South Bend agrees to aid multi-million-dollar plans for dinosaur museum, apartment complex
SOUTH BEND — Two multi-million-dollar development projects on different sides of the city will move forward after the South Bend Common Council voted to give the developers money to shore up their plans.
South Bend Chocolate Co. owner Mark Tarner will receive $2.7 million from the city to finish building the Indiana Dinosaur Museum, a new chocolate factory and an accompanying chocolate museum, among other retail stores. In exchange, Tarner agrees to invest at least $15.4 million at his site southwest of the intersection of U.S. 20 and U.S. 31.
On the east side of town, an Idaho-based development firm will save more than $1 million in property taxes over eight years as it transforms a former medical office building into a 69-unit apartment complex. The developer, called ND QOZB LLC, plans to spend $27.6 million to renovate the building at 511 N. Notre Dame Ave., tucked between downtown and the University of Notre Dame.
A dinosaur museum, a chocolate factory and more
Since founding the South Bend Chocolate Co. in 1991, Tarner has spent the past two decades leading it while digging for dinosaur bones at a private site in Montana. Since he announced his intent to open a dinosaur museum, city officials and local tourism agencies have been ardent supporters, even when the project seemed dead because of the pandemic.
“We had no intentions of coming to anybody for any money prior to the COVID, and we’ve done a great job recovering as a company," Tarner said to the Common Council Monday evening. "Of course, in construction, there’s been a lot of inflation. The bulk of the funds are for the dinosaur museum, which is a nonprofit that my wife and I established.”
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The city previously gave Tarner $1.4 million to make infrastructure improvements at the nearly 80-acre site he owns on the northwestern outskirts of South Bend. The total city investment is $4.1 million.
The dinosaur museum and the South Bend Chocolate Co. production plant must be open by June 30, 2024, or Tarner could be forced to return all or a portion of the money to the city, according to the agreement.
The $15.4 million Tarner expects to spend will also go toward a South Bend Public House restaurant, a small farm selling local produce and an interactive trail highlighting the Saint Lawrence River continental divide, which separates the Great Lakes basin from watersheds that drain south to the Atlantic Ocean.
Tarner also expects to create 144 full-time jobs and attract roughly 150,000 visitors a year, though these figures aren't required by the agreement. More than 30,000 vehicles pass by the intersection of U.S. 20 and U.S. 31 daily, according to Acting Director of Community Investment Caleb Bauer.
The dinosaur museum will provide hands-on learning experiences, Tarner said. He said he hopes to avoid the stuffy environments of many museums in favor of models that better hold children's attention while also capturing their imagination.
"We’re going to bring the (dinosaur) bones out and children are going to be able to actually work on a 65-million-year-old bone," he said. "We’re going to bring kind of dusty fossils to life. You’re going to see ancient turtles and you’re going to be able to hold a live tortoise in your hand, and we’ll discuss the connections, the 300 million years of evolution. And I call that part a zoo-seum."
Apartments bridging downtown and Notre Dame
A partnership between two companies based in Utah and Idaho, ND QOZB LLC plans to build a mix of 69 studio and one-bedroom units, 20% of which will be designated to low- or moderate-income tenants.
On average, rent prices will start around $900 for studios and $1,150 for one-bedroom apartments, said Griffin Johnson, the project's lead developer. The goal is to open the complex before the 2023 fall semester.
The four-story complex is to be located at the northwest corner of Cedar Street and Notre Dame Avenue, just north of St. Joseph High School, in an old St. Joseph Regional Medical Center building. The building has been vacant since July 2014. The exterior will be completely redone and the inside of the building completely gutted.
The developer bought the property this June for $2.45 million, county property records show.
Johnson said the eight-year tax abatement plan the Common Council passed Monday, which will cut taxes nearly in half to $1.1 million, is crucial to earning a bank loan for the project. Construction costs have doubled to exceed $10 million since the project's inception, cutting sharply into expected profits.
“From every angle, we’re getting attacked by higher costs, so this will be one thing that helps us a little,” Griffin said of the abatement.
In addition to the apartments, the developer plans to build 25 new owner-occupied townhomes on the north and east perimeters of the parcel. The townhomes aren't set to be part of the tax abatement agreement.
The name ND QOZB LLC references qualified opportunity zone businesses. As part of the 2017 federal tax bill, tax incentives were granted to developers who agreed to invest in "economically depressed" areas determined by state governors. A handful of census tracts in South Bend were designated as such by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, including the area south of Notre Dame's campus.
Email South Bend Tribune city reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jordantsmith09
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Indiana dinosaur museum, apartment complex near Notre Dame move forward
