From Printing Plant to Place for Prayer
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A large building in downtown South Bend that once housed the printing plant for the local newspaper could become a church. The South Bend Tribune reports its former owner, Mishawaka-based Schurz Communications, has signed an agreement to sell the 40,000-square-foot structure to South Bend City Church.
According to the publication, the congregation will pay $1 million for the structure and is expected to close the deal in a couple of months.
The building was constructed in 1994. The publication stopped printing the paper locally in 2017 because of rising costs. It is now printed at a plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Schurz family sold the newspaper in 2019 but retained ownership of the building.
“It’s super solid, it’s where we want to be in the downtown area and it even looks like a church,” said Jason Miller, lead pastor at South Bend City Church. “”We’re working right now to figure out how the building can be a real community resource throughout the week, and that might mean sharing space with community partners who are working on common good projects.”
The publication says the non-denominational congregation has been holding church services at various locations. The lease on its current spot expires in 2023.
Click here to view a video of the church transition.
Click here to access the South Bend Tribune article.