Bloomington neighborhood grant approvals delayed to comply with Indiana’s Open Door Law

On the Bloomington redevelopment commission’s (RDC’s) Monday agenda was an item to approve $27,000 in grant awards to seven different neighborhoods.

The image is from the header of the online application for this year’s neighborhood improvement grants.

The grants have been made annually since 1998, and can pay for a range of projects: neighborhood entrance signs and street sign toppers; restoration of historic sidewalks; playground equipment; public art installations; and landscaping, among other things.

But at Monday’s meeting, assistant city attorney Larry Allen told the RDC that the item had been pulled from the agenda for that day, after a question from The Square Beacon about compliance with Indiana’s Open Door Law (ODL).

RDC is expected to have the recommendations from the neighborhood improvement grant council on its meeting agenda two weeks from now.

On April 19, the neighborhood improvement grant council met to hear pitches from eight different neighborhood groups. That meeting was properly noticed.

However, the grant council held a subsequent meeting, when the members deliberated on and decided their recommendations to the RDC. That meeting was not properly noticed under the ODL, according to Allen.

So the remedy will be to post proper notice, re-hold the meeting, and get the recommendations in front of the RDC in two weeks, Allen said. He said he’d confirmed that the delay would not have a negative impact on any of the proposed projects. “There was some built-in time anyway. And so this allows us just to follow the law like we should,” Allen said.

The recommendations made by the grant council at the un-noticed meeting were for awards to seven of the eight applicants. Continue reading “Bloomington neighborhood grant approvals delayed to comply with Indiana’s Open Door Law” →

Potential affordable housing encore for Kohr hospital building takes another step

The aerial photo of the Kohr Administration Center is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

At its regular Monday meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission voted to greenlight the formalization of a deal with a potential affordable housing developer for the Kohr Administration Center building, which is a part of the IU Health hospital on 2nd Street.

The potential developer is a group represented by Brinshore Development, Bloomington Housing Authority, and Springpoint Architects, Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development Alex Crowley told RDC members on Monday. [Added April 22, 2021 at 9:23 a.m. Rottman Collier Architects is the co-architect in the project group.]

The city of Bloomington will be getting control of the Kohr building in the context of a $6.5 million real estate deal, which calls for Bloomington to take over the whole hospital property on 1st and 2nd streets in 2022. That will come after IU Health moves operations in late 2021 to its new facility, which is currently under construction on the SR-46 bypass.

The question of formalizing a Kohr building deal was put to the RDC, because it’s the public entity responsible for approving tax increment financing (TIF) district funds, which are being used to purchase the hospital site from IU Health.

The RDC’s approval to go ahead and draw up a formal arrangement, will put the group in a position to meet this year’s July 26 deadline for an application to the federal low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program, to help finance the project. Awards through the program are due later in 2021, Crowley said. Continue reading “Potential affordable housing encore for Kohr hospital building takes another step” →

Change is the order of the day at Bloomington RDC as Griffin resigns to become deputy mayor

The president of Bloomington’s redevelopment commission, Don Griffin, delivered an expected announcement at the group’s regular Monday night meeting: “At this time, I’d like to tender my resignation from the RDC, folks!”

Screenshot of RDC president Don Griffin at the group’s March 15, 2021 meeting, which was conducted by Zoom video conference.

The announcement came early in the 15-minute meeting. So assistant city attorney Larry Allen checked to make sure Griffin would be presiding over the rest of the day’s agenda. Yes.

“It will be effective at the end of this meeting,” Griffin said. He added, “This will be my last meeting on the RDC, period.”

Griffin’s resignation was expected because his appointment as deputy mayor, succeeding Mick Renneisen, was announced by mayor John Hamilton’s office nearly two weeks ago, on March 4.

Renneisen announced his retirement effective April 23.

The mayor makes three out of the five appointments to the RDC, including the seat in which Griffin served. The other two spots are appointed by the city council.

On Monday, the one new item of business handled by the board was the fourth and final change order on a nearly $1-million multi-use path project along East Winslow Road and South Henderson Street. The change order amounted to an increase of $15,000 on the construction portion of the project, which was handled by Conexco, Inc. Continue reading “Change is the order of the day at Bloomington RDC as Griffin resigns to become deputy mayor” →

No formal bids for parking garage ground-floor retail, but econ development director says: “I am confident that the spaces will be appealing.”

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No formal bids were received by the city of Bloomington for the leases of the ground floor space in either of the two parking garages that are now under construction.

That was the anticlimactic news from Monday’s meeting of the city’s redevelopment commission (RDC).

One of the garages is on Fourth Street, to open in August. The other is northwest of city hall in the Trades District, set to open towards the end of March.

The lack of bids is not a setback, according to city’s director of economic and sustainable development Alex Crowley.

Crowley told The Square Beacon after the RDC meeting, “I’m not actually fazed by the lack of bids.”

One reason Crowley is not concerned by the lack of offers is that advertising for bids is a legally required procedure that the RDC has to follow. It was not, as Crowley put it, “a highly visible/marketed listing.”

Crowley continued, “I’m sure we’ll get more interest once we start marketing the spaces.” He added, “I am confident that the spaces will be appealing, especially as things start to settle down from the pandemic.” Continue reading “No formal bids for parking garage ground-floor retail, but econ development director says: “I am confident that the spaces will be appealing.”” →

Lower grant award from feds sends Bloomington back to drawing board for tech center

In December 2020, Bloomington’s economic and sustainability department heard from the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) that it would likely be receiving a $3.53 million grant to support the construction of a technology center in the Trades District.

The city has been collaborating with the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation on the technology center, which would be built at Maker Way and Madison Street, north of city hall in downtown Bloomington.

But the likely grant award, which was described to the city in a “merits further consideration” letter from the EDA letter dated Dec. 18, fell $2.3 million short of the $5.83 million the city had requested in its grant application submitted in the fall.

That means the city will now be asking the architect on the project, Axis Architecture + Interiors, to redesign a smaller building, to lower the project cost.

To get authorization for the $29,970 in extra architect fees, Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development, Alex Crowley appeared before the city’s redevelopment commission (RDC) on Tuesday. The five-member commission unanimously approved the revised project totals.

The proposed technology center is in the RDC’s bailiwick for a couple of reasons. The RDC is contributing $2 million to the project, which will cover the local match for the federal money, through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

If the EDA is satisfied that the city’s resubmitted, downscaled proposal can still achieve the goals of the technology center, it means that the city will be receiving $3.53 million in federal money to go along with its own $2 million investment. Continue reading “Lower grant award from feds sends Bloomington back to drawing board for tech center” →

Bloomington RDC on path to keep hospital’s Kohr building for now, OKs lease offerings for ground floor of new parking garages at $20/sf minimum

This April 2020 Image is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property records system.

At its regular meeting on Monday, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) kept on a course that would preserve the Kohr Administration Center building as part of the IU Health hospital site at 1st and Rogers streets.

The RDC’s vote came in the context of a $6.5 million real estate deal, which calls for Bloomington to take over the hospital property on 1st and 2nd streets in 2022. That will come after IU Health moves operations in late 2021 to its new facility, which is currently under construction on the SR-46 bypass.

In other business related to the redevelopment of the hospital site, the RDC approved on Monday recommendations for agreements with SB Friedman Development Advisors ($39,410) and CORE Planning Strategies ($117,342) for financial analysis and project management.

The two agreements reflect an alternative to the approach the city had been pursuing for the last 18 months, to strike a decade-or-longer deal with Browning Development from Indianapolis to act as the city’s owner’s representative for future development.

At Monday’s meeting, deputy mayor Mick Renneisen described the end of the romance with Browning this way: “We had been dating for about 18 months, and we decided to see other people. It just wasn’t working out, and we’ve separated amicably.”

Also at its Monday meeting, the RDC approved lease offerings at a minimum of $20 per square foot for the ground floor space in the two parking garages that are currently under construction at 4th Street and in the Trades District.

Assuming Monday’s recommendation translates to final action by the RDC at its Dec. 21 meeting, the Kohr building would be added to the hospital’s parking garage as a structure that IU Health is not required to demolish and remediate as a part of the deal. Continue reading “Bloomington RDC on path to keep hospital’s Kohr building for now, OKs lease offerings for ground floor of new parking garages at $20/sf minimum” →

Bloomington redevelopment commission rounds out hospital site with $350K purchase at 2nd & Rogers

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This aerial image of the parcel on the southeast corner of 2nd and Rogers streets, dated April 2020, is from the Pictometry module of Monroe County’s online property lookup system.

At its regular Monday meeting, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) voted unanimously to buy a vacant lot at the southeast corner of Rogers and 2nd streets for not more than $350,000.

Economic and sustainable development director Alex Crowley told RDC members the lot was not owned by IU Health, and would not be a part of the $6.5 million deal to transfer the hospital site to the city of Bloomington in 2021. That’s when IU Health moves to its new facility on the SR 45/46 bypass.

The parcel’s owner since 1900 has been C & S, Inc. according to Monroe County’s online property records.

The idea, Crowley said, is to “round out” the block of land the city will be acquiring with the IU Health land deal.

That brings the total price tag for the RDC’s hospital redevelopment project to $13 million. Continue reading “Bloomington redevelopment commission rounds out hospital site with $350K purchase at 2nd & Rogers” →

8 local non-profits get total of $250K in CARES Act funding

Funding agreements between Bloomington’s HAND (Housing and Neighborhood Development) Department and eight local nonprofits totaling $253,862 were approved by the city’s redevelopment commission on Monday night.

The money is coming from a supplemental allocation of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, which was made available by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

When its notice of available funding went out in May, HAND said it would consider applications ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. Three of the non-profits that had agreements approved on Monday received the maximum award: Boys & Girls Club, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, and Shalom Community Center (now Beacon).

The city’s May press release said HAND had received $525,656 of supplemental funding. Monday’s agreements fell about $270,000 short of that total.

Asked if HAND was leaving CARES Act money on the table, HAND director Doris Sims said, “We didn’t leave it on the table. We did have more applicants who applied.” She added that the additional applicants had asked for funding that did not meet the requirements under the CARES Act.

Sims said HAND is looking to make a second round of CARES Act funding, with a notice to that effect expected in November. Sims said she hopes the rest of the CARES Act funding could be awarded by the end of December. Continue reading “8 local non-profits get total of $250K in CARES Act funding” →