Spring Break
University develops off-campus
Faculty, staff members purchase recently constructed homes on Notre Dame Avenue
Mary Kate Malone
Issue date: 9/13/06 Section: News
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The stately new homes lining Notre Dame Avenue are housing Notre Dame faculty and staff and their families, who purchased the lots from the University.
With their manicured lawns, spacious porches and fresh paint, the new homes are evidence of a redevelopment effort taking place in a neighborhood previously riddled with dilapidated homes.
The University's Department of Asset Management has been directing the purchase of properties along Notre Dame Avenue and selling them to faculty and staff under the condition that the buyers will build a new home fitting certain architectural guidelines.
The University has acquired property off-campus since the late '80s, but only in the last four years has it started selling the properties to full-time faculty and staff, said Vice President for Business Operations Jim Lyphout.
In the last four years, 17 properties on Notre Dame Avenue have been sold to full-time faculty or staff members. Of those, 15 were empty lots and two were houses that needed to be rehabilitated.
Two more properties are currently available on St. Peter Street as well - one is an empty lot and the other is a house that needs to be rehabilitated.
The University's housing effort, known as the Notre Dame Avenue Housing Program, is one component of an extensive rehabilitation program driven by the Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization Organization, which was developed in 2003 and 2004, said Gregory Hakanen, Director of the Department of Asset Management.
Notre Dame is one of five institutional sponsors of the NNRO, which seeks to revitalize the area that stretches from the edge of campus south to South Bend Avenue, west to Hill Street and east to the edge of Notre Dame woods.
"When you look at the overall redevelopment plan for the neighborhood, by no means is it just Notre Dame," Hakanen said. "It's the city, it's other local institutions, it's residents … getting together to plan for redevelopment of the neighborhood."
The Notre Dame Housing Program focuses on just one zone within that area - covering Notre Dame Avenue, Frances Street and St. Peter Street.
The program is popular among faculty and staff, Hakanen said, and his office already has a waiting list of faculty and staff interested in purchasing a lot from the University. Likewise, his office is always looking out for potential properties to purchase.