CIB accepts downtown parcels, now seeks talks with Bloomington RDC on land swap to secure host hotel site

At its Wednesday meeting (April 16), the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) formally accepted the transfer of key real estate from both the city and the county governments.

Those transfers, approved previously by the Bloomington redevelopment commission (RDC), the county commissioners, and the county council, give the CIB control of several downtown lots. The property includes the Seminary Pointe block between Smith Avenue and 2nd Street along College Avenue, which currently houses about 29 residential units with comparatively low rents, and several commercial tenants.

The CIB is not looking to hold onto the property for long.

Shortly after Wednesday’s meeting, CIB president John Whikehart emailed Bloomington redevelopment commission president Deborah Myerson to formally request negotiations to swap the property. The proposal is for an exchange of real estate: The CIB would trade the Seminary Pointe block and adjoining county‑transferred parcels on the south side of the existing convention center, for the city‑owned former Bunger & Robertson (College Square) site to the north.

The idea is to put the CIB in control of the former Bunger & Roberson parcel at 4th Street and College Avenue so that a host hotel for the Bloomington Convention Center can be developed there. The effort to develop a host hotel comes in the context of an expansion of the convention center that is already well under construction, just south of 3rd Street between College Avenue and Walnut Street. The 60,000-square foot expansion has a targeted completion in early January 2027.

There’s a broad consensus that the former Bunger & Robertson lot is the most suitable location for a host hotel in the vicinity of the expanded convention center. The written request from the CIB to Myerson marks the first formal step toward the “land swap” that has been mentioned at city and county meetings for a few months but, until now, has been limited to informal speculation.

The county council’s vote on Tuesday night, the day before the CIB met, saw all councilors in support except president Jennifer Crossley, who abstained. It was the final county action needed to move the land to the CIB.

The parcel south of the convention center is currently home to about 29 residential units, including Seminary Pointe, with reported rents in the $400–$700 range. It also includes commercial tenants like Friendly Beasts Cider Company, My Sister’s Closet, and Jeff’s Warehouse. The county bought the land in 2010 with innkeeper’s tax revenues, with the plan that it could eventually be used for tourism‑related purposes. Tenants have now been told their leases will not be renewed past July 7.

At Tuesday’s county council meeting, some speakers questioned whether the statutory innkeeper’s tax requirement—that revenue be used for the promotion and encouragement of conventions, trade shows, visitors, or special events, and for facilities to support those purposes—might already be met by the activities happening now on the site, particularly at Friendly Beasts.

On Tuesday, CIB president John Whikehart told county councilors that the CIB is not equipped to be a landlord. “The CIB is not a property manager. The CIB has no budget to manage properties,” he said. “We have no ability to be a property manager.” His point was that the CIB’s legal role is to assemble and deploy land in support of the convention center project, not to operate residential or commercial buildings.

At Wednesday’s CIB meeting, Whikehart said that the CIB’s mission is defined in statute, county ordinance, and the interlocal agreement under which it operates, as expanding the convention center, renovating the existing building, selecting a hotelier and site for a host hotel, and addressing parking related to the project.

Whikehart said the transfer of existing parking lots from the RDC and the county secures parking for the expansion project. The additional county parcels, he noted, put the board in a new position: The CIB now holds land that can be used in negotiations.

More on the land swap

The land swap scenario that dominated much of Tuesday’s county council discussion is conceptually simple.

The county has now transferred the Seminary Pointe block and related parcels, which it bought with innkeeper’s tax revenue, to the CIB. The CIB could then offer that land to the city’s redevelopment arm, the RDC, in exchange for the College Square site at 4th and College, just north of the convention center.

College Square, formerly the Bunger & Robertson property, is widely regarded as the strongest available location for a host hotel serving the convention center.

The idea is that the city of Bloomington would take control of Seminary Pointe and the adjoining land, which could be used to preserve or expand affordable housing, rather than replacing Seminary Pointe with a tourism use on that particular block.

The idea is not new. City councilmember Kate Rosenbarger publicly floated the idea of a “land swap” at a joint meeting of the city council and RDC on December 10, 2025. That came after negotiations between Dora Hospitality and the city over College Square had dragged on for about a year.

Those talks eventually failed over how much value the city would receive for the parcel, which it acquired for roughly $7 million. The city council had made clear its expectation that the city should be compensated for the property and that it should not be donated.

Even if a swap did not fully recoup the $7 million, it would capture some value and would at least put the land into an active public project, instead of leaving it idle.

CIB authorizes formal approach to RDC, seeks 30‑day pause

After Wednesday’s votes to accept the city and county properties, Whikehart introduced what he called the second part of the agenda item, which included real estate discussion and proposals.

He described the transfer of additional land from the county as a chance “to identify what land we own for hotel development.” For at least two years, he said, the consensus has been that the College Square site to the north is the best location for a host hotel.

Whikehart also cited a May 6, 2024 letter from Bloomington corporation counsel Margie Rice. In that letter, Rice wrote that if the RDC‑owned parcels to the north “are determined to be integral to the project,” the city “will expect to be paid or reimbursed in some amount.” With some real estate now in hand, Whikehart said, the CIB can finally respond to that expectation with an actual negotiation.

Whikehart asked his CIB colleagues for authorization to do two things: first, to communicate with RDC president Deborah Myerson to request formal negotiations for CIB to acquire the College Square (former Bunger & Robertson) site; and second, to ask the RDC to postpone any public offering of College Square for 30 days, or until the CIB’s May 20 meeting, in order to allow time for those negotiations.

“The site has been undeveloped since 2019—seven years now,” he said. “And we are asking for 30 days to discuss its future.”

The request for at least a 30-day postponement of any public offering comes in the context of a news release issued early this year on Jan. 21 by Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson, after negotiations between Dora Hospitality and the Bloomington RDC on the former Bunger finally foundered over compensation.

The news release says Thomson will “ask the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission (RDC) to place the property on the market for redevelopment focused on economic development uses and to pursue a new, narrower request for proposals that aligns with the City’s long-term downtown economic and convention center goals.”

Whikehart acknowledged at the previous evening’s county council meeting that Thomson has told him informally she is “not interested in a land exchange of any kind.”

But Whikehart made two points. First, the formal question has not yet been asked. Second, that formal request will go to the legal owner of the property, which is the Bloomington redevelopment commission. Three of the RDC’s voting members are appointed by the mayor (Sue Sgambelluri, Laurie McRobbie, and John West) and two by the city council (Randy Cassady and Deborah Myerson).

At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, during the time allotted for public commentary, Bloomington city council member Sydney Zulich spoke in favor of the land exchange. Zulich said she is “very supportive of your efforts to enter into negotiations with the city for the College Square property.”

Some indication of the Bloomington RDC’s receptiveness to the idea of a land swap could come as early as next Monday (April 20), which is the date of the RDC’s next regular meeting.

Before the 5 p.m. regular meeting, an executive session (closed to the public) is scheduled, when one of the topics to be discussed is real property transactions as allowed under Indiana’s Open Door Law. The other topic specified in the meeting notice is litigation, which likely involves tenants of the Showers West building, which is owned by the Bloomington RDC.