Land handover to CIB now partly OK'd to support host hotel near Bloomington convention center

Last week at their regular meeting on Thursday (March 26), Monroe County commissioners approved a resolution authorizing the hand-over of key downtown real estate to the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB), as part of a transaction that is meant to make a deal possible for a convention center host hotel.

The action by the board of commissioners is just one of the approvals that are required. The other one is needed from the county council. The resolution giving the council’s approval could appear on the agenda for the council as soon as next Tuesday (April 7).

The land transfer is controversial, because it makes definite what had been known to be a probable outcome at some point—that the real estate, purchased with innkeeper’s tax, would be put towards a tourism-related purpose, displacing residential and commercial tenants there. Tenants have been notified their leases will not be renewed past July this year.

But the resolution approved by the commissioners last week says, “members of the public have made a case for continuing the leases beyond their expiration date” and continues saying that county commissioners would not object to the CIB extending those leases so long as the state law is followed, which requires innkeeper’s tax to support tourism.

Housing advocates spoke at the March 10 meeting of the county council opposing the move, and calling for the county government to transfer the land instead to a community land trust, or to continue to operate the apartments as as some of the cheapest rental housing in the city of Bloomington.

At the county council’s meeting last week, two days before the commissioners met, Talisha Coppock, who is executive director of Bloomington Convention Center, told councilors about planned relocation options that are supposed to be offered to 17 residential tenants.

There’s an outside chance that the real estate could be eventually used for housing, but that would be an indirect path—where it first goes to the CIB, then is transferred to the city of Bloomington as part of a land swap for the parcel at former Bunger & Robertson site at 4th Street and College Avenue, where the host hotel would then be built.

The former Bunger & Robertson property is the site for which Dora Hospitality negotiated with the city for over a year, before the deal fell apart for good to start 2026, over the city’s asking price of $7 million. But when Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson confirmed that the land south of the current convention center would be available at no cost, that set the table for a host hotel site south of the current center. It’s a viable option when added to the real estate owned by the county government there.

One possibility is that the county land could then be swapped by the CIB to the city of Bloomington, in exchange for the former Bunger & Robertson parcel. But that’s an option that has only been spitballed and has not received serious consideration on Bloomington’s side, at least not publicly.

The real estate transfer approved by county commissioners last week does not include the county-owned real estate west of the convention center, which currently serves as a parking lot.

That’s because the county government wants to preserve the parking option for its employees at the North Showers building, whose onsite parking options there won’t be available for two four-week periods of the year to accommodate early voters, at the new early voting location at North Showers. At last Thursday’s meeting, commissioner Julie Thomas said the western parcels would likely not be available for some other use until after a new county jail and justice center is built

Lease extension for My Sister’s Closet?

County attorney Jeff Cockerill said the new resolution is meant to “clarify the county’s expectations” as it turns over control of the land. It includes two main messages to the CIB: that the county does not oppose lease extensions for current tenants, and that it expects the board to account for historic structures as it plans any redevelopment.

“We’re making it clear that we’re not trying to push anybody out,” Cockerill said, summarizing the commissioners’ position that tenant leases can be extended “as long as the ultimate use of the property” remains consistent with innkeeper’s‑tax rules and the goal of supporting tourism and convention‑center uses.

That assurance is important for the nonprofit My Sister’s Closet, whose lease runs through July 7, and whose executive director has been seeking clarity on how long the organization can remain while it renovates a newly purchased building elsewhere. The ribbon cutting last year, could have left the impression that the new location is ready to be occupied, but that’s not the case, My Sister’s Closet executive director Sandy Keller told The B Square after last week’s commissioners meeting.

From the public mic last week, My Sister’s Closet executive director Sandy Keller sought clarity from commissioners about the potential for a lease extension. The resolution stops short of guaranteeing a specific lease term but formally tells the CIB that commissioners would not object to some form of extension while decisions about the hotel are made. Commissioner Julie Thomas told Keller a good next step would be for her to meet with county attorney Jeff Cockerill and a representative of the CIB to “set some sort of parameters” and provide more certainty about timing and expectations.

Speaking to The B Square after last Thursday’s meeting, Keller described the nonprofit’s future as depending crucially on both a lease extension and community help to get the new property ready. Known for its clothing re-sale shop, My Sister’s Closet also provides career-focused support for women, including interview preparation, résumé help, workplace English training, and counseling that connects clients to resources like housing and food assistance.

Keller said the organization has purchased a building where it plans to put its clothing boutique on the ground floor and eventually build a separate wing for client services, which she called “the core of what they do in the community.” The retail operation, she said, provides most of the monthly mission funding, making it “absolutely essential” to get that operation re‑established if My Sister’s Closet is going to keep paying for its programs.

From the outside, she said the building “looks great,” but she described the interior as “basically two very cold, large semi‑size garage bays” with cracked concrete floors, no insulation, and possibly no electricity, plus a small central office.

Keller said My Sister’s Closet needs to raise about another $250,000 to get the space into shape so the retail operation can move. A later addition for social‑service space could be a roughly $1 million project.

She said that this is the first time in the group’s 28‑year history that it has taken on debt: “We’ve been very proud of the fact that we’ve not been making it hard on Bloomington for these services to exist. But this is our very first time we need their help.”