Inwoods Building, vacant since 1999, to get facelift

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The Inwoods Building, located at 425 S. Michigan Ave. in downtown South Bend, was built in the 1920s as a Sears-Roebuck store.

In 1949, it became the Inwoods Grocery Store for about 40 years. However, the building has been vacant for a quarter century. Now, it is getting a facelift.

"We're getting ready to renovate it and put it back into service for the community," said Sarah Hill of Penny Hill Properties, LLC.

The building has laid vacant since 1999.

"The building is salvageable," said Erik Glavich, director of growth and opportunity for the City of South Bend's department of community investment. "They've put in a lot of work to clean, make sure that it's primed for redevelopment, and fortunately, despite all the water damage, the bones are good, the bricks are good, the exterior is great, and we're really excited to be able to support their project and bring new life to this long-vacant building."

Hill is looking to create a mixed-use development of commercial space and some kind of "art market."

"The first floor is where our main focus is going to be," Hill said. "We just really want to put it back into service and continue the block so that there's stuff everywhere, different destinations for people to come to. It's a large building so there's a lot of potential for a variety of things to be on that first floor. We're hoping for a restaurant, some commercial spaces, and then places for our existing artists and creators."

Alec Hoogland owns Highland Studio & Gallery, two doors down from the Inwoods Building in the attached Monroe Arts Building.

"Art has always existed here, and life has always existed here, but for some reason it's kind of taken a back seat. So it's nice to see some new breath into it," Hoogland said. "I think it's super important to bring the arts and revitalize this area. I think it gets left out of the conversation of South Bend a lot."

The first step of the nearly $1.5 million investment is cleaning out all the debris.

"We're excited that Penny Hill is going to be rehabbing the lower levels," Glavich said. "It will activate that space, the storefront will be open to the street, will bring foot traffic down to South Michigan Avenue. That block has really struggled for a long time, and the city is excited to be able to support projects like this that's going to reactivate, bring vibrancy to the neighborhood."

It's on a block where South Bend's homeless population is particularly visible. That's a challenge for business owners as the city works to create a low-barrier intake shelter for the unhoused.

"I don't even think about the challenges so much because all I see here is where it's going to be in two years," Hill said.

Hill is just one of several developers eyeing this part of the city, looking to bring life back into old buildings.

"I just love historic properties, I have always been drawn to them, and I really believe in South Bend and creating destinations in South Bend that we all want to go to," Hill said.

The South Bend Common Council must approve a 2-year vacant building tax abatement and a 10-year mixed-use development real property tax abatement for the project to go forward.