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REGULAR MEETING December 12, 2016
<br />Mr. Matthews responded that he and his team care about the City, that they want to get a grocery
<br />store and pharmacy downtown, but that they had been working on the project for half a year. He
<br />asked, Do we want to do it, or not? If we don't want to do it, okay, we'll go build other stuff in
<br />the neighborhood. The building is leased up; we'll keep renting it. He stated, though, that he and
<br />Council had an opportunity, right then, to move forward with the project.
<br />Councilmember Davis asked Mr. Matthews if the project, when first proposed, was at seven (7)
<br />stories in height, to which Mr. Matthews responded yes. Mr. Matthews explained that when
<br />South Bend was applying for the Regional Cities grant, he submitted a letter that included two
<br />(2) paragraphs explaining the general idea of the project. When the region was awarded the
<br />Regional Cities grant, he had to update the math —at which point Rob Bartels contributed a letter
<br />of support. Mr. Matthews stated that that was when the project grew much larger.
<br />Councilmember Davis then asked Mr. Matthews why in 2013 he was opposed to a similarly
<br />against -plan development, but now had done a one - hundred and eighty degree (180 °) turn.
<br />Mr. Matthews responded, Frank Perri and Tom Panzica proposed on the old Wharf site —south
<br />of Colfax, next to the river; that triangular sandlot that's been vacant for sixteen (16) years. They
<br />went to the ABZA —not the City Council —and asked for a height variance to go taller. They
<br />increased the height limit from sixty (60) feet to almost one - hundred (100). That's not the zoning
<br />authority: the City Council is. So, we went to Mishawaka, Osceola, some South Bend reps, and
<br />some County reps and said, "Hey, in downtown South Bend, is it okay to build a suburban -like
<br />apartment building with a parking lot around it in the middle of downtown ?" It was a poor urban
<br />design, and it was the wrong people to ask. The City Council should decide if it's changing.
<br />Councilmember Davis asked if Mr. Perri and Mr. Panzica had brought the project to the City
<br />Council, would Mr. Matthews have relented his protest. Mr. Matthews responded that if the
<br />project had been brought to the Council, and had been more pedestrian friendly instead of "a
<br />couple of towers in a sea of parking," he would not have objected to it. He stated that everything
<br />about the project motivated him to speak against it.
<br />Councilmember Davis stated that in reading Mr. Matthews' testimonial from that time, he did
<br />not see any mention of protest against those particular details of the project. Councilmember
<br />Davis noted an emphasis on ideas of density and other factors similar to those present in Mr.
<br />Matthews' own project. Mr. Matthews stated that he could not recall what precisely he had said
<br />on record, but that after Mr. Perri had gotten his project approved by the ABZA, Mr. Matthews
<br />brought two (2) projects to the ABZA that were subsequently denied by the ABZA.
<br />Councilmember Voorde stated that though he appreciated the alternatives presented by Mr.
<br />Matthews, he did not think that it was productive to negotiate those alternatives at a Council
<br />meeting. He stated, I want to focus on the garage and to make sure that I understand the
<br />alternatives. The number of living units in each one of these proposals varies. Obviously, if
<br />you're talking about one - hundred and twenty -seven (127) feet, you're talking about one - hundred
<br />and forty -four (144) or one - hundred and sixty -eight (168) units, right? The cost to the City to
<br />help you make this financially feasible is either a $4,700,000 or $4,100,000 contribution to help
<br />you build the garage?
<br />Mr. Matthews responded that a better way of looking at it is that the City approved the East Bank
<br />Plan and said that they would pay for the garage. He stated, It's been eight (8) years. A recession
<br />hit, the hospital left town, a high school moved in —the neighborhood's changed. He stated that
<br />the City never built that garage and did not intend to build it; that it knows that a garage is
<br />necessary in order to do any development on the block. The City could then chip in $4,700,000
<br />toward the $12,600,000 they should have spent to build the garage.
<br />Councilmember Voorde responded, In your alternatives —your options—is the garage size
<br />static?
<br />Mr. Matthews responded that if they were building on grass, this would be much easier. The
<br />current parking spaces are booked with the Commerce Center. He stated, If we build a garage,
<br />it's not just building a garage to satisfy the demand of the apartments or the grocery store —it's
<br />building a garage to satisfy the demand of the office workers that are getting displaced when the
<br />grocery store goes in and their ground -floor hundred (100) spots of customer parking comes in.
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