At its Wednesday afternoon meeting, Monroe County’s capital improvement board of managers (CIB) took the actions recommended by a three-member committee for moving ahead with the Monroe Convention Center expansion project.
One step was to authorize the issuance of an RFQ (request for qualifications) for a “construction manager as contractor” for the project. Interested firms will have three weeks to respond to the RFQ. The idea is for the three-member committee to winnow the respondents to a short-list by the next meeting of the CIB, which is now set for Feb. 14 at 3 p.m.
The full board won’t be picking from the short list at that meeting, but could ratify the committee’s shortlisters.
Also approved by the CIB at Wednesday’s meeting was the issuance of an RFQ for an owner’s representative. The idea is that none of the CIB members will have sufficient time to staff the project, and that role should be assigned to an owner’s rep.
In other action, the CIB headed towards retaining Schmidt Associates as the architect for the project, to build on the planning work that Schmidt did in 2019. The CIB voted to direct its legal counsel, Jim Whitltach, to contact Schmidt to confirm that the CIB wants Schmidt to be the main architect for the project.
Whitlatch is also supposed to ask Schmidt for a planning proposal that would allow the firm’s previous Phase 1 work to be updated to current 2024 standards.
At Wednesday’s meeting, CIB member Adam Thies made a point not to call the work that Schmidt Associates will be asked to do now “Phase 2,” but rather an extension of Phase 1 work.
That’s because in the industry, Phase 2 would mean “signing a contract to construct,” Thies said, which would mean there’s a defined budget and a defined scope of work. That’s something the CIB does not yet have for the expansion project.
Locking in the budget is something that was a point of emphasis for Thies, at the meeting of the three-member committee on Jan. 5 and at Wednesday’s meeting of the full CIB.
Thies serves as Indiana University’s associate vice president for capital planning, which means he oversees architectural design for all IU campuses. CIB member Eric Spoonmore asked Thies, “My question is, at what point, based on your experience of doing this work, do we need to have an accurate budget in place?” Thies’s response: “My kind of guy!”
Thies continued by saying the RFQ has some very general parameters, like doing some renovations to the existing building and the hope to construct a new building. Asking firms to respond to that kind of request would not be a “burden” to the responders, Thies said, because if they compete routinely in the open marketplace, they would be able to pull together qualifications quickly.
But the CIB will want to have a budget by the time it asks the short-listed RFQ respondents to respond to an RFP (request for proposals). To issue the RFP, Thies said, “It’s incumbent on this board to know what they’re proposing on.” Thies added that there is a “moment of truth” when the budget is determined.
Thies also pointed out that having a construction budget is essential, before the CIB signs a contract for Phase 2 work with Schmidt Associates. That’s because such a contract would typically pay the architect a percentage of fee on the construction budget.
In order to dial in the budget, Thies noted that the scope and location of the project needs to become more fine-grained. He tied that to the question of why the expansion is needed. Presenting the case at Wednesday’s meeting that a bigger convention center facility is needed were Talisha Coppock, executive director of Downtown Bloomington, Inc. and Mike McAfee, executive director of Visit Bloomington.
Thies told Coppock and McAfee that the CIB needs “a little more data to actually guide our work forward.” While they had presented the outlines, Thies wanted them to provide more details about what is missing from the current facility—a ballroom, 20-person meeting rooms, 40-person meeting rooms, or other elements.
About the clear statement of need, Thies told Affee and Coppock that “We’re close. But I’m not feeling we’re totally there.”
The three-member committee is supposed to winnow down the respondents to the construction manager RFQ in preparation for the Feb. 14 meeting of the full seven-member CIB. But the committee composition has changed—because the composition of the CIB has changed.
The CIB terms of the two mayoral appointees and the two appointees of the county commissioners expired on Jan. 15.
The three-member committee that met on Jan. 5 was made up of Adam Thies, Mick Renneisen and Doug Bruce. Thies and Renneisen served on the CIB through mayoral appointments—so their initial turn on the CIB came when they were tapped by John Hamilton, who was mayor in early fall 2023, when the initial appointments were made.
Thies was reappointed by new mayor Kerry Thomson, but Renneisen was not. Renneisen had served as the deputy mayor under Hamilton through early 2021.
Replacing Renneisen on the committee will be Eric Spoonmore, who is president and CEO of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.
In Renneisen’s place on the CIB, Thomson put Jay Baer, who is founder of Convince & Convert, which is a marketing consulting firm specializing in providing advice on digital marketing and customer experience strategies for businesses.
Baer’s wife, Allyson Baer, handled scheduling and correspondence for Thomson during her campaign, and is now working in the mayor’s office as an administrative coordinator.
Baer joined Wednesday’s meeting through the Zoom video conference platform, but was not recognized until towards the end of the meeting. Presiding over the meeting as CIB president was John Whikehart. He told other CIB members that Thomson had texted him during the meeting advising him that she is, in fact, appointing Baer as a member of the CIB. Whikehart then acknowledged Baer: “Mr. Baer, welcome! We’ll see you at the next meeting!”
Whikehart told his colleagues on the CIB that he’d responded to Thomson’s text by saying that they awaited her letter appointing Baer and re-appointing Thies. Later on Wednesday, Whikehart confirmed to The B Square that he had since received copies of the mayoral appointment letters.
Whikehart and Joyce Poling were re-appointed to the CIB by Monroe County commissioners at their first meeting of the year on Jan. 3.
The political angle to the CIB extends beyond the appointments to the board.
It was a rift between former Bloomington mayor John Hamilton and the three county commissioners—over the convention center’s project governance—that delayed the creation of the CIB until July of last year. That was after the CIB appeared to be close to being formed in late 2019.
After her remarks at a Tuesday meeting of the Democrats Club at the DeAngelo’s restaurant, Thomson was asked by an attendee to say something about the convention center expansion.
Thomson responded by saying she had spoken with the county commissioners about the convention center expansion project and reported: “I think we’re on the same page, or at least a very similar page.” Thomson added, “We’re rolling!”
To keep the ball rolling will require the ratification of a four-way interlocal agreement that provides the framework for financial contributions to the project by the city and county governments.
The interlocal agreement includes the Bloomington city council and the mayor, which have already signed off on it.
But the county’s side is taking a minute to review the interlocal agreement.
The interlocal agreement appeared on the county council’s first meeting of the year on Jan. 9, but the council decided to put off discussion until its next meeting, on Jan. 23.
It’s not clear if county councilors, or eventually the county commissioners, will insist on amendments that would require re-approval by the city council and the mayor.
One of two areas of possible friction are the way the county council is required, for one of its appointments to the convention and visitors commission (CVC), to choose from a list of four nominees provided by Bloomngton’s city council.
The other area of possible friction is the creation of a non-CIB entity to be called the City Building Corporation, which would own the expanded convention center and lease it to the city. The idea spelled out in the current draft of the interlocal agreement is that the ownership would eventually transfer to the CIB.
The interlocal agreement also spells out the framework for the city and the county and the CIB to negotiate their respective financial contributions to the project. The outcome of those negotiations could have a big impact on the project budget.
Determining the budget could depend in part on whether the project costs will include reimbursement to the city of Bloomington for the total of close to $7 million that the city paid for the former Bunger & Robertson property, at 4th Street and College Avenue. That parcel is envisioned as a likely location for part of the expansion.
The biggest part of the property was purchased in summer 2019 for about $5 million. The northeast corner of the parking lot of that property was purchased for $1.9 million in March of 2023.
It is the countywide 1-percent food and beverage tax, which has been collected since 2017, that is supposed to pay for the convention center expansion. The 2023 year-end fund balance of Bloomington’s food and beverage tax share has not yet been filed with the state, but will be around $17.5 million. If $7 million has to be peeled off the top of that sum, to reimburse Bloomington for the Bunger & Robertson property, that would mean a significant reduction of the convention center project budget.
The $7 million was drawn from TIF (tax increment finance) money and authorized by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC).
The other big project in the works for the RDC, which will tap TIF funds, is the redevelopment of the Hopewell neighborhood.
During Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson’s remarks, given on Tuesday to the Dems at DeAngelo’s, she indicated that more money could be needed for Hopewell than previously thought.
Thomson put it like this: “I think we may have to look at some of the requirements [for Hopewell], which either are going to need heavier subsidy, or we’re going to need to adjust our expectations for what we’re going to get there.”
Photos: Jan. 17, 2024 CIB
“During Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson’s remarks, given on Tuesday to the Dems at DeAngelo’s, she indicated that more money could be needed for Hopewell than previously thought.”
I am shocked, shocked! to hear that the Hamilton administration may have low-balled cost estimates (not).
Speaking of public outlays for private gain, wouldn’t it be ironic if the private sector visitor industrial complex – having foisted the expense of a facility they couldn’t afford onto the public – doesn’t reap any benefit because the city council turns Seminary Square Park (two block to the south) into a permanent homeless encampment? Of course, all that talk about showing off the community to visiting business leaders to encourage economic development may have just been propaganda intended to get the funding football across the political goal line.
Tune in next week for another installment of “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose”.
heh – neat frame! tbh the current convention center (about 5 blocks of systematic underdevelopment / surface parking, with the college ave highway running through it) is a much bigger blight for me personally than all the ragged people are. i live nearish so it’s a big part of my life, almost a bomb crater so far as the civic fabric of bloomington is concerned. but the poor surrounds barely detract from the b-line kroger, which is a godsend to my lifestyle.
i am actually not a fan of the convention center expansion (though i’m hoping to make lemonade of it), but it’d be hard for anything in that corner of downtown to get any worse than it already is. i think formally endorsing that homeless camp would actually be a big step forward because then the city would have to admit they need to deploy a dumpster and a row of porta potties. it remains to be seen if Thomson continues the Hamilton tradition of “they’re bad people because they need to poop” as a dehumanizing rhetoric.
i’m still tripping on Mr. Coulter’s suggestion to compare the convention center project to the dead zone between college and walnut south of 2nd street. if you’re bored enough to read it, here’s some anecdotes about those spaces:
i was once biking across one of the abandoned parking lots between the post office and the car wash, and this ragged drunk guy flags me down. he wants to tell me a joke. i had to get my wife to explain it to me when i got home. it was about a small guy who might be a sentence or a paragraph but could not be called an essay (in spanish). i thought it was a great experience. my holy grail for an outing is to have a story to tell my wife when i get home.
i was standing in the rally’s telling the guy behind the glass about my interest in a ‘big buford’ when this strung out ragged guy walks up to me and puts his mouth 2 inches from my ear and says “buy me some food.” i looked at him and couldn’t figure out what he really wanted, and i didn’t want to leave the cashier hanging so i just said “make that two big bufords.” joke’s on me, they had a two-fer on so i didn’t even get to pay for this extra sandwich. ragged guy was incredulous that his gambit had succeeded, but accepted the sandwich happily. i ate the other sandwich in the back of council chambers before one of my more disastrous presentations.
i was crossing walnut at 2nd, and i saw that a guy on the south side of the street was flying a cardboard sign. so i crossed over to him and gave him some cash, part of my attempt to redistribute the covid stimulus i didn’t ask for or need. and he quickly leaned in to give me a hug. it was this real physically awkward moment for me, because my hand was in a brace for some broken bones, so i kind of tried to give him a hug with just my good arm, and he yowled because my good arm corresponded to his bad shoulder. we were like humans, two cripples crying from the physical pain of a hug.
i’ve had very few moments actually in that park…it’s a lonely and segregated place thanks to the traffic on both sides, and the only thing i’ve ever genuinely enjoyed there was moping when i was a broken-hearted kid.
but that convention center! i’ve got zero nada zilch in terms of good human-connecting stories. i’ve spent hours in those parking lots counting the cars to tell the city that we have a huge dramatic overabundance of unused parking downtown. i’ve taken my kid there to measure the electric poles. i’ve taken my kids through that parking lot a couple hundred times, to get to smith ave. a truly miserable connection, only used because every other connection is even worse. the best thing i can say about it is that convention center parking lot users are about 20% more patient than kroger parking lot users, but about the same level of inattentive. a terrifying segment in our city’s nascent attempts to build a “low-stress network”.
about the only time i actually interact with convention people is when they cross the B-line to get to the overflow parking lot. they’re almost uniformly completely unaware that they’re walking across the B-line, so i have learned to preemptively yield to them from a long ways away. but the counterpoint is, they almost always look up right when it would already be too late, and apologize profusely. it’s just not much to build a community out of, and if the gerbil tube to the parking garage is built, then there won’t even be that.
lord knows, when i’m at the hellhole intersection of 3rd & College Ave, i never see conventioners struggling with the crossing alongside me. but i know it must happen?? i probably just don’t see it because i avoid that place like the plague.
this is what i mean when i tell the CIB that the convention center needs to act like part of our community. the convention center brings hundreds of relatively affluent people to bloomington every week and provides less genuine community *to me* than the people who get rejected from our low barrier shelter and hang out downtown shitting in bushes and scrounging for a fix.
oh and, i wouldn’t be greg alexander if i didn’t tell you: there’s god damn fucking sidewalk gaps on college ave south of 2nd street. quarter mile from the courthouse and our sidewalk network breaks down on our most dangerous downtown street.
I think it’s totally acceptable to criticize the parking and connectivity (or lack thereof) of the convention center but there are plenty of times I’ve encountered community in that space. From fundraisers for Habitat to constructive housing summits there has been a decent amount of goodwill within the walls. I understand the response to the tangent with Seminary but daggone-you guys are both throwin that babe out with the tub water. I don’t think it has to be either/or but I also appreciate how privilege shines an inequitable light.