Erskine Commons: the landfill that became a power center

BUILT FROM 2007 · MICHIGAN STREET (U.S. 31) AND IRELAND ROAD · FIFTY ACRES, FORMERLY A LANDFILL

The Walmart the south side finally got: A mile west of Erskine Village, at Michigan Street and Ireland Road, the city built the anchor the south side had been promised and denied a decade earlier. The South Side plan tells the denied version: in the late 1990s the city annexed 196 acres south of Kern Road on U.S. 31 for a commercial node anchored by a Wal-Mart and a hotel; the neighbors fought the annexation through a year in court, and when the fight ended with the ground annexed, Wal-Mart and the hotel declined to build. The store came instead to ground nobody fought over — a fifty-acre site by U.S. 31 and U.S. 20 that had been a landfill in need of environmental remediation, assembled with tax-increment financing. Property records date the center's buildings to 2007, with tenants moving in from that September. By the mayor's accounting of August 2010 the site held a Walmart Supercenter, a Lowe's, and Gates Toyota: more than $56.5 million in public and private investment, 740 jobs, and — the Redevelopment Commission's bond record says — more than 476,000 square feet of commercial space; the mayor's letter rounds it to almost 500,000. The development outran its financing: in August 2010 the city paid off a $2.3 million development bond early, and a second, $3.3 million bond was to follow a year later, fifteen years ahead of schedule. The center trades on the same anchors in November 2026 — current leasing material for its outlots names the Walmart Supercenter and Lowe's as the draws and counts the corridor around it: a Menards, the AMC cinema on Chippewa, and the restaurant rows of Ireland Road.

Sources:

1. City of South Bend, Mayor's newsletter, August 28, 2010 — the fifty-acre former landfill, six years in the making; Erskine Commons with Walmart, Lowe's, and Gates Toyota; $56.5 million invested; 740 jobs; almost 500,000 square feet.
2. Northwest Indiana Business Magazine, "South Bend pays off development bonds early" (August 2010) — more than 476,000 square feet of commercial space; the $2.3 million bond paid early in August 2010 and the $3.3 million bond to follow, fifteen years ahead of schedule.
3. South Bend Redevelopment Commission, Resolution No. 1955, South Side plan (2003) — the late-1990s annexation of 196 acres south of Kern Road, the year of litigation, and Wal-Mart's and the hotel's decision not to build.
4. LoopNet listing material, 560 West Ireland Road (updated October 22, 2026) — Erskine Commons buildings dated 2007; a tenant move-in of September 2007; the center anchored by Lowe's and the Walmart Supercenter; the Ireland Road corridor's present tenants.