Around the back of this brewery in the Tyler Station and situated over the Elmwood Branch of Cedar Creek, this garden has picnic tables, shade trees and an old snow-cone trailer full of beer kegs. A taco trailer has taken up residence, too, which means that if you want to have a few pints on a weekend, there’s no reason to leave. In its early days, Oak Cliff specialized in hazy IPAs and fruited sours, and its most popular offerings now are a series of brews inspired by paleta flavors. But there are good offerings for normcore drinkers, too, like an outstanding pilsner (Bounced Czech) and a Goldilocks-style just-right blended pour called John Hancock, which mixes together the rather sweet light lager and rather bitter dark lager in one perfect cup.

The Ward Baking Company located on the corner of Rex Street and Portage Avenue, has sat crumbling and empty for close to 10 years. Needless to say, it holds a lot of history.

“This was built originally when it was at the edge of the city as the ward baking company and originally it was just a small German bakery called the Beuse Bakery and then they bought that up, added another building in the 1940s,” Bakery Group LLC President Mike Keen said. “And then it was abandoned in 2012 and since then it’s just sat empty full of stuff.”

A few years after it was abandoned, the Near Northwest Neighborhood Community Center tried to turn the building into affordable elderly and workforce housing, but were never able to win the grant needed to make it happen.

“The thing has been a neighborhood nuisance for the last decade, plus driving down neighborhood property values and making people feel this isn’t a very attractive neighborhood,” Keen said.

So, two years ago in 2019, Bakery Group LLC President Mike Keen stepped up to the plate, dedicating tons of time and brainstorming, to bring life back to the building and to the area!

“We want to turn it into neighborhood asset so that it becomes a draw because it’s such a beautiful building and if we can bring it back to its earlier life, it’ll be one of the coolest spaces not only in South Bend but really in the region,” Keen said.

“I sure do hope it does give people an opportunity to give it a second look at the near north side and portage corridor,” South Bend Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Rob DeCleene said.

Last night, Keen and the South Bend Common Council met to discuss ways the city can help financially, and approved two tax abatements for the development. With this help, the vision for this enormous space, is that much closer to becoming a reality!

“What we are looking for is a broad variety. We want some really creative folks, the artists and the makers, but we also want some professional office folks, you know people who can provide services to the other people in the building but also the neighborhood.”

“I think anytime you can use a building anywhere in the city that’s of that size with that much street frontage, it’s just an exciting opportunity for guests, for the city, and the neighborhood surrounding it,” DeCleene said.

What the future holds for the building down the line, and what it’ll bring to the table, is what Keen calls a complete transformation.

“We’ve been working for the last couple of decades to sort of rebuild the neighborhood, there have been many vacant lots that we’ve recently purchased maybe 15 or 16,” Keen said. “But to go from a neighborhood that people sort of see as a scary neighborhood to a place where it becomes a destination that people want to come around and hangout and be part of, it really is, what I say is transformational.”

Keen said the transformation hopefully begins next year, and estimates it to be a 3-year project. In the meantime, he’s on the lookout for local businesses who are interested in rent out one of the 60 units inside when it’s done. If you’re interested in collaborating, you can reach out to him at mfkeen1@gmail.com.

Big Award & New Successes for Public-Private Partnership Between DeSoto Economic Development Corporation, City of DeSoto, Options Real Estate, and The Industry Hub Boost Shuttered Hardware Store Turned Market & Small Business Incubator.

At one time the future of the large shopping center on Belt Line Road in DeSoto, Texas looked bleak. Their anchor tenant, a 26,000 square foot Ace Hardware Store shut down, and the only option to some was to bring in a dollar store. But City Leaders, their Economic Development Corporation, and forward thinking civic allies teamed up to oppose the dollar store option and, instead, proposed the idea of a market place for merchants with unique items and services and that could also act a small business incubator to “grow” the next generation of DeSoto’s businesses.

Back on June 14, 2019, The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), an association of North Texas governments that assists with regional planning efforts, awarded their Celebrating Leadership in Development Excellence (CLIDE) Award for New Development to the DeSoto Market Place for exemplifying one or more of their Principles of Development Excellence. They also declared that the DeSoto Market Place serves as an example of Development Excellence in the North Central Texas Region. And since then the Market Place has welcomed a Vietnamese Restaurant the has elevated DeSoto’s culinary landscape and seen one incubator tenant build on their success and venture out into DeSoto’s business community.

The CLIDE Awards Program, created in 2003, recognizes public and private entities including cities, developers, architects, planners and engineers, to encourage innovative development projects and practices that will help accommodate expected growth and ensure a sustainable North Texas for generations to come.

The DeSoto Market Place houses the Grow DeSoto Market Place (Grow DeSoto) which came to fruition from a first of its kind public-private partnership between the DeSoto Economic Development Corporation (DeSoto EDC), the City of DeSoto, Options Real Estate, and The Industry Hub to repurpose a building once occupied by ACE Hardware in a manner that would benefit small business owners, as well as the community of DeSoto.

The vision of this unique partnership is to provide a lower barrier to entry on the path to entrepreneurship for small business owners. Businesses that lease space within the Grow DeSoto Market Place receive reduced rental rates with all utilities included, a high traffic area that is easily accessible from I-35 and I-20, flexible lease terms, ongoing business training, mentorship, and the resource assistance of the DeSoto EDC, the DeSoto Chamber of Commerce, the City of DeSoto, Options Real Estate, and The Industry HUB. The space also includes private office suites that are available for lease.

Grow DeSoto, which celebrated its grand opening in October 2018, provides shoppers in DeSoto and the region with a wide variety of unique retail shops, services, restaurants, and a full service fitness and rehabilitation center. “The Grow DeSoto Market Place symbolizes the creative rebirth of our small business community and serves as an example to many other cities that the closure of old businesses in a community can present bold new opportunities that can ultimately make a positive difference within a city!” stated DeSoto Mayor Curtistene McCowan. Monte Anderson, CEO of Options Real Estate, added “As I had expected, we have found highly skilled and creative entrepreneurs from the local community. And, at the same time, we recognize that there is still a lot of work to do in developing local entrepreneurs.”

ABOUT DESOTO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

The DeSoto Economic Development Corporation (DeSoto EDC) is a non-profit organization funded by sales tax revenue to foster local prosperity while maintaining an excellent quality of life and minimizing local ad valorem taxation. The DeSoto EDC aims to assist businesses with a seamless relocation assistance process to DeSoto by providing site selection searches, competitive incentives, a skilled workforce and a prime location in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Whether your company needs a new commercial office building on Interstate 35, a manufacturing facility on a hill overlooking downtown Dallas, a fulfillment warehouse, or a service-oriented facility, DeSoto is the place to build your business, raise your kids, enjoy life and retire in style. For more information, visit our website at http://www.dedc.org.

For more information about the Grow DeSoto Market Place visit http://www.growdesoto.org
For more information about the CLIDE Award for New Development visit http://www.developmentexcellence.com