The Forge: Technology center in Bloomington’s Trades District feted by local, state leaders
Celebrated on Friday in Bloomington’s Trades District, north of city hall, was the opening of Bloomington’s new technology center, called The Forge.
On hand to give remarks were: U.S. Senator Todd Young; Indiana University president Pamela Whitten; Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson; vice president of The Mill and former Bloomington mayor John Fernandez; and chair of The Mill’s board of directors Ravi Bhatt.
The Forge is the new 3-story 22,000-square-foot building across from The Mill co-working space with a rust-colored brick facade, with dark gray accents. It’s supposed to provide office space for technology companies that are beyond the startup phase.
The nearly $13-million budget for The Forge drew on a $3.5 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA), as well as TIF (tax increment finance) funding approved by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC).
Support for the buildout of tenant space will come in part from an $18-million Lilly Foundation grant that was awarded to the Indiana University Foundation this fall.
The Trades District is a 12-acre portion of a larger area that forms Bloomington’s certified technology park.
The Mill has a connection to the Trades District that includes responsibility for marketing and promoting the developable land there. The city of Bloomington purchased the land from Indiana University in 2011 for $9.3 million.
Using part of the Lilly Foundation grant, The Mill is now buying the remaining tracts of land in the Trades District, which will give it more flexibility to market the property.
The optimism in the room on Friday served as a kind of counterpoint to a glum outlook that was provided by recent forecasts of limited economic growth for Bloomington, downward trending Bloomington population estimates, and projections of declining school enrollment.
In her remarks to the crowd that gathered inside the big “gray box” area on the south side of the ground floor, IU president Pamela Whitten connected The Forge to the defense industry. Whitten said, “We fully expect that The Forge will become a key destination on the innovation corridor that runs from Indianapolis to NSWC Crane.”
Whitten continued, “Crane has become an increasingly critical center for the Department of Defense programs, including the prototyping, manufacturing and testing of assured micro electronics.” (The term “assured micro electronics” is a Department of Defense term that refers to microelectronics that meet strict criteria for reliability, security, and integrity in critical systems.)
In her remarks, Whitten also noted that last year the university had announced a $111-million investment in micro electronics and nanotechnology. According to last year’s news release, the investment would “accelerate innovative solutions to major national security challenges through enhanced collaboration with Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.”
Whitten thanked U.S. Senator Todd Young for his effort to pass the CHIPS Act (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors). CHIPS was enacted in 2022 to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research, and supply chain resilience.
Whitten handed off to Young, who opened his remarks in a way that connected to the No. 19 IU football jersey that Whitten was wearing. (Whitten is the 19th president of Indiana University.) “I have to say, for me, this is the most exciting thing that’s happened this year in Bloomington—south of 17th Street,” Young said.
Standing just north of 17th Street is IU Memorial football stadium. So Young’s remark was an allusion to the 10–0 record that the team would carry into its Saturday game against The Ohio State University. Young said he had been counseled by IU alums not to say anything that might jinx the outcome of the game, which would be played in Columbus, Ohio.
Young noted that the EDA grant that helped build The Forge was a part of the CARES Act that was passed in an effort to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. But he said innovation is crucial not just for recovery, but also for long term prosperity. It was because The Forge would support innovation that he wrote a letter supporting the city’s application for the competitive EDA grant, Young said.
Young said, “In order to ensure our national security and economic security, we have to make sound investments in all parts of the country.” He continued, “We need to invest in re-shoring key technologies like semi conductors.” Young added, “We need to invest in emerging technologies like quantum computing, and artificial intelligence, and emerging bio tech. And we need to ensure that those investments reach every part of the country.”
In his remarks, Ravi Bhatt, who is cofounder of Folia, talked about “the entrepreneur’s journey.” He described it as “a little different than the journey of building infrastructure.”
Bhatt described what it’s like to be an entrepreneur: “It’s sleepless nights. It’s working on fumes. It’s pushing through when other people are telling you something is impossible.”
Bhatt said, “Let’s really show the world what we can do. We have amazing infrastructure here now. We have tremendous facilities. We have connective tissue that’s going to take us through the next 10 years and beyond.”
Bhatt cautioned: “But the fire will not light itself. That spark needs to come from all of us, and we need to push through.”
Bhatt sees Bloomington becoming “a community of well over 100,000 residents and growing.” He called for following the examples of Madison, Wisconsin and Ann Arbor, Michigan, but doing it “in a Bloomington way, locating everything in our strengths.”
In her remarks, Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson said, “This is not about real estate. This is about fulfilling opportunity. And I can think of no better place to do that than Bloomington, Indiana, which very soon will be the innovation capital of Indiana.”
Thomson said, “Bloomington is proud to be open for business, and seeks to be home to companies, large and small, who see our vibrant quality of place, our research one university and our rich arts and arts culture as essential to their growth and success.”
Thomson continued, “But our success doesn’t just come from one institution or one sector alone. It comes from the strength of our collaboration, of our community, coming together to share ideas, to face challenges and to build something truly remarkable.”
When he kicked off the event, vice president of The Mill John Fernandez ticked through a long list of people and organizations to be thanked. They included the funding sources, as well as the architects and the construction companies, including some subcontractors.
Fernandez also gave a shoutout to former Bloomington mayor John Hamilton and former director of economic and sustainable development for the city, Alex Crowley.
Fernandez said, “In the state of Indiana, 75 percent of all net new job creation comes from startups. Think about that. So if we’re going to ensure a strong, vital economic future for Bloomington, we need to build an innovation ecosystem that empowers the dreamers and doers.”
Photos: The Forge (Nov. 22, 2024)
