Site review for hotel takes step forward, as project lags behind Bloomington Convention Center expansion

On Monday, an incremental step was taken towards getting a developer to build a hotel to support the expansion of the Bloomington Convention Center.

Bloomington's redevelopment commission (RDC), which owns the property at 216 S. College Avenue, authorized spending up to $100,000 to "undertake investigation and due diligence" for use of the property as a hotel. The location is commonly known as the former Bunger and Robertson property.

But it looks like a real estate deal is at least a couple months away.

Attending Monday's RDC meeting were representatives of the potential developer, Russ Louderback and Vince Dora. In October of 2024, the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB) selected Dora Hospitality as the favored developer of a hotel to support the convention center expansion. The six months that have elapsed since that selection have put the hotel development considerably behind the schedule for the construction of the new convention center space.

Louderback told members of the RDC, "What we'd like to do is we need to understand the site better." The factors that determine how long construction will take and how much it will cost are mostly below the surface, he said. "The worst thing you can hit is rock or water, and I seem to hit both of them every time I develop a hotel," Louderback said.

Louderback said it's likely they will hit rock, but he wants to understand the extent of it. He added, "Obviously, we're committed to the convention center and how this best fits the site."

The site is located just north, across 3rd Street from the existing Bloomington Convention Center. The expansion will be constructed across College Avenue to the east.

Some of the money authorized by the RDC on Monday could go towards soil borings. But Bloomington's director of economic and sustainable development, Jane Kupersmith, also described hiring specialist consultants to "to investigate how we might structure a partnership or a sale, or whatever kind of deal would have to happen in order to move forward with the site for a hotel developer."

Kupersmith indicated that the money would not be spent on architectural sketches. Louderback said that he thinks the due diligence work could be done in 30 to 60 days.

It's the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB), not the RDC, that is overseeing the convention center expansion. All three developers who submitted proposals in response to CIB's request, including Dora, said building a hotel would be a two-and-a-half-year project. Based on the letting of bid packages that is currently underway, the CIB is currently on course to open the convention center expansion in January of 2027.

The prospect of opening the convention center expansion without a completed hotel project is a likely scenario. The only question appears to be how long after the convention center construction is completed the hotel project will follow. At last month's CIB meeting, CIB president John Whikehart pushed for some progress on the hotel development, or a Plan B, in case the current approach did not deliver a result.

The real estate at 216 S. College Avenue was purchased by the RDC in two separate transactions, from two different owners, for use in connection with the convention center. The first purchase came in 2019. Both purchases were made when former mayor John Hamilton was still in office. He served as mayor through the end of 2023.

The location at 216 S. College Avenue served as a temporary location for Bloomington's fire station after the one at 4th and Lincoln streets was flooded in 2021.