“It’s Heartbreaking”: Lafayette building faces potential demolition following $20M fire damage 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Redevelopment Commission is now weighing demolition as a real possibility if a new buyer doesn't step up soon.

City officials say the State Fire Marshal is leading the investigation and confirmed to us today that they are treating the cause as human action rather than an accidental act of nature.

Meanwhile, the clock is officially ticking for the Lafayette Building. The city is preparing to tear it down unless a developer comes forward within the next 30 days with a viable plan to save it.

Debris and ash still scatter the ground four months after the June fire tore through this building. Right now, the city says it's facing upwards of $20 million in repair costs, but insurance only covered a little under $3.6 million. The commission is now requesting permission to proceed with demolition if a feasible redevelopment plan cannot be secured soon.

"Oh, it's heartbreaking. It's a—it's a great building. It was one of the first pure office buildings in the city of South Bend," says Joseph Molnar, deputy director for the Department of Community Investment. "I think people, a lot of people care about this building. I care about this building, but at the same time, we have to be good stewards of, you know, taxpayer dollars. And at the end of the day, if it does not have a use, and if there's no end user who wants to take on the building, it's very hard to get the future."

Not everyone in the city wants to see the building torn down.

"I will never advocate tearing down an historic building if it can be saved," said Stephen Hartley, associate professor of the practice in the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame.

He says that the masonry could be saved.

"Even with that significant fire that happened over the summer that burned for hours, just on exterior observation, I do not see any movement or causes of concern for the masonry, the exterior masonry itself. So, the city could potentially save the exterior shell and then build basically a new building inside of it," says Hartley. "A lot of times, you can actually just build. Basically, it's a box, so you can just build a new building inside of that box."

As the State Fire Marshal continues to lead the investigation, the city of South Bend confirmed with ABC57 that they are treating the cause as human action rather than an accidental act of nature. ABC57 will keep you updated as that one-month timeline progresses.