Request for host hotel proposals OK’d by CIB at Seminary Pointe, activists still hope for land swap

The Seminary Pointe block and nearby properties that make up about six acres south of the current Bloomington Convention Center are now the subject of an RFP (request for proposals) for a host hotel.

The issuance of the RFP was approved by the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) at a special meeting on Friday morning (April 24). Responses to the RFP will be due June 30, with interviews anticipated in early July.

The resolution approving the issuance of an RFP was one of two significant steps taken Friday morning for developing a convention center host hotel project. The other resolution dealt with due diligence on the real estate, which the CIB just recently received in transfers authorized by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission and Monroe County government. The due diligence entails getting two independent fair market value appraisals of the site, as well as appropriate environmental reports, including a Phase 1 environmental site assessment.

During public comment time, which scheduled at the end of the meeting, after action items on the CIB’s agenda, the CIB heard continued pressure from the housing advocates to preserve the “super affordable” housing at Seminary Pointe through a potential land swap with the Bloomington redevelopment commission.

CIB discussion on the hotel RFP was brief, but touched on a theme from previous efforts, which was incentives. CIB member Jay Baer recalled that during an earlier round of solicitation, some developers had proposed deals that depended on incentives the CIB did not have the capacity to provide. The question posed by Baer was whether the RFP should state explicitly that the CIB has no incentives available beyond the land itself, to discourage proposals built around additional public financial assistance.

CIB president John Whikehart said he preferred to describe clearly what the CIB is offering and evaluate responses accordingly. “What we’re putting out to hotel developers is telling them what we have to offer them,” he said. “I think when we get responses from the RFP, we’ll know if they’re asking something else of us, and then that will help us determine whether we accept or reject their responses.”

The vote was 6–0, which did not add up to the seven seats on the CIB. That's because of the vacancy left by Adam Thies’s resignation a few weeks ago has yet to be filled. That seat is appointed by Bloomington’s mayor.

The response deadline of June 30 comes about three weeks before the July 20 deadline given by the Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) for its own public offering of a different piece of nearby real estate.

The Bloomington RDC’s public offering is for the College Square property (aka former Bunger & Robertson lot), across 3rd Street just north of the existing convention center. The RDC’s decision to make that offering came at its meeting on Monday (April 20), earlier this week.

College Square has been the focus of previous efforts to develop a host hotel, including more than a year’s worth of negotiations between the Bloomington RDC and Dora Hospitality that did not lead to a deal.

In the last few weeks, the concept proposed by the CIB has been to swap its newly acquired land from the county government, namely the Seminary Pointe block, to the Bloomington RDC, in exchange for the College Square real estate, which it would then turn over to a hotel developer.

The RDC has now effectively declined the CIB’s request to enter into a 30-day period of negotiations about a potential land swap, by making its own public offering early this week. The CIB would be eligible to respond to that offering with its land-swap proposal, but Friday’s action seems now to preclude that as an option.

Public comment at the end of Friday’s special CIB meeting shifted the focus from hotel development to housing preservation, as housing advocates tried to keep the idea of a land swap alive. Three speakers, representing Homes for All, urged the CIB not to walk away from land swap negotiations with the RDC that could preserve Seminary Point as affordable housing.

Amber Corr asked the CIB to continue negotiations with the redevelopment commission to preserve the affordable housing at Seminary Point through a land swap. She described Seminary Pointe as home to 29 units of existing affordable housing, the nonprofit My Sister’s Closet, and Friendly Beasts Cider Company, which she characterized as a community gathering space. Corr said that these are homes and community spaces Bloomington “cannot afford to lose.”

Corr asked the CIB not to pivot away from the idea of a land swap and laid out specific requests: extend tenant leases past the current July 7 deadline; halt rent increases for month-to-month tenants; complete the appraisals and environmental studies that the CIB had just then authorized; and give residents and advocates the chance to present their own vision for Seminary Point’s future. “In a housing crisis, preserving affordable housing isn’t just a priority, it’s an obligation,” she concluded.

Bryce Greene also expressed support for the land swap. He told the board that, at this point, there are several Bloomington city council members who are in favor of the swap.

At the CIB’s April 16 meeting, councilmember Sydney Zulich spoke from the public mic in favor of swap. At this past Wednesday’s city council meeting, during her report time, Kate Rosenbarger expressed support for the swap, saying that the possibility of subdividing the College Square parcel should be considered in order to match price points.

Greene told the CIB on Friday morning that the around $3.2 million that was paid for the Seminary Pointe real estate in 2010 would surely have increased in value since then. Greene urged the board to treat the situation with urgency, citing the impending expiration of tenant leases in July, and again called for lease extensions to allow more time for negotiations. “This is a housing crisis,” he said, pressing for every possible meeting and phone call to preserve the existing affordable units.

Matthew Joseph weighed in from a remote Teams connection, and also spoke on behalf of Homes for All. He said advocates are working to address one of the RDC’s stated objections to a swap: uncertainty over what the RDC would do with Seminary Point if it acquired it. Joseph said he and others are developing what he described as an “incredible plan” for Seminary Point’s future that draws on evidence-based models from other cities that have converted similar sites into vibrant, mixed-use affordable housing hubs.

The next regular meeting of the Monroe County capital improvement board meeting is scheduled for May 20, 2026, at 3 p.m.