Decades in the making, Notre Dame’s vision for a dense, walkable college town adjacent to campus is finally a reality.

The University of Notre Dame's vision for a dense, walkable “college town” joining campus to the wider community is nearly complete after almost 20 years of planning and construction, succeeding despite economic headwinds including a global recession and subsequent housing crash and a worldwide pandemic, the effects of which continue to reverberate across the real estate market.

Work concluded recently on the final 14 townhomes at Eddy Street Commons, the $315 million mixed-use development along Eddy Street in South Bend.

The result of a public-private partnership between Notre Dame, Kite Realty Group, and the City of South Bend, among others, the project on University-owned land south of campus broke ground in 2008. It proceeded in three phases, spanning the 2009–12 global financial crisis and the ongoing but receding coronavirus pandemic.

Read the story