Bloomington city council rejects sale of police station on 0–9 vote, but door seems ajar for future deal
At their final scheduled meeting of their four-year terms, Bloomington’s city council voted unanimously against the sale of the city’s police station, which stands on 3rd Street, just north of The Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park.
Some councilmembers expressed support for Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s overall plan, which includes consolidation of fire administration and police operations with other departments in the same building as city hall—even though they voted against the sale of the police station on Wednesday night.
Mayor-elect Kerry Thomson weighed in from the public mic, using the Zoom video conference platform. She called for a delay in the sale, in order to get answers to several questions that had been raised, but did not argue against any sale of the property ever in the future.
The specific purchase offer that was rejected by the council was from GMS-Pavillion for $4.4 million. That amount was the higher of two appraisals obtained by the city for the fair market value of the property.
Even if the council had approved the sale, the due diligence period associated with GMS-Pavillion’s offer was 60 days. Bloomington mayor John Hamilton attended Wednesday’s city council meeting and confirmed that the deal would not have closed by the end of the year, when he leaves office.
GMS-Pavillion’s offer was not recommended by the board of public works, which was required under state law to consider and make a recommendation on the three purchase offers received by the city for the property. That consideration by the board took place last Friday, Dec. 8. The board voted 2–0 to give no recommendation.
The sale of the building is part of Hamilton’s plan to move police operations into the Showers West portion of the 110-year-old brick furniture factory building that houses city hall. The city purchased Showers West for $8.75 million from CFC properties at the start of 2023.
Proceeds from the sale of the police station were supposed to help fund the $15-million remodeling project to make Showers West secure enough to be home to police department operations and the fire department’s administration.
The council’s vote could be analyzed in part as deferring to a request made in mid-November by mayor-elect Kerry Thomson to outgoing mayor John Hamilton to refrain from making strategic decisions that would have an impact extending beyond the end of the year. Thomson takes office on Jan. 1, 2024
Hamilton, a Democrat, did not seek re-election to a third term. Thomson, also a Democrat, was not challenged in the Nov. 7 election, having prevailed in a three-way primary. The primary included as a candidate Don Griffin whose firm, Griffin Realty, was the real estate broker for the police station property.
In her commentary from the public mic at Wednesday’s meeting, Thomson did not express blanket opposition to the sale, but did say, “It’s clear to me that there are many outstanding issues with this property that we still have yet to determine.” She continued, “If this property attracted three qualified bids in such a short period of time, it can again attract qualified bids in the future, should we choose to sell.”
Thomson argued for a delay by saying, “Such a delay allows us time to ensure we are financially and ethically headed in a direction to protect our city’s best interest…”
Thomson said, “Declining these offers does not preclude us from selling this property in the future. But it does allow the city time to complete due diligence on the sale, the cost of Showers West and also time to discuss with the Buskirk and Hill families regarding the possibility of what types of future uses would be within the gift’s intent. It does not seem prudent to rush into a deal tonight.”
One objection to the potential sale of the property is based on a 1923 deed restriction that requires the land to be used as a free public park and to be named after the families that conveyed the property to the city 100 years ago.
The city’s legal department says it was aware of the deed restriction from the start of the planning, has reviewed its legal merits and has concluded that it does not prevent the city from selling the police station building. Four descendants of the families spoke at Wednesday’s from the public mic, all opposing approval of the sale.
For some city councilmembers, the sore point connected to the deed was the fact that they had not been told about its existence more than a year ago, when Hamilton had first proposed the idea of selling the police station, as part of the Showers West acquisition and city hall expansion.
Also attending the meeting on the Zoom video-conferencing platform was District 3 councilmember-elect Hopi Stosberg. She did not offer public comment.
Here’s how the Hamilton administration summarized the details of the offer from GMS Pavillion:
GMS-Pavillion Properties, LLC (Steve Hoffman) based in Bloomington, IN
a. Purchase Price: $4,400,000 ($40,000 earnest money)
b. Due Diligence Period: 60 days
c. Contingency: Title commitment, satisfactory due diligence
d. Holdover: 2 years at $420,000 per year. Option to terminate with 6 months notice after first year (i.e. minimum lease back of 18 months). Lease may extend beyond two years for 60-day periods at $35,000/month.
The raw bids for the construction project to remodel the Showers West part of the building were opened on Monday. The winning bids, according to the city, total about $12.7 million.
The all-in cost, including design and the construction manager so far, according to the city is $14,687,052—that’s just under the city’s stated construction budget for the Showers West remodel project which is $15 million.
Bloomington council meeting information links for the police station sale
Res 23-23
Res 23-23 city staff memo
Res 23-23 council staff memo
220 E. 3rd Street Deed Restriction
Purchase offer for police station property from Aptitude
Purchase offer for police station property from UP Campus
Purchase offer for police station property from GMS-Pavillion
