Focus: downtown South Bend.

• Author: Wieneke, Heidi Prescott
• Position: Regional Report North - Brief Article

Downtown South Bend is making a comeback.

On a warm spring day, college students can be seen sipping cappuccino at coffee shops like Higher Grounds and the South Bend Chocolate Co. as joggers follow scenic paths along the east bank of the St. Joseph River. Broadway plays at the Morris Performing Arts Center and minor league baseball games at Covaleski Regional Stadium, upscale restaurants and eclectic clothing stores, and startup businesses and growing companies are bringing people back downtown.

"Right now, there's no question that downtown is alive, but long-term, we'll ask ourselves how we want downtown to look and feel. Long-term we'd like to create an environment," says Mark Eagan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County. "We need to create events and excitement to have people come out of their office buildings during the day and back downtown in the evenings and on weekends."

From restaurateurs to major accounting firms, downtown South Bend is witnessing substantial commercial growth.

Crowe Chizek and Co.--the nation's ninth-largest certified public accounting firm, founded in South Bend about 60 years ago--needed some downtown streets and parking areas reconfigured to accommodate an $11 million building expansion currently taking place. Without assistance from city administrators in resolving the company's space crunch, Crowe Chizek would have considered moving its 433 local workforce somewhere else.

"We've got a good workforce downtown and we do what we can to bolster the number of people working there, but we need to keep them there or bring new people downtown," says Bill Schalliol, economic-development specialist with the city of South Bend.

Similarly, Press Ganey Associates Inc., the largest patient satisfaction assessment services firm in the country serving health care clients including the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University, experienced such phenomenal growth that it needed to expand. Company owners met with officials in cities across northern Indiana because Press Ganey and its 252 employees were landlocked.

Because the city of South Bend stepped in to assist the company in acquiring neighboring downtown buildings, Press Ganey, founded in South Bend about 17 years ago, has invested $5 million in buildings and equipment.

"South Bend makes sense for our associates," says Melvin F. Hall, CEO at Press Ganey. "There are a good number of restaurants within easy walking distance of our offices. We are on the...