Bloomington keeps tabs on building at 1st and Rogers for possible Hopewell demolition
In the second week of February, the demolition of several buildings along the south side of Bloomington’s West 1st Street got started.
By Monday (Feb. 19) the building at 607 W. 1st Street had been mostly reduced to a pile of rubble.
The point of the demolition is to create a clean slate for developers who want to respond to a public offering of the property as part of the planned new Hopewell neighborhood. It’s part of the area where IU Health’s hospital previously stood.
In about 16 weeks, which works out to roughly the end of May, the work to raze the buildings is expected to be complete.
But the timing for the project completion could depend in part on whether two of the buildings on the south side of 1st Street are actually demolished.
Already known was the possibility that the California-style bungalow at 615 W. 1st Street could escape demolition—either through historic protection, or through a move to a different location. Bloomington’s historic preservation commission (HPC) is supposed to get an update on the status of the building at its Thursday (Feb. 22) meeting.
At its Jan. 25 meeting, the HPC voted to recommend that Anna Killion-Hanson, who is interim director of the HAND (housing and neighborhood development) department, extend by 30 days the demolition delay under which the property had been put. Killion-Hanson did extend the demolition delay by 30 days, which bought the house a little more time.
A different building—which was initially considered for demolition, but did not make the final list—might eventually be demolished.
Based on conversation between city of Bloomington staff and redevelopment commission (RDC) members at Monday’s RDC meeting, the building at 714 Rogers—the southwest corner of Rogers and 1st streets—could wind up getting razed. But that’s not certain.
In October of 2023, former HAND director John Zody stated: “We believe there is some interest in potential redevelopment of the 714 S. Rogers Street property.” Zody added, “To ensure all development options are considered, the RDC will await responses from the active Public Offering before making a final decision related to demolition.”
What might now be starting to tip the balance towards demolition are some break-ins by people who have busted the water valves, causing flooding.
On Monday, Killion-Hanson reported to the RDC that a previous “water intrusion” had been caused by people who broke in. It’s thought that a more recent incident, the previous night, which included water damage, might have also been caused by human intruders.
Killion pegged at around $60,000 the cost of remediating just the previous water damage (not including the damage from the night before) and mitigating against mold.
Renascent was the company that won the bid for the demolition work. The amount that Renascent bid to demolish the 714. S Rogers building was about $250,000.
Part of the cost that is expected to be saved by demolishing the buildings now, instead of waiting for a developer to take the buildings down, is payment for security patrols.
At the RDC’s Feb. 5 meeting, the RDC approved an extension of the security contract with Marshall Security for the properties to be demolished—through May 1, 2024. The contract extension includes an increase in the patrols from 12 hours per day to 24 hours per day.
The amount of the security contract extension was $68,796. That brought to $234,495 the total amount authorized by the RDC for monitoring the vacant buildings for break-ins and vandalism.
Killion-Hanson told the RDC on Monday that since the beginning of January, she has received 9 incident reports for 714 S. Rogers Street.
RDC member Randy Cassady said, “We’re very fortunate at this point, all we’ve had is water damage.” At a certain point, Cassady said, “We look at what the human capital is versus the fiscal capital.”
