Hopewell East bids received from 5 firms, redevelopment group OKs due diligence on former convalescent center as police HQ

At Monday night's meeting of Bloomington's redevelopment commission, five bids were opened for the public offering that was made in November 2024 for land in the future Hopewell neighborhood.

That's the former site of the IU Health Hospital, and the area around it. The land was acquired by the RDC from the health care provider in a $6.5 million real estate deal.

Also getting attention during Monday's meeting was a property located in the southern part of the Hopewell property—the former Bloomington Convalescent Center at 714 South Rogers St.

Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson's administration is eyeing the vacant building as an adaptive reuse project to house a new police headquarters. That's after Thomson departed from the path that former mayor John Hamilton charted, which called for police operations to move from the current location on 3rd Street into Showers West, which the city purchased in part for that purpose. Showers West is part of the same historic Showers Brothers Furniture building complex as city hall.

At Monday's meeting, the RDC's action on the 714 South Rogers building was to approve $50,000 worth of due diligence work to make sure that a conversion to a police headquarters would actually be feasible. At Monday's meeting, the RDC also approved $1,667 as an additional payment to Ann-Kriss to mediate some vandalism of the vacant building.

The specific real estate for sale in the Hopewell East offering is made up of three lots totalling about 3.5 acres: Block 1 ($1,972,000); Block 2 ($1,839,000); and Block 3 ($2,325,000). That total comes to $6,136,000.

At Monday's RDC meeting, it was Bloomington's director of economic and sustainable development, Jane Kupersmith, who opened the bids in her email inbox. Three of the five firms made offers on all three blocks. The names Kupersmith read aloud were:

• Rubicon Investment Group LLC: Blocks 1, 2, and 3
• Real America LLC: Block 2
• The Annex Group: Blocks 1 and 3
• Holiday Properties: Blocks 1, 2, and 3
• Flaherty and Collins: Blocks 1, 2, and 3

The land in question is a bit south of downtown, at the site of the former IU Health hospital at the intersection of 2nd and Rogers streets. Hopewell East is on the western side of the B-Line Trail across from the Seminary Square Kroger.

The RDC is using a phased approach to offer the land for sale. In September 2024, the RDC issued a public offering for Hopewell South, which is the part of the planned new neighborhood south of 1st Street. At one point, the redevelopment of Hopewell South included the possibility of private redevelopment for 714 South Rogers .

The deadline for Hopewell South bid responses was initially Nov. 1, 2024, but was extended to Dec. 8. At the Dec. 16 RDC meeting, Mary Krupinski, with JS Held, which is the RDC's contracted project manager for the project, reported receiving three responses for the Hopewell South public offering. U3 Advisors, which is the RDC's owner's representative for the Hopewell project, was supposed to review the responses to Hopewell South. U3 Advisors will also be reviewing the newly opened Hopewell East responses.

At Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson's Traveling Town Hall event on Monday night, she responded to a B Square question about Hopewell South by describing the decision making on proposals for that area as "still in flux." She added, "It's been my administration's priority to try to get a high number of affordable and attainable homes in Hopewell."

At Monday's RDC meeting, the 714 South Rogers building was described by corporation counsel Margie Rice as a "large concrete structure that might work perfectly for the Bloomington police department." The RDC was asked to approve $50,000 for costs, including potentially a survey, to determine the feasibility of converting the building into a police headquarters. Rice said, "Bloomington police are excited about this location. There have been other locations in the past suggested for them that they didn't like as much." That was an allusion to the Showers West proposal.

Rice described 714 South Rogers as "ideal" because of its location near major roads and easy access to the parking lot. Rice added, "It would obviously require quite a bit of money to rehab that building."

Some of the $50,000 could be spent on architectural consultants to review the feasibility of rehabbing the building into a police station, Rice told The B Square after the RDC meeting. Rice pegged the timeframe for the due diligence work at a month or two. She said that if things go smoothly, construction work to convert the building to a police headquarters could start in early 2026.