Tag: Axis Architecture

Showers West prep for police, Hopewell owner’s rep: 2 RDC projects take steps forward

The image is from the master plan for the redevelopment of the Hopewell site, which is the former site of the IU Health hospital. The view is from the southwest.
The view is from the west of the Showers building. The pink outline shows the portion of the building that Bloomington has made an accepted offer to purchase from CFC Properties. The image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s property lookup system.

At its Monday meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) took incremental steps on two of its projects.

First, the RDC ​ approved a $479,000 contract with U3 Advisors to serve as the owner’s representative for the redevelopment of the Hopewell neighborhood—which is the former site of the IU Health hospital, at 2nd and Rogers streets.

On a second item, the RDC approved a $100,000 contract with Axis Architecture for some preliminary design work on the western part of the Showers building—where city hall is located. It’s the portion of the building that is the planned future home of Bloomington’s police station and fire administration. Continue reading “Showers West prep for police, Hopewell owner’s rep: 2 RDC projects take steps forward” →

$3M from general fund, with industrial dev heritage, OK’d by Bloomington city council for tech center

The image, looking east, is dated April 2020. It’s from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system. Annotation by The B Square.
From left: Bloomington city councilmembers Matt Flaherty and Steve Volan
Alex Crowley, Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development
Pat East, executive director of The Mill

A 3-story 22,000-square-foot technology center in Bloomington’s Trade’s District got the final piece of its funding approved by the city council at last Wednesday’s meeting.

Approved by the city council on Wednesday, with eight of nine votes of support, was a roughly $3-million appropriation from the city’s general fund. Steve Volan abstained.

In round numbers, the $3 million approved by the city council adds to a $3.5 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA), and about $2 million in tax increment finance (TIF) money, which was authorized by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC), to cover the roughly $8.5-million cost of the building.

The new technology center is supposed to coordinate with The Mill, a nearby coworking space, to provide support for emerging tech companies that have progressed beyond the incubation phase and have shown some commercial viability. The effort will be led by former Bloomington mayor John Fernandez, who was recently hired as senior vice president for innovation and strategic partnerships at The Mill.

The city council’s approval on Wednesday came after a postponement from its meeting a week earlier.

The postponement was related to a source of friction between some councilmembers and the administration, over the origin of the general fund money that was appropriated by the council on Wednesday.

Even though the appropriation was from the general fund, it had originated from the establishment of two different CREDs (community revitalization enhancement districts) in Bloomington, for the purpose of infrastructure investments to promote economic development with revenue overseen by Bloomington’s industrial development advisory commission (BIDAC). Continue reading “$3M from general fund, with industrial dev heritage, OK’d by Bloomington city council for tech center” →

Bloomington OKs $400K for engineering, design of planned new technology center

The image, looking east, is dated April 2020. It’s from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system. Annotation by The B Square.

At its regular meeting on Monday, Bloomington’s five-member redevelopment commission approved a $403,082 contract with Axis Architecture for engineering services and design of the planned new technology in the Trades District.

The technology center is a joint project of the city’s economic and sustainable development (ESD) department and the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. The site is now a vacant lot, north of the old Showers Company building that houses the Monroe County government center, as well as city hall.

It is just south of The Mill, which is a co-working space that has been developed as an adaptive reuse of another old Showers building. The tenants of the planned new technology center could be drawn from companies at The Mill that progress beyond the start-up phase.

An “information session” about the technology center is being hosted at The Mill on March 31. Continue reading “Bloomington OKs $400K for engineering, design of planned new technology center” →