Four-story, 103-unit apartment building near Notre Dame gets a green light

SOUTH BEND — A developer got an initial green light for a four-story, 103-unit apartment building at the site of the former “Five Corners” intersection just southeast of the University of Notre Dame campus.

In a unanimous vote, the South Bend Plan Commission this week recommended the city Common Council rezone the property for the project being planned by Holladay Properties on the east side of Eddy Street, between Corby Boulevard and Campeau Street.

The plan commission also granted several exceptions from normal zoning rules, after city planners concluded the project would make good use of vacant land and help spur continued growth in South Bend’s northeast side.

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If it moves ahead as planned, the building will sit on vacant land where houses were torn down almost a decade ago to make way for the state project that widened and re-routed a stretch of Eddy Street/Indiana 23.

The plan commission recommended the council rezone the chunk of land to allow mixed uses, including apartment complexes, offices and retail. The current zoning allows only “single-family” houses.

Housing demand near Notre Dame

Holladay vice president Paul Phair said the firm expects continued demand for housing close to Notre Dame and nearby commercial development, especially among graduate students, young adults, empty-nesters and people with professional links to Notre Dame, such as visiting faculty.

“It’s certainly no secret to those of us who live here that Notre Dame is a huge anchor and place people want to be,” Phair said in an interview. “We think it’s a great project, we think it’s pretty appropriate with the dense traffic along State Route 23, the walkability to campus.”

Phair and his father, Holladay chairman John Phair, who spoke during the plan commission meeting, said they heard some concerns from neighborhood residents about the building’s size and effect on parking, but they tweaked the plans to address those points.

After a series of neighborhood meetings, Holladay scaled the project down from five stories to four, reduced the number of apartments from 148 to 103 and increased the number of parking spaces, John Phair told the commission.

The project will have about 145 parking spaces, including 86 in a garage in the building’s ground level.

In one written comment, read aloud during Tuesday’s meeting, a resident asked for the city to add street parking along Campeau to help with increased demand that may come with the complex. A city planner said that would have to be handled by the public works department. In the letter, the resident said he liked the overall idea of the project.

No one else spoke for or against the project Tuesday.

In addition to recommending the rezoning, the plan commission granted several variances that will allow the project to stray from the typical zoning regulations. Planners found those variances would not harm the neighborhood.

For example, one variance will allow the building to be 270 feet long on the west side and about 250 feet long on the north, instead of the normal maximum length of 120 feet for similarly zoned buildings.

Despite the building’s length along Eddy, John Phair said, its multiple angles will make it more appealing than “just one big wall.”

The northern tip of the property, at the corner of Eddy and Corby, will be left vacant for now, but Holladay has plans to build a smaller retail building there in the future.

Paul Phair said he expects the apartment building to cost between $22 million and $25 million.

The council could consider the rezoning as soon as Monday.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend housing: Apartment building near Notre Dame moving ahead