Bloomington poised for public offering of Hopewell South land, security extended, fences reconfigured
At its regular Monday meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) took care of three relatively low-cost items related to the Hopewell project, as it prepares to consider a public offering for some of the land.
Those relatively low-cost items involved security patrols, a security fencing reconfiguration, and an electrical contract related to a vacant building.
The Hopewell neighborhood—to be developed at the site of the former IU Health hospital at 2nd and Rogers Streets—is supposed to eventually offer as many as 1,000 units of additional housing.
A public offering for Hopewell South is supposed to be in front of the RDC for its approval at its Sept. 16 meeting. That’s according to remarks at Monday’s meeting from Deb Kunce, who is with JS Held, the project management firm that the RDC has hired for the Hopewell development.
Hopewell South is the portion of the site bounded north-south between 1st Street and Wylie Street, and west of Rogers Street.
Hopewell South includes 714 S. Rogers on the southwest corner of Rogers and 1st Streets. It’s the former Bloomington Convalescent Center building. The other buildings of Hopewell South have been demolished.
The expectation is that the responses to the offering will be due by Nov. 1, 2024. That’s exactly one year after the due date for the first public offering that the RDC made for Hopewell South.
For the public offering approved a year ago by the RDC, the land was divided into three parts, numbered from east to west, with minimum bids for each part: Block 8 ($1,448,350), Block 9 ($1,448,350), and Block 10 ($664,030). That made the total minimum bid for all three blocks $3,560,730.
The RDC did not move forward with any of the proposals from the first public offering. At its Sept. 16 meeting, the RDC will feature three members who are different from the five who last year approved the first public offering.
RDC members serve one-year terms. When Kerry Thomson was sworn into office to start the year, she appointed Sue Sgambelluri to replace Sarah Bauerle Danzman, and John West to replace Cindy Kinnarney. After Deb Hutton resigned this year at the end of June, Thomson appointed Laurie McRobbie to replace Hutton.
On Monday, McRobbie attended the first RDC meeting, since she was appointed.
At Monday’s RDC meeting, West and Cassady were keen to make sure they would not be presented with the new proposed public offering on Sept. 16, then asked to evaluate it and approve it the same day. Kunce gave the RDC an assurance that they would receive the proposed public offering at least a week before the Sept. 16 meeting.
Previously, Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development Jane Kupersmith has said that the city is not planning to pursue concurrent public offerings for Hopewell East and Hopewell West.
Related to Hopewell, the RDC approved three items at its Monday meeting.
One was a revision to the contract with Marshall Security for security patrols in the area. The contract revision did not increase the total not-to-exceed amount of $269,657. But the revision did alter the configuration of the shift coverage, by staggering it, and extended the contract from the end of this year until March 1 of 2025.
A second item approved by the RDC on Monday was a $14,723 contract with Belcher Fencing,
Belcher is supposed to reconfigure the fencing around the site, so that three key remaining buildings are secured—among them, the former Kohr Administration building.
Expected this fall is the construction start for the $20 million Kohr Community Flats adaptive reuse project, according to Bloomington HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) director Anna Killion-Hanson at Monday’s meeting.
The other two remaining buildings that the RDC wants to remain secure are the parking garage, and 714 S. Rogers.
The now vacant former Bloomington Convalescent Center building at 714 S. Rogers has been the target of break-ins in the past. Now, the main concern for the RDC is that the building has some kind of climate control so that the interior does not degrade. The third item approved by the RDC at its Monday meeting was a $15,000 contract with Woods Electrical to connect the building to electricity.
According to city attorney Larry Allen at Monday’s meeting, connecting the 714 S. Rogers building to electricity will help keep it “clear and free of moisture” so that the building can be preserved for reuse.
