Tag: 10th Street

Bloomington OKs $770K contract with Compass for buildout of Trades District parking garage for ESnet

B Square file photo. View of Trades District parking garage from looking southeast from Rogers Street.
B Square file photo. View of the interior of the commercial space at the Trades District parking garage.

Due to get started in the third week of September is the construction work to build out 4,059 square feet of office space for Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)  on the ground floor of the Trades District parking garage.

The space fronts on Rogers Street south of 10th Street.

Winning the bid for the work, which was based on an RFP (request for proposals) issued by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC), was Compass Commercial Construction Group, out of Indianapolis.

The RDC approved the agreement with Compass at its regular meeting earlier this week, on Monday.

Compass is partnering with DELV Design for the design work, which is supposed to get started as soon as the week beginning July 8, based on the timeline included in the response from Compass. Continue reading “Bloomington OKs $770K contract with Compass for buildout of Trades District parking garage for ESnet” →

Solar panel design work OK’d for The Forge, recertification from state for Bloomington’s technology park

The Forge under construction looking southwest at Madison and Maker Way. (June 3, 2024)
The Forge under construction looking west from Madison Street. (June 3, 2024)
The Forge under construction looking north along Madison Street. (June 3, 2024)
RDC members from left: John West, Deb Hutton, Deborah Myerson, Randy Cassady, and Sue Sgambelluri (June 3, 2024)

The Forge, which is the technology center currently under construction in the southeast corner of the Trades District,  just south of The Mill coworking space, will have a set of solar panels designed by MPI Solar.

The $1,900 contract for the solar panel design work was approved by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission at its regular Monday meeting.

When it’s completed, the 3-story 22,000-square-foot building that’s going up north of 10th Street, and west of Madison Street is supposed to provide office space for technology companies that are beyond the startup phase.

The Forge will also appear on the agenda for the Tuesday night meeting of Bloomington’s board of public works, for use of the right-of-way in Madison Street and Maker Way next to the building site. The construction crews are already using the street to reach the upper stories with boom lifts.

At its Monday meeting, Bloomington’s RDC also learned that the 65-acre Technology Park, of which the 12-acre Trades District is a part, has been recertified by the state of Indiana.

As a certified technology park (CTP), that means it is now eligible to receive $250,000 a year in sales and income tax revenue that is shared back from the state. Continue reading “Solar panel design work OK’d for The Forge, recertification from state for Bloomington’s technology park” →

150-bed hotel deal moves ahead in Bloomington’s Trades District with OK from redevelopment group

From left: Bloomington RDC members John West, Deb Hutton, Deborah Myerson, and Sue Sgambelluri. Randy Cassady participated via the Zoom video conferencing platform. John Fernandez, vice president of The Mill, is seated to Sgambelluri’s left. (May 20, 2024)
At the table are IU Alluinn’s Charles Whittaker and The Mill’s John Fernandez. Seated in the audience is Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson. Behind Thomson is Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development, Jane Kupersmith. (May 20, 2024)

Sometime in the second half of 2026, a new 150-room upscale hotel could be open for guests in Bloomington’s Trades District north of 10th Street, just across from the parking garage.

That’s if all goes according to the plan laid out in a letter of intent (LOI) signed by Alluinn IU Trades District Hotel and Pure Development. The idea is for Alluinn/Pure to construct the hotel, at a cost of $35 million, on land to be purchased for $1.2 million from the city of Bloomington, through its redevelopment commission (RDC).

Approval of the LOI came at Monday’s regular meeting of Bloomington’s RDC on a unanimous vote. RDC member Sue Sgambelluri voted “an enthusiastic yes” and RDC president Deb Hutton gave it “a definite yes.”

Bloomington mayor Kerry Thomson was on hand to lend her support from the audience. About the proposal, Thomson said, “I think it brings a unique anchor to the Trades District.”

Thomson continued, “My vision of a fully active B-Line corridor that goes from Trades all the way down to Hopewell, that’s alive at every hour of the day.” Thomson added that she thinks the hotel will “magnetize” the Trade District. Continue reading “150-bed hotel deal moves ahead in Bloomington’s Trades District with OK from redevelopment group” →

$900K worth of awards for Bloomington Transit buses to get first reading in front of city council

A total of $902,401 in competitive federal grants recently won by Bloomington Transit (BT) will allow the local public transit agency to buy three new buses—two for its BT Access para-transit service and one for the fixed-route service.

Cropped 08.12.2019 bus and dunn - 2
A Bloomington Transit bus (diesel) navigates its way south under the railroad bridge at 10th Street.

All the buses are replacement vehicles, part of a regular program to keep the fleet up to date.

The new fixed-route bus will be a battery-electric vehicle, one of two that Bloomington Transit is now planning to order. The first battery-electric bus was already in the 2019 budget.

The electric buses are expected to arrive in late 2020 or early 2021.

A press release issued by the city about the federal grant awards touted the benefits of electric buses. They include: cost-effectiveness; zero direct carbon emissions; reduction in dependency on fossil fuels; and quietness of operation.

On Wednesday (Aug. 14, 2019) the city council is scheduled to get a first reading of the necessary appropriations ordinance. That ordinance totals $1,128,000 because of the 20-percent local share that BT will need to contribute towards the cost of the buses. Continue reading “$900K worth of awards for Bloomington Transit buses to get first reading in front of city council” →