SOUTH BEND — In the East Bank neighborhood, developer Frank Perri and his company, Earth Designs Real Estate, are in the process of redeveloping three buildings on the three corners of the same block.

In Perri's vision for the area, those three buildings are only the beginning. With eight other properties in the neighborhood, he's positioned to help with the area's facelift.

On the southwest corner of the intersection of LaSalle Avenue and Hill Street, work on the former Access Print Shop is underway. New plate glass windows, tile flooring and a revamped interior bring a new look to the old structure, now called the Hoban building.

Perri said work at the more-than-a-century-old building should be done within three months, and he plans to host one or two commercial tenants in the building.

“I want (the tenant businesses) to be something that fill a need,” Perri said. “Something that draws people in.”

Built in 1907, the 530 E. LaSalle Ave. property was acquired in June 2016 by Greater Lowell Holdings, a real estate company registered to Perri.

Greater Lowell Holdings has purchased 10 properties in the East Bank neighborhood, with the intention of revitalizing historic buildings and attracting new business and residents to the area. Earth Designs owns one building but is the development arm for the others.

“I was raised in Mishawaka and I’ve lived in South Bend for the last 30 years,” Perri said. “When I think about the big picture of what's going on here, I feel 20 years younger."

Just west of the Hoban building, on the southeast corner of LaSalle and Niles avenues, stands the J.C. Lauber building. Acquired in December 2015, Perri recently received public financing from the city Redevelopment Commission to help revamp the site. The former sheet metal shop, with its concrete floors, exposed brick and industrial look, will become restaurant and retail space. The building has already been the venue for a number of pop-up get-togethers, and lies close enough to the St. Joseph River to qualify for a $1,000 riverfront liquor license.

The retail space will open first, planned for the fall, and the restaurant will open thereafter. At this point, Perri said he plans on owning the restaurant himself.

“I really have a strong desire to now get into the business,” Perri said. “We’re going to have a stage, we’re going to have live music here.”

For the retail space, he said, a tenant is “almost locked up.”

The revival of the Lauber building isn’t without unexpected challenges. During a tour, Perri pointed to two holes in the concrete that exposed soil below.

“Those holes in the grounds showed me what I was fearful of,” Perri said. “We’re sitting on top of a pile of crap, rubble.”

Slabs of flooring have settled in the uneven ground, creating a jagged pattern of slanted concrete. Plans are to completely remove the concrete, stabilize the soil and add new flooring.

South of the Lauber building, on the northeast corner of Colfax and Niles avenues, Perri has a tenant set to take over part of the former LaSalle Body Shop at 503 E. Colfax Ave.

J2 Marketing, a 12 employee firm currently based in Mishawaka, has plans to move into the building that has been renamed “The Garage.”

Erik Johnson, principal at the firm, said added space needs and a desire to participate in the redevelopment of South Bend are primary motivators for relocating the business to the East Bank location.

“We’ve just been attracted to the vibe in this area,” Johnson said. “We’ve really gotten to like South Bend.”

Growth projections and a desire to find an atypical office space led Johnson to start searching for new office space a year ago.

J2’s offices will adjoin what is planned as a shared office space, renting out areas for individuals to work. On the west side of the building, in the rooms that formerly housed tall-ceiled car painting rooms, a pair of private offices and a podcast studio will also be for rent.

“I had been looking for about a year and I drove by this building and saw it was for sale,” Johnson said. “I called a real state guy I knew, he told me ‘A guy named Frank Perri bought it.’ ”

The pair got in touch, and now J2 is a partner in the development of the former garage.

Moving forward, Perri doesn’t plan to stop at just three buildings, though he hasn't revealed detailed plans for the other properties in the neighborhood. One of the projects, The Cascade, a proposed housing complex on the banks of the St. Joseph River, south of the Colfax bridge, has been discussed for the last few years.

Perri says his goal is not to dramatically alter the neighborhood but rather to breathe new life into it, including redeveloping existing buildings.

"We want to fill in a lot of the area and keep things the way they were," he said.