Hi.

I'm Jeff Rea, your host for Economic Outlook.

Thanks for joining us.

Each week as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives with a panel of experts.

The area west of Four Winds field in downtown South Bend could change dramatically in the next few years as the Western Avenue Transformation District moves forward.

We'll dive deeper into the project and tell you more about what to expect and how this key project will provide more affordable housing opportunities for the city.

Coming up on today's show.

News broke recently about the Western Avenue Transformation District, a community revitalization plan that will transform that area between Four Winds Field and the Kroc Center in downtown South Bend.

Joining me today to talk more about this great project.

And some others are Rose Meissner, the president of the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County, and Aaron Perri the vice president of Community Impact.

Also at the Community Foundation, Saint Joseph County.

Welcome, guys.

Thanks for being here today.

So, Rose, let me come your way.

You're a no stranger.

You've been with us.

Thank you for coming back.

I was glad when a guest is willing to come back a second time.

We'll try to go easy on you again today.

Tell us quickly about Community foundation.

What you do?

Sure.

One of the community foundation is a charitable endowment, which means we raise money, invest the money, and then give the earnings a way to support all manner of causes to improve life in Saint Joseph County.

Interestingly, we got started in 1992, in response to a brand new initiative that Lilly Endowment announced called Gift Giving Indiana Funds for tomorrow.

So, Lilly Endowment was the spark for us 32 years ago.

And much of what we have to talk about today is a result of that giving Indiana Funds for tomorrow initiative.

Great.

And we could talk for hours about all the important things you've impacted the community.

We're excited to talk for.

On Aaron.

You're relatively new to the community Foundation, but no stranger to the community.

Tell us about, your role there.

Yeah.

So I'm knocking on the door of a year at the Community Foundation now and couldn't be more pleased to join the team.

My area of responsibility primarily primarily oversees the program team, which, is responsible for awarding grants to our, wonderful nonprofit community.

As well as working with our scholarship and education initiatives.

We oversee, quite a few, scholarships that we give out annually as well as, really work closely with our local high schools and colleges on the 21st Century Scholar Initiative, trying to get students, free access to free college and education.

Great.

Well, both doing some important work.

So.

Thank you.

So, so, Rose, when I, when I start to think about recent years, community impact, I think of the library is an example of sort of the community foundation asking the community to reimagine and such.

And then and now you're you're sort of moving in a different direction.

But I think with a similar thing, how do we think bigger?

So start talking just a little bit about, Western Avenue and what got you excited about that area there?

Yeah, Jeff.

And actually the analogy I see between those two projects is when we talk to the library about dreaming bigger about the downtown branch.

It was really coming up with an idea that, allowed something much more wonderful to happen by pooling and leveraging resources than anyone could do by themselves.

The Community foundation has long been aware of the growing crisis in terms of affordable housing, but the scale of that problem was so large we couldn't really get our heads around what to do that would make a difference.

And referring to the Lilly Endowment, they about a year ago announced gift eight, their eighth round and they Township Community Foundation to pick a community leadership project and pitch a proposal for $10 million.

And that's what we did.

We combined what is a clear and urgent need with the opportunity to collaborate with some wonderful organizations.

We started the conversation with Caleb Bower and his team at the city of South Bend, and we waited patiently and eagerly for the arrival of Marsha Pom Green, who's the new leader of the Housing Authority of South Bend.

Quickly put our heads together and came up with a very what we thought was a very compelling proposal.

And apparently Lilly Endowment did too.

We were successful in, securing not only $10 million Lilly endowment grant, but are also anticipating a $3.6 million ready investment in the project.

Ready 2.0.

Great.

Hope maybe for our viewers less familiar with just kind of the neighborhood there you've been around for for a little while.

And so explain more about the kind of the neighborhood where this work is going to happen.

Yeah.

So the Western Avenue Transformation District is immediately adjacent to for Wednesfield.

So people will be familiar with some of the housing authority properties that have been there historically, including some of them that have been recently demolished and the soon to be demolished Rabbi Shulman Tower.

The thought is, the project that Rose was describing is that that, whole series of blocks, there could be redeveloped in a, in a nature that, doesn't look like your traditional housing authority property, but more like a neighborhood of which we would all be proud.

Could be some mixed use involved with it and certainly complement a lot of the economic development happening in the immediate area.

Let's talk a little bit about just approaching the housing authority, their reception, when you sort of early on said, let's, let's dream bigger about what could happen here.

Oh, I have nothing but praise for Marsha Palm Green because she could have easily have waved us off and said, look, I need to settle in here a bit.

But what's really exciting about the Western Avenue Transformation District is that it's happening in the context of South Bend Vision 2045, so we already know the city is lined up over $1 billion of investment in downtown and it's a critical moment to make sure that the housing options work for all of our community.

This isn't, as Aaron was saying, this isn't about coming up with 208 more units.

It's about sparking a new neighborhood that's intentionally mixed income and intentionally desirable, where people of all incomes and backgrounds will eagerly choose to live.

Unless here for a second.

This, we've touched on previous shows, but but just this need for affordable housing and I think is is the neighborhood you describe there has got a high concentration of of housing there in some disrepair.

The decision to to demolish it and just speak a second to the need for affordable housing in in in really our area in the broader region.

Yeah.

A part of working on this entire initiative has been kind of zooming out and saying, what?

How do we quantify the need?

And so we just completed, a regional housing study, which talks about, by the way, when we say the region, of course, we know that's, Saint Joe, Elkhart and Marshall counties.

And that kind of quantifies, a production total, bottom line that we need, approximately 16,000 new units in our region over the next decade.

That hill is, is, is a big one to climb.

But some of these initiatives that we're talking about today will help put a dent in that for sure.

I want to come back to you and and talk Lily specifically for a second because because I think, maybe a little background context.

This Lily foundation is impacting all kinds of things across Indiana.

As you said, it was a catalyst for starting things here.

Talk to us a little bit about Lily and how important it is to advance projects like this in communities.

Well, as I mentioned, this is our eighth round of participating in the Gift initiative.

I think I'm speaking truthfully when I say the Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County never left one dime on the table.

We we went for the maximum that Lily endowment offered, and we've achieved it in every case.

The thing is that Lily doesn't just hand out the money.

They challenge us to think about what the community needs are and how do we find that alignment, that mission alignment between ourselves and other entities to make something happen much bigger than would have happened without that spark?

I'm going to stick with you for a second.

One of our guests a few weeks ago, when we were talking housing, talked about this kind of patchwork quilt of funding that had to come together and that, that you sort of had to get all the dominoes, lined up before.

And you mentioned a few of the, you know, the other dominoes, but but, that's not easy work.

That's what you do.

Speaks a little bit to the trying to build the partnership and get all of the, the pieces, to come together while often when we go for these very ambitious initiatives, we're also assessing the strength of our partners.

You really need the right people on the bus and, I, I'm very impressed by Caleb Bauer and his team at the Department of Community Investment.

Marshall was ready, willing and able.

We're working with a couple of consultants who are deeply knowledgeable about public housing, HUD.

And then, are very the housing authority is very close to, hiring a developer for this project that has a proven track record in developing mixed income housing.

And again, this is something where 30% of the units will be for housing authority residents, 40% will be affordable units.

So workforce, subsidized housing and 30% will be market rate.

And when you drive a one mile radius around it, look how close that property is.

Not only to four winds field in the crack center, but to Howard Park to the Marsh Performing Arts Center, to those new jobs that Memorial will create with their new patient tower, to the library.

So there's a lot of amenities that just make this stack up to something that we think is going to be a very successful new neighborhood.

Great, guys.

We're gonna take a quick break here.

We'll, we'll we'll be right back.

I am downtown, South Bend, just west of Four Winds Field.

And I'm joined today by Marsha Parham Green.

Marsha, thank you for being with us.

It is my pleasure.

Marsha, you are the CEO and director of the Housing Authority of the City of South Bend.

Would you tell our viewers a little bit about that organization and what its role is?

Absolutely.

So the Housing Authority of the City of South Bend is here to provide affordable housing to low income residents in the city of South Bend and we we have nine campuses throughout the city, and we have over 200 scattered site houses in the city to provide those housing opportunities for our residents.

So we are filming today in your central offices, which are the administrative level of the organization.

And we are surrounded by one of your sites.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

And so tell us about this site and what its primary role is in your organization or what community it is historically served.

So this site is called the Westcott Apartments and is serving, low income elderly and disabled families.

So we have this building that has 147 units, and we have 54 units attached in on the campus, again, for elderly family members, single and single elderly.

And the historic piece of it is we've been here since 1967.

And, there was a community across the street that also housed families.

So it was very, a campus for families.

And it was really a community that we were serving.

And, the most important thing is that we maintain it and keep it for the for the residents.

Yeah.

And as I drove in today, I have never been back into the community.

I've driven near it, whether it's going to the Kroc Center or going to the park.

So I'm aware of the neighborhood, but I never really spent any time kind of driving through its driveways and access streets, but that I did as I did today.

I did notice I got that sense of campus.

That's a great way to put it.

And so, as we think about the campus and we see some of the changes that have happened in your neighborhood, including the ball park and some of the traffic and, and opportunity that has created.

Tell me about a plan to maybe grow your campus and grow your community.

Absolutely.

So we have a plot of land that used to house a campus called Inner Circle.

Because the campus was not up to par meeting standards.

We demolished that campus in 2022.

And the building in front of it that you saw from Western Avenue, was another elderly, disabled building.

It was an apartment, four story apartment complex that is boarded up, and we are going to demolish that in the hopes of bringing additional, more density to the area.

And new, replacing that those structures with a new campus that will serve, low income families and create affordable housing opportunities.

So we're going to have mixed income and we're going to have mixed use.

Okay.

So when we talk about mixed income, mixed use, I wanted to focus on that a bit.

You came to this organization about a year ago, way before you went on camera.

You talked about, I believe you were previously in Baltimore, Maryland.

But tell us, in your experience, what is the value of bringing those mixed communities together as opposed to, you know, single style communities where you're only housing one type of resident or one demographic of a society?

Absolutely.

So most people think of, affordable housing is for low income families, that are living below the poverty line.

When you create affordable housing in this day and age, you want to include everyone in your school teachers, your police officers, your firemen all fit into that category of low income families that need support for for housing and need to have something that is affordable.

You know, it's not just for low income, poverty below the poverty line individuals.

So it's exciting when you mix those two populations and then you also mix, other that don't need assistance in that mix of, housing on a campus because they, they can they can learn from each other.

So they learn.

And you're not, concentrating poverty.

No.

Nothing happened.

Good.

When you concentrate poverty.

Yeah.

And not only that, but I think what your studies have realized, at least in my very, very, you know, basic level understanding of, of the housing, plans and what can help our housing, grow is people tend to rise inside of a community, not drop.

And so if you have opportunity to commingled people of different, income levels and experiences and educations and other things, they all learn from each other, don't they?

Absolutely.

And I like to, as a housing authority director and as an entity, give people a hand up instead of a handout.

There you go.

That's a great way of putting it.

Now, as a final question, do you know a timeline for when you think this kind of new community, just to the west of the ballpark, might be around?

We don't have a timeline as of yet, but we should we should have a timeline later this year.

We're just at the very early stages.

We were just selected a developer, and we haven't had the opportunity to build that timeline, but it will be coming soon.

Definitely.

Awesome.

So it is going to be a public private partnership with a developer?

Absolutely.

It's going to be a public private partnership.

The community foundation and also the city of South Bend has been a very equal partner in this.

I'm transformation of Western Avenue, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Well, thank you again for letting us in.

Thank you for showing us around a little bit and giving us a sneak preview into what the plans are.

Very exciting stuff and I wish you nothing but the best.

Thank you so much.

Thanks to you also for joining us today to learn a little bit more about how South Bend and our other communities are looking to redevelop and reinvigorate certain neighborhoods that have long been forgotten.

All right, we're back in the studio.

We're talking about the Western Avenue Transformation District.

As we were going to break, we talked a little bit about just kind of, a lot of the development happening in the neighborhoods, the amenities that, that, that new residents are going to be able just build on that a little bit.

Well, yeah.

Not it's not only kind of what's in the immediate vicinity, but the development itself, I think will be amenity rich, making it a place that's, where people, people really want to live.

The plan as it exists today construe some sort of greenspace, in there.

So if you know me, I love parks and and, spaces like that.

So, developing that and pulling on that string.

In fact, there used to be a park in that immediate area before the Kroc Center came along.

And so it'd be nice to restore a park back to that neighborhood as well as, perhaps some ground floor space that could be an amenity to the residents.

Not exactly sure what that might look like, because we don't know exactly who's going to live there.

However, that will be an important part of the plan as well.

Great.

Rosa, come back your way and maybe just of the nuts and bolts about the project a little bit, you know, number of units.

You mentioned seeking a developer time frame.

Give our viewers a chance to understand some of that.

Yeah.

So right now, it's envisioned as a 208 unit, neighborhood that will be a variety of different buildings that span Western and Taylor and a little and across the street as well.

And some city owned property.

The first step and people will know things are happening and hopefully sometime in the summer or in the coming months, we'll see the Rabbi Sherman building come down to prepare the site.

And if all goes as planned, this new neighborhood will be ready for new residents.

In the summer of 2028.

So it's not some distant, twinkle in the eye.

We're going to start seeing progress, in the coming months here and come your way.

Just just general, let's call it community reaction.

So far, this is a pretty major change.

There's been a lot of housing, several different kinds of units over in that bear.

What's what's the reception from the community been like so far?

Yeah.

Well, I think this particular project's important.

It's important part of the whole downtown landscape.

It's certainly important to, individuals who, have been seeking and desiring affordable housing.

But this is only one project in the context of of a much larger initiative.

And in fact, Rose mentioned, the Lilly Endowment Grant.

That was $10 million for this project.

There's an additional $20 million that was awarded as part of that, this gift, for a total of 30 million going into affordable and attainable housing initiatives.

We're really excited about forming the South Bend Elkhart Regional Housing Collaborative.

This is a new, collaborative that will be in place, effectively, as we envision it, in perpetuity, to help make sure that we have an adequate supply of safe and attainable housing for our residents in all three counties.

I love hear that.

It just a few weeks ago, we talked a lot about affordable housing and just the, you know, kind of, not a one size fits all fit.

But with rising construction cost, it is very hard to do affordable.

And so having the infusion of dollars like, like Lilly and others are doing is, is a, I think really helped do that.

So so so look forward a little bit on that.

You know again we're talking by 2028 or so having this done if, if we were if we were sitting with you in 2028 and celebrating the finish, what, help, what does success look like to you?

Well, it's exciting to think that there will be, new residents that will.

It's not just about having roofs over their heads, but as the community foundation has a better understanding of who's going to live there, we'll use our relationships with the nonprofit community and the educational community and, and others to make sure that the needs of the, of the residents are met.

And then we all know, in the bigger context of the downtown, I've been coming downtown to work for over 30 years.

30 years ago, you wouldn't want to come downtown after five on Friday or on a weekend, because you'd be the only person there.

And what we just need is a lot more people.

We need to build a thriving neighborhood community.

People want downtown amenities.

They want to be there.

They want to see their neighbors and get to know each other.

And I really think this is going to be a great contribution to that longer term vision for downtown South Bend.

You know, it's a build a, I think, a wonderful model, great partnership, lots of, different funding sources to help Aaron build on on this vision for the broader community as you as you build this new, regional kind of effort, who are, who are some of the key people that, that, that are or should be at the table to kind of help, make sure that initiative is successful?

Yeah.

I'm glad you asked, Jeff, because, this is going to require a huge cross-section of the community.

In fact, even in writing the grant and kind of envisioning what this could be, we had to bring a lot of folks around the table.

The success of this initiative is not only going to depend on, the efforts that that we do at the Community Foundation.

In fact, our, our role is probably small, just being able to bring some resources to the table.

The local development community is going to be a critical player in this as well as, a key key component or a nonprofit developer.

So you think of our community development corporations, habitats and otherwise, they're going to be incredible.

Our, our county and city officials are going to be important, pieces of the puzzle because they're going to have to enact, various pieces of local legislation to help make these things possible.

And, then, of course, residents and in of themselves being engaged with the process and kind of understanding what kind of new inventory programs and products are out there available for them to engage with.

Yeah, I, I love the partnership and really want to give a chance to talk a little bit more because when I go back to the library, for example, I think, again, this, this you've got a lot of dominoes to line up and a lot of partners to, to pull in the same direction.

You mentioned the city and and is we talk housing, affordable housing.

Couple weeks ago they said southend's the gold standard.

A little bit, talk about how critical kind of the public private foundation dollars are to sort of help advance this.

Yeah.

You know, I just keep thinking when we when we make these very big plays, it really requires those critical partners to just say yes.

With the library that there would have been 101 reasons that deputy could have explained why what we were discussing just wasn't possible.

Same thing could have happened here that the Housing authority could have said, this isn't the right time.

James turn.

While that may cog, who is a critical partner in this whole, regional housing collaborative, could have said that the dance card was fall and people didn't they?

They got behind a vision and we ended up persuading Lillian Diamond.

And we got the largest grant that Lilly awarded through this initiative, because of the strength of the partners that came together.

Great.

And you're going to come here?

You know, I was just I was at the statehouse, earlier, and there's a ton of conversation about housing and everybody's trying to figure out.

And I think they're they're trying to figure out if there's a government solution to all of this.

But it seems like we found sort of a maybe a better solution, as we're talking about where the government, government, government plays an important role.

But the private sector as well, to speak in our last minute and a half or so, about that.

Yeah, I mean, it is going to be, a multi-tiered approach to help make these things happen.

I think all of the good, solutions that we come up with, any difficult problems in our community requires a great mix of philanthropy, government and private sector to help make these things possible.

But this this particular initiative, I think we've got a recipe that is going to be, able to be repeated throughout the state, and particularly with our land bank that that endeavors to, rescue and reintroduce, vacant, abandoned and blighted properties in our community and turn those into, attainable housing units.

And that'll help be supplemented through this new regional affordable housing investment fund.

Were enthusiastic about introducing these tools over the coming months, and, look forward to seeing some shovels in the ground and, and people on new homes in.

Yeah, I think so.

And and Rosa, as we wrap up our last minute, just, you know, kind of critical if if folks are seeking affordable opportunities.

My guess is plug watch kind of community foundation housing authority.

How do they how will they keep up with, how this is moving?

Well, with the new neighborhood on Western Avenue, the developer will also manage the property once it's open.

So, the housing authority will help connect its clients with, units, including some of the clients that were displaced when Monroe Circle and Rabbi Schulman, vacated.

So I stay tuned.

It's obviously going to take a little bit of time, but I think that as these units come online, people will find out how to learn what they need to know.

Awesome.

Terrific project.

Thank you both for being here.

Thanks for your leadership on helping the community think about think differently about housing.

This is going to be a great thing for our community.

Thanks, Joe.

That's it for our show today.

Thank you for watching our night or listening to our podcast Find Economic Outlook at W knit.org, YouTube, or on most major podcast platforms like us on Facebook.

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I'm Jeffrey, I'll see you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.