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John H. Oxian, President South Bend and St. Joseph County HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION 227 WEST JEFFERSON BLVD. SOUTH BEND, IN 46601-1830 Phone: 574-235-9798 Fax: 574-235-9578 e-mail: historic@michiana.org A Certified Local Government Staff Report: 312 East La Salle Street I& M Parking Garage February 19, 2004 Karen R. Hammond -Nash, Director This is a very attractive red brick parking garage with steel industrial casement windows and cut stone trim. Its style and design becomes even more pleasing to the eye in comparison to the much younger garages across the river. Some time ago, it was refurbished by at the city's ex- pense. The glass was removed from the windows, but the metal casements are mostly retained. Staff recently learned from CB Richard Ellis that their client, 401 Colfax Place, who has a ground lease on the parking garage and may buy it, is considering its demolition. According to Jaime Wade (CB Richard Ellis), AEP currently owns the parking garage and has not repaired the garage in several years. 401 Colfax Place would rather have a surface lot, which would provide enough parking, than retain the garage. Parking space is restricted to tenants of the Commerce Center, but the tenants are not charged rent for parking. According to Ms. Wade, the parking garage is becoming functionally obsolete, which is not surprising since it has not been kept repaired. The concrete has deteriorated in some interior locations and small pieces have fallen from the ceiling. Some of the steel rebar is showing (See attached photos). The parking garage is also connected to the transformer house. The demolition could potentially damage this building as well. The garage, transformer house, and the Commerce Center building are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the East Bank Multiple Resource District. The parking ga- rage has not received a grant from DHPA in the past five years, so it seems likely that DHPA would consider the building a good candidate. However, because the building has not received state and federal funds in recent history, it would be easier to demolish and even easier with pri- vate funds. Downtown South Bend, Inc also has grant money for improvements made to the facades of buildings in the Central Business District (CBD). A grant could be used to at least refurbish the steel casements. The East Bank may or may not be within the CBD. I am may receive some in- formation regarding repair estimates from CB Richard Ellis. COMMISSIONERS Mary Jane Chase Virginia O'Hair (Secretary) Gerald Ujdak (Vice President) Martha Choitz Lynn A. Patrick Diane Wrobel4lles Catherine Hostetler (Treasurer) Joann Sporleder (Architectural Historian) John Livingston(Attomey)