Bloomington Convention Center expansion moves ahead with design and bidding, bonds sold at just under 5% rate
On Wednesday afternoon, the Bloomington Convention Center expansion project took another step forward. The Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) gave a green light for owner's representative JS Held to release for bidding the second of the GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) construction packages.
GMP 2 covers the structural elements of the expansion building—steel, concrete foundations, and floor slabs. The expansion is to be constructed eastward across College Avenue from the existing convention center, which stands at the corner of 3rd Street and College.
The expansion will add about 60,000 square feet to the 40,000 square feet of the existing facility. The construction manager on the project is Weddle Brothers.
The seven-member board also heard from its controller, Jeff Underwood, that earlier in the day the construction bonds had been sold, with the full amount of funding. The interest rates were in a range, the highest at just under 5%, Underwood reported.
The full amount of the bonds, which were approved in early March by Bloomington's city council, was $46,825,000. The total construction cost of the project is around $70 million, which is supposed to be paid with revenue from the city of Bloomington's share of the 1% food and beverage tax.
The bids for GMP1 (site and utility work), which have already been issued, are due April 29. Part of the GMP1 package will be the demolition of the former Monroe County election operations center (aka the former NAPA Auto Parts building) at 3rd and Walnut streets. The GMP2 bids are due May 8.
Eddie Layton, with project architect Schmidt Associates, described the GMP2 package on Wednesday as the basic "skeleton" of the building. Layton described the other two packages like this: "GMP1 was all the things to make that fit in the ground. And then GMP3 will be everything that gets attached or goes around that structure…"
It's anticipated that both the GMP1 and GMP2 packages will be awarded at the CIB's May 21 meeting, with construction set to begin in June. The expansion is expected to be completed by early 2027.
At Wednesday's meeting, Layton also showed the CIB some updated renderings.
Also on Wednesday, some exterior material samples for the project were handed around the table to CIB members. The materials included: a raked-texture brick in blended colors; limestone for the walls and granite for the base; warm-toned metal for soffits and window framing; and ultra-clear, low-iron glass to minimize green tinting.
