Studebaker admin building to be rehabilitated with $4 million in private and city funds

SOUTH BEND — The Studebaker Administration Building has sat vacant for 19 years. Its windows are boarded up, the roof is damaged, and there’s lead and asbestos in the building.

The city’s redevelop ment commission approved an agreement Thursday, July 25 to deal with these concerns and get the building up to basic safety standards. Under the agreement, the redevelopment commission would contribute $825,000 of tax increment finance money for lead and asbestos identification and abatement.

Businessma n Kevin Smith , who has invested in the surrounding area with his Renaissance District project , will contribute $3.3 million. This money will replace the roof and replace broken windows with polycarbonate sheets to make the building resistant to extreme weather conditions.

The 120,000-square-foot building was originally built in 1909, just five years after Studebaker began making gasoline cars. It served as the automaker’s headquarters until 1963 . From 1970 to 2005, the building housed the headquarters of the South Bend Community School Corporation .

The Phoenix-based company Dudley Ventures currently owns the four-story building, at 635 S. Main St., south of Four Winds Field at Coveleski Stadium . Smith felt called to get involved because he was working on other projects in the neighborhood , including Studebaker Building 84 , which is right across the street on Lafayette Boulevard.

“I've been caring for the admin building for 10 years, though I haven't owned it,” Smith said. “It needs action now … and I'm willing to do that and jump in.”

The agreement will only authorize repairs on the building that will stave off deterioration; no further redevelopment is formally planned. A resident raised concerns about the project exposing taxpayers to unnecessary risk in case the building cannot be redeveloped.

In response, Caleb Bauer, executive director of community investment for the city, said that if the building was left as it is, the city could be ordered to demolish it in around 10 to 15 years. At that point, the city would likely be required to mitigate damage from lead and asbestos before demolition anyway.

“The thinking here is, ‘Would we rather do this now to potentially stabilize and stay safe? Or defer that cost and ultimately incur it at some point in the future?’” Bauer said.

In 2018, Smith presented a project that would convert the building into office space for Press Ganey . Back then, he estimated that it would cost $28 million to redevelop the site. These plans ultimately didn’t materialize, but Smith envisions that the building will someday be part of a "southern gateway" to downtown, irrespective of the form it takes.

“There’s that piece from Sample Street where you can feel the old Studebaker presence …. I want people to feel the new Studebaker presence,” Smith said.

Email Tribune staff writer Angela Mathew at amathew@sbtinfo.com .

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Studebaker admin building to be rehabilitated with $4 million in private and city funds