this over a number of phases. Mr. Perri stated that Ms. Nayder mentioned that it would be done in three (3) phases. He stated that his hope is to do it over a course of five years, it could take longer. He stated that he doesn’t want to mislead anyone into believing that this is a short term fix. Mr. Perri stated that he does believe that he can attract capital in one of two major areas that have shown interest those being self-storage units and in the senior housing multi-family part of the plan. Mr. Perri stated that there has been interest in those and is currently working on those. He stated that he has had five concept plans presented prior and they all represent what could have been uses for the property based on a plan if not for some of the economics and some of the markets conditions. He stated that some of the most viable one is one that could have been a single duplex development which would have required the City of South Bend to invest some $975,000 in order to build infrastructure, water, sewer and curbs. He stated that however, financing being what they are and he certainly understands that, it is not available to any properties that aren’t in TIF areas. This property is not in a TIF area. That plan had a lot of attention from local builders and they still continue to be in contact with them over the hope that they may still one day put in that mix of single and duplex properties. Mr. Perri noted that he has also shown site plans that show the current storage in combination with some single and duplex housing. He stated that is his current focus to try and bring in some development money into this project. Mr. Perri noted that when fully built out, the investment would range from 10-15 million dollars. He stated that he 6