Leaning century-old wall at The Mill in Bloomington's Trades District deemed unsafe, event space temporarily shut down

The south wall of the former Showers Brother Furniture building that houses The Mill in Bloomington's Trades District is unstable—because it's as much as 4 inches out of plumb.

That means the event space next to the wall is temporarily shut down, and no one is allowed to get within 20 feet of the wall.

That's a "developing situation" reported at the meeting of Bloomington's redevelopment commission (RDC) on Monday. It's the RDC that owns the building, which houses the nonprofit that operates The Mill, which is a coworking space that describes itself as "the heart of Bloomington's startup ecosystem."

Giving the update to the RDC on Monday was Bloomington HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) director Anna Killion-Hanson.

Killion-Hanson told the five-member RDC that in the south wall there's no evidence that there's any remaining bond in the mortar joints between the brick units. She described the anticipated expense of repairing the wall as "significant."

Visible from the outside of The Mill on Monday evening were at least eight steel posts placed at an angle to shore up the wall. The work to brace the out-of-plumb wall was done by BOLDIN Construction Group, according to The Mill's head of operations, Victoria Crawley.

Responding to an emailed question from The B Square, Crawley wrote that the lean was not attributable to any potential impact on the foundation from recent heavy rains, but rather to the fact the building is more than a century old. The building was constructed in 1915, according to The Mill's website. "Our staff noticed the wall was leaning and promptly notified the City," Crawley wrote.

Crawley indicated that it's not clear if the wall will have to be rebuilt from scratch, or if it can be repaired. It's also not yet clear how long the work will take.

Revenue for The Mill includes fees for members to use the coworking space, but it also rents out the space that is impacted by the leaning wall, for events like corporate functions and weddings. Based on its nonprofit filing for 2023, of the roughly $1.9 million in revenue that The Mill saw that year, about $106,000 of it came from rentals of non-member event space.

Crawley indicated in her response to questions from The B Square that so far, six events that were scheduled in the space have been "relocated" due to the leaning wall, and that has meant a loss of about $10,000 in revenue.

A 2,000-square-foot expansion of The Mill is one of the many specific projects that last year's $16-million grant from the Lilly Endowment to the IU Foundation is supposed to fund. The expansion is supposed to provide 1,000 more square feet of coworking and conference space for each of two stories.

Responding to a B Square question, Crawley wrote that the Lilly money could not be used to address the cost of repairing the wall.

Using part of the Lilly Foundation grant, The Mill has now bought the remaining tracts of vacant land in the Trades District from the RDC, which will give it more flexibility to market the property.

The Mill has been tasked by the RDC with development of the Trades District. John Fernandez was brought on board as vice president for development at The Mill to lead that effort. With Pat East's recent departure from The Mill, Fernandez is now serving as interim executive director.

The Trades District is a 12-acre portion of a larger area that forms Bloomington's certified technology park.