'Make South Bend' goes big, an entire strip mall is now theirs

SOUTH BEND, Ind—Make South Bend, a community art space where local artists can come and create art or shop local art pieces is expanding. Located along Mishawaka Avenue, this art hub is in the heart of the River Park community.

The owners of Make South Bend now own the entire strip mall where the space is located. This new found ownership came from pieces of the building crumbling under previous landlords.

Co-owner Nat Fitzgerald says, “One of the things that kicked us into buying the building was a big four foot chunk of limestone fell off of the facade onto the concrete while we were open.”

Nat and his wife Michelle now own the entire strip mall but the occupied spaces like China House will be staying.

The mall makes up seven spaces and all of them will have a different purpose. One of them will be the expansion of Make South Bend.

Fitzgerald says, "Next to Make South Bend, we're going to actually expand into what was the rest of the Old River Park Library and have like an event space that we can do galleries and pop up events, maybe some cooking classes that. And then with four kind of smaller studios, office spaces, micro boutique spaces in the back.”

Part of the reason for the expansion is that the owners want to avoid more empty spaces in the River Park community. Fitzgerald explains, “Nothing's going to fill that space the way we do, and the last thing River Park needs is another empty space.”

Fitzgerald tells ABC57’s Sidney Moore that this area is home for them. Both owners met at The Well right down the street and had their first date at China House. They want to create a space for the community and now that they have done that they are eager to expand.

He explains, “What if we stayed here and actually, like the people who had the talent and had the passion, and instead of trying to make it happen somewhere else, what if we just tried to build a good arts community here? And I think we could do it.”

One of the first spaces, a barber shop, will host a soft opening Aug. 19. From there, Nat and Michelle will continue to renovate the other spaces throughout the mall.