Tag: Hopewell

Public works preview: Latimer Square lane closures, Hopewell contract, Rita’s Italian Ice walkup

Inset map for Latimer Square project.
Locator map for Latimer Square project.
Diagram showing protected bicycle lane along Clarizz Boulevard.
Feb. 2022, aerial photo of Latimer Square site from Monroe County property lookup system
View looking northwest along Clarizz Boulevard (May 22, 2023)

Motorists and pedestrians who are navigating north and south on either side of the Latimer Square apartment complex, which is now under construction at the site of the former Kmart off East 3rd Street, will notice some lane closures in the coming weeks.

That’s assuming Bloomington’s board of public works grants the requests from Gilliatte General Contractors, which is doing the construction work. The lane closure requests appear on the board’s Tuesday agenda.

The builder wants to close some lanes on Kingston Drive which runs north-south along the western side of the 900-bed apartment project, and Clarizz Boulevard, which runs north-south along the eastern side.

Closing down some traffic lanes and sidewalks will allow the improvements to the sidewalks and construction of bicycle lanes that are a part of the project site plan. Continue reading “Public works preview: Latimer Square lane closures, Hopewell contract, Rita’s Italian Ice walkup” →

OK’d by Bloomington: Owner plan for Monroe Oil building rehab, “something that will just rock”

As soon as this year’s construction season, the old Monroe Oil building, just south of the Seminary Square Kroger where The B-Line Trail crosses 1st Street, could see work start, to make it into a restaurant and banquet facility.

That’s the timing that owner Rudy Fields told The B Square he is hoping for.

Fields said he wants the adaptive reuse of the building to become a part of the fabric of Bloomington, the same way Nick’s on Kirkwood Avenue is.  He said, “I want my grandkids walking down that trail and going, ‘Yeah, Pop did that.’”

Fields was speaking immediately following Monday’s regular meeting of Bloomington’s nine-member plan commission, which granted unanimous approval of the project’s site plan. The idea is for the not-yet-identified tenant to create a 14,170 square foot restaurant and meeting, banquet or event facility. Continue reading “OK’d by Bloomington: Owner plan for Monroe Oil building rehab, “something that will just rock”” →

Public works notebook: Sole $13M bid on Hopewell infra rejected, 4 maintenance of traffic plans OK’d

General project area for Phase 1 East of the Hopewell redevelopment project.
Looking west, the newly repainted temporary crosswalk across Dunn Street at 14th Street (Jan. 31, 2023).
Looking north along Rogers Street where trees have been removed to prepare for the installation of new transmission lines. (Jan. 30, 2023)
Maintenance of traffic plan for The Standard annotated by the B Square with an arrow to the temporary crosswalk.
Map of Duke Energy project scope.
MOT for Phase 1 East Hopewell project.

Bloomington’s three-member board of public works voted at its regular Tuesday meeting to reject the sole bid for a major infrastructure project at the site of the former IU Health hospital, now known as the Hopewell neighborhood.

The $13.5 million bid, from Milestone Contractors, was about 30 percent higher than the engineer’s estimate.

The area for the project is bounded by 2nd Street to the north, 1st Street to the south, The B-Line Trail to the east, and Rogers Street to the west. It’s called Phase 1 East in the master plan for the development of the site.

The demolition phase for Phase 1 East is complete. The rejected bid was for installing utilities, constructing streets, landscaping and bicycle-pedestrian facilities.

The project will now be re-bid, after the city’s staff reviews the package for items that could be modified or deleted from the current plan. “When we re-bid it, hopefully there would be a reduction in the cost there,” said engineering department project manager Matt Smethurst at the board’s Monday work session. Continue reading “Public works notebook: Sole $13M bid on Hopewell infra rejected, 4 maintenance of traffic plans OK’d” →

Plat near former hospital OK’d by Bloomington plan commission, city council must approve alley vacation

Highlighted in yellow are the alleys the city council was asked to vacate.

Getting unanimous approval from Bloomington’s plan commission on Monday night was a new plat for most of the area bounded by 1st and 2nd streets on the north and south, and Morton and Rogers streets on the east and west.

A plat is a map that shows how the land is divided into lots.

The block is next to the former IU Health hospital site that is being transferred to the city of Bloomington in a $6.5-million real estate deal. It will be redeveloped as a part of that project, which is known as Phase 1 East in the project master plan.  Last week, the city of Bloomington announced that the future development planned there will be called the Hopewell neighborhood.

As part of the plat, Madison Street will be extended south from its current intersection with 2nd Street to 1st Street, and a new “greenway street” called West University Street will be built between Rogers and Morton Streets.

The next step for this particular block will be for the city council to approve the vacation of two alleyways. The alleys won’t be needed in those locations, given the construction of two new streets. (The alleys that need city council approval to be vacated are shown with yellow arrows in the image included with this article.)

The plat request was put forward by the Bloomington redevelopment commission, which is organ of the city that is paying for the real estate transaction as well as the site preparation and design.

The plat approval was not controversial for plan commissioners, two of whom were attending their first meeting as plan commissioners: Tim Ballard and city councilmember Ron Smith. Continue reading “Plat near former hospital OK’d by Bloomington plan commission, city council must approve alley vacation” →

Hopewell: Name of new neighborhood to be built on former hospital site announced

When some Bloomington residents came together to engage the public process connected to the city’s rezoning effort a couple of years ago, they called themselves the Hopewell Group.

They took the moniker from the hospital that was opened about 120 years ago by the Local Council of Women at First and Rogers Streets. The brick building, which was called Hopewell House, along with four and a half acres of land, was purchased from Isaac Hopewell. The headline of the Nov. 29, 1905 edition of the Bloomington World read “Open Hospital.”

Also bearing the Hopewell name will be a new neighborhood to be built on the site of the hospital that eventually replaced Hopewell House. The city of Bloomington announced the choice of name in a news release issued Friday.

The name “Hopewell Subdivision” appears on the plat that Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) has submitted to the city’s plan commission for review at its Monday, Feb. 7 meeting. Continue reading “Hopewell: Name of new neighborhood to be built on former hospital site announced” →