TIF Payment Plan Gets Nod

The South Bend Redevelopment Commission last week approved a plan to pay off $2.3 million of tax-increment financing bonds early and is poised to pay off another $3.3 million of economic development bonds.

The commission issued the $5.6 million to help finance a large development project dubbed Erskine Commons in the northern Indiana city of South Bend.

The development transformed 50 acres of vacant lots and a landfill site into commercial retail space. It cost a total of $56.5 million of private and public money.

The TIF district on the site is now generating $3.1 million annually in TIF revenue, compared to the original projection of $750,000, according to the commission. The commission will use the extra money to pay off $2.3 million of outstanding 2004 TIF bonds next month, and hopes to pay off the remaining $3.3 million of 2005 bonds in the first quarter of 2011.

“Erskine Commons has succeeded by every measure at a faster pace than we projected, despite its development during the nation’s most troubled economic time since the Great Depression,” South Bend Mayor Stephen J. Luecke said in a statement. “Not only did the private sector meet its targets, but we are generating more than four times the tax revenue that originally was projected. That enables us to pay off these bonds 15 years ahead of schedule.”

South Bend is home to the University of Notre Dame.

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