Convention center expansion update: Favored hotelier named, project cost dialed in at $71M, Bloomington budget challenge rejected
On Wednesday, several aspects of the planned expansion of the Monroe Convention Center came into sharper focus.
An afternoon meeting of the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) included a vote to give the nod to Dora Hospitality LLC over Garfield Public/Private LLC and MHG Hotels LLC as the preferred hotelier for the convention center expansion project.
Also presented at Wednesday’s CIB meeting was a breakdown of the expenses for the project that shows a total cost of about $70.7 million, which includes a construction cost of about $52 million.
Progress was also made on the design of the new facility, to be located across College Avenue from the existing convention center, at the southwest corner of College and 3rd Street. CIB members expressed a uniform preference for the sloped (aka “butterfly”) roof design, over the flatter design, even though it would mean around a half million dollars more.
The sloped roof concept will be part of the design that Schmidt Associates incorporates into its “project definition” (aka “schematic design”), which will be put in front of the CIB for approval at a special meeting set for Oct. 23.
Finally, on Wednesday evening, the CIB’s $899,400 budget for 2025 got approved by Bloomington’s city council, as part of the city’s regular budget. The CIB’s line in the city budget is for an expenditure from the food and beverage tax fund. That’s because the source of revenue for the convention center expansion project are revenues from the food and beverage tax. The vote on the city budget was 9–0.
Having no negative impact on the city council’s adoption of the 2025 budget was a petition filed by Joe Davis, objecting to the spending plan, because it includes funding of the convention center expansion. The council issued a finding that states the petition was not filed on time and that the testimony in the petition did not warrant modification of the city budget.
During public commentary on the city of Bloomington utilities budget, Davis was ruled out of order by council president Isabel Piedmont-Smith, as he read aloud the names of the others he was representing with his remarks. When he persisted, Piedmont-Smith asked the police officer assigned to city council chambers to remove Davis from the podium.
Hotelier choice
The recommendation for Dora Hospitality as the preferred hotelier for the convention center expansion came from a hotel evaluation group.
The membership of that group was: CIB legal counsel Jim Whitlatch; CIB president John Whikehart; CIB members Jay Baer and Doug Bruce; and Deb Kunce with JS Held, which is the CIB’s owner’s representative for the project.
Dora has expressed an interest in building its proposed hotel north of the current convention center, on the former Bunger & Robertson property at 4th Street and College Avenue. The land is currently owned by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC).
At Wednesday’s CIB meeting, the motion approved by the board was to encourage the RDC and Dora Hospitality to start negotiating and to urge the RDC move forward without delay. Whikehart said he wanted Whitlatch to communicate a sense of urgency to the RDC.
Bloomington RDC member Randy Cassady, who was sitting in the audience said, “There will be a sense of urgency!”
That means the RDC can be expected to put together in fairly short order, the required public offering for sale of the land. The RDC paid around $7 million for the complete parcel.
Approval of CIB budget as part of city budget
The CIB budget was not a separate vote for the Bloomington city council on Wednesday night. The CIB’s budget is a single line in the overall 2205 city budget, reflecting an expenditure of $899,400 from food and beverage tax revenues.
The more specific breakdown of the more expensive items includes: owner’s representative ($320,000); testing and environmental services ($200,000); legal services ($144,900); controller services ($71,500); utility connections ($100,000); commissioning fees ($60,000); and website design and maintenance ($1,000).
Taking up the biggest chunk of time at the city council’s Wednesday meeting was consideration of a petition submitted by Bloomington resident Joe Davis. The petition demands “that no monies be appropriated for the expansion of the Monroe County Convention Center, at this time.”
The petition included nine other names. Ten is the minimum number of petitioners required under state law to invoke a provision of the budget adoption process that requires an extra step for the city council—which requires adoption of a finding about the petition.
But such a petition itself does not block or hinder the passage of the budget.
The law just says the city council has to “adopt with its budget a finding concerning the objections in the petition and any testimony presented at the adoption hearing.”
Davis was given 10 minutes to present his case. CIB legal counsel Jim Whitlatch was given 5 minutes to rebut. The council then asked some questions of Davis and Whitlatch, before trying to wordsmith a finding. From start to finish, consideration of the petition took just shy of an hour.
One sticking point for some councilmembers was the fact that the petition was not filed on time. It was a question whether the petition should be considered at all.
The deadline for such a petition to be filed is tied to the date of the budget hearing—which took place on Sept. 25. Under state law, the petition has to be filed “not more than seven (7) days after the hearing.” That put the deadline for filing at the end of the day on Oct. 2.
The emailed correspondence forwarded to The B Square by Davis shows the submission of the petition with an emailed timestamp of 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 3. Davis contends that he sent the email “at 12:00 midnight.” But even 12:00 midnight would already be on Oct. 3.
Councilmembers decided to incorporate into their finding a statement that they didn’t think the petition was filed on time. They also decided not to deal with some factual inaccuracies in the petition, given that it was not filed on time. They settled on the following finding, which was adopted on a unanimous vote:
Date: October 9, 2024
Proposed findings: Bloomington Common Council’s Findings on Taxpayer Objection Petition and testimony presented at October 9, 2024 Adoption Meeting:We, the Common Council of the City of Bloomington, have reviewed the taxpayer objection petition, heard petitioners’ testimony, and find as follows:
1. The taxpayer objection petition was received by officers of the City at 12:01 a.m. On October 3, 2024.
2. We believe that this petition was not timely filed according to the seven-day deadline under state code.
3. We believe, based on the objections in the petition and testimony presented, that the objection petition and testimony presented do not warrant modification of the City budget.
Adopted by the Common Council, City of Bloomington, Monday, October, 9, 2024.
Another element that the council chose to strike from an earlier draft involved uncertainty about whether the people named as petitioners (besides Davis), were taxpayers, or even real people, given that there were no signatures or addresses included with the petition.
Though not included in the adopted finding, there was enough skepticism expressed by councilmembers about the authenticity of the other nine names, that Davis at one point stood and held aloft his notebooks where the names and addresses of the other nine petitioners were recorded. But for councilmembers, that was too late.
During the public commentary period on the city of Bloomington utilities (CBU) budget, Davis began by reading a list of names and addresses. Council president Isabel Piedmont-Smith told Davis that was not relevant to public comment on the CBU budget.
Davis responded by indicating he understood the topic of the public comment period was to talk about the CBU budget and indicated he’d be doing that, but said, “First, I want to identify the people that I represent.” When Davis continued reading names and addresses, Piedmont-Smith tried to gavel Davis down, but he was undeterred. She told him, “You are out of order, please step away from the podium.”
She ultimately asked the police officer who is assigned to the city council chambers, as the council’s sergeant-at-arms, to remove him from the podium. When the officer arrived from across the room, Davis left without incident.
At the CIB meeting, Davis threatened a class-action lawsuit against Bloomington city government and Monroe County government, to stop the convention center expansion project. He said he would file such a lawsuit, if the 2025 budget approved by the city council included spending for the CIB, which it did.
