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South Bend redevelopment Commission Special Mee Ong October 10, 1979 2. NEW BUSINESS (continued) b. Professor Stuermer continues.... and surroundings. Our essential plan is to retain the exterior of the building, completely rehabilitate the inside of it.putting in new heating and air conditioning, removing all the,partitions, installing new elevators and new stairs to make it conform to code, and in general to rehabilitate the inside to become a Class "A" office building in the urban area of South Bend. The most im- portant change to the building, would be to set back the existing windows into the building to make an arcade clear around the building. We would have the entrance of the building go completely through the building so that it would go out the back side and tie in with the existing oral and a Transpo System, whichever turns out to be a part of the new mall plan. In any case, the idea that what happens here ties into the old building, is quite evident. It seems important that this kind of structure, whi h is badly needed in the downtown area in terms of office space, should be retained rather than torn down and something else built to take its place.. We have the ked out very carefully the economics of the build- ing and in terms of the trend of today. It will support a m rtgage of about two and a half million dollars. Thi would be about what we would have to spend to bring it Lck into this kind of condition, so that it is eco omically sound. Physically, the building is very sou id and has another fifty (50) years of life in it. It is made of sound reinforced concrete construction. The only problem with it, at this point, is a rather serious leakage around the edge of the roof which sho ld be repaired immediately before more damage is don?, but otherwise it is a sound building both inside and structurally on the exterior skin of the building. We lave also proposed in the recess around the bottom of the building, to have an atrium which would perhaps tie into the architecture of the proposed mall and it would become a public gathering space as you go through the Odd Fellows Building and then project it into the mall with the Transpo building. We have a letter from a v ry important investor backer agreeing to finance thi venture, and as you can see from our proposal, we hav done a feasibility study to indicate that it is eco omically viable. We have had some indication that the -e is a viable tenant for the first floor from a National Food Chain and all in all it looks like there would be no problem in renting the retail space.. As far as timing is concerned, we have no doubt that we can complete our work ahead of schedule and ahead of the cow letion of the mall. -4-