It looks like Kite Realty, the realty group in charge of the Eddy Street Commons (Notre Dame's new "college town"), has updated their site and their information on the new development.  Lots of goodies included in there.

Here's some new pictures and a new site plan:

The site plan can also be seen here (PDF file).  Looking at the site plan, we saw a number of things that haven't been announced yet.  The large hotel (248 rooms) will be a Marriott hotel, while the smaller hotel (123 rooms) will be a Springhill Suites hotel.  The plan also calls for 6 different proposed restaurants, including an Irish Pub (located at the entrance of the development).  I know people were worried that there wouldn't be a good pub or bar because Notre Dame has said they were opposed to one, but it seems as though the proposed Irish Pub (similar to Fiddler's Hearth in South Bend) could fit the bill.  Two of the restaurants are quite large, both at over 7,000 square feet.  The flagship tenant will be the proposed bookstore at about 20,000 square feet.  The site plan also calls for 14 retail outlets, most of them on the smaller side.  The largest retail space is about 7,000 square feet.

The top two pictures are pretty appealing, in my amateur opinion.  I know there were some doubts and valid skepticism, especially since Kite has never developed this type of project before (their portfolio contains mostly strip malls).  But judging by the site plan and the pictures, I think they're headed in the right direction.  Their biggest challenge is that they have to ensure that this will be a timeless addition to the Notre Dame community (a hard thing to do - just look at the Stepan Center).  I think the ball is in ND's court on this development.  We've seen the comments from the administration about "toxic uses" (ie. Bars) they're trying to prevent and that has been a cause of great concern for many in the ND community.

From a student standpoint, I'm not quite sure what to think.  Obviously I'll be long gone before any kind of development takes place, but I still think this is becoming less of a "college town" and that is not fair to the students.  What is Notre Dame's motivation:  creating an entertaining environment for their students or appealing to the `young professionals' in South Bend which they have no connection to?  I knew there would be some issues when I heard Greg Hakanen, ND's director of real estate, speak last year to a group of students about the project.  He echoed some of Notre Dame's positions on the "toxic uses" and seemed deeply disinterested in anything the students had to say.  He almost laughed at the notion that students would be living in the apartments and I came away very much unimpressed.  He was a real tool.  But let's face it, this development is the only thing future Notre Dame students have going for them with regards to any type of social scene surrounding Notre Dame.  We're not asking for a new dive bar (we've got plenty of those already), we're just asking for a nice place to go to dinner or grab something to eat.  Notre Dame has a great opportunity and we'll just have to wait and see how it all ends up.