The Mill to pay $4.6M for Bloomington Trades District land, means all 4 developable tracts now sold
The sale of Tract 1 and Tract 2 in Bloomington’s Trades District for a total of $4.6 million was approved by the city’s redevelopment commission at its regular Monday meeting.
The purchaser is The Mill, which is a private nonprofit operating out of the former Showers Brothers furniture factory dimension mill building on Madison Street. That’s south of 11th Street and north of the city hall building. The Mill is a coworking space that describes itself as a part of the city’s “startup ecosystem.”
To pay for the land, The Mill is using part of a $16 million award to the Indiana University Foundation, from the Lilly Endowment, through Lilly’s College and Community Collaboration (CCC) initiative.
When the land deal closes sometime in the next few weeks, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission will have sold all four tracts in the Trades District, which it offered for sale in June of last year. The sale of Tract 3 and Tract 4 to Alluinn IU Trades District Hotel for $1.2 million LLC was approved by the RDC in early November.
The $4.6 million figure reflects the sum of the individual $2.55 million and $2.05 million price tags for the parcels, which amount to roughly 3 acres.
The RDC and The Mill have had a historical connection since the founding of the nonprofit—the RDC still owns the building, which it rehabbed as a part of an adaptive reuse project. And in early 2023, the RDC and The Mill agreed to an arrangement that called for the RDC to pay The Mill $200,000 each year in 2023 and 2024 for marketing and development of the Trades District.
To direct those efforts to develop the Trades District, John Fernandez was hired as vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships for The Mill.
At Monday’s RDC meeting, city attorney Larry Allen told RDC members that an extension of the partnership agreement between the RDC and The Mill would be presented for their approval at an upcoming meeting.
With ownership of Tract 1 and Tract 2, The Mill itself will be able to negotiate with developers for sale or lease of the land, and those agreements would not be subject to approval by the RDC.
Fernandez told The B Square after the meeting, that The Mill would have more, but not unlimited flexibility, to develop the real estate. He noted that student-oriented housing is prohibited—it’s not consistent with the goals of the Trades District. Those goals include economic development, focused on technology-based companies.
The Trades District is a 12-acre portion of a larger area that forms Bloomington’s certified technology park.
During Monday’s meeting, RDC members Randy Cassady and John West drew out the ongoing interest the RDC will have in Trades District real estate, including the building that is home to The Mill, which the RDC owns. City attorney Larry Allen noted that there are some common areas in the Trades District for which the RDC would have some responsibility.
Fernandez pointed out that The Mill has in its 2025 operating budget some expenses, like snow removal and mowing, that have historically been covered by the RDC. Fernandez also pointed to the operating agreement with The Forge, which would include that kind of seasonal maintenance activity as well.
The Forge is the branded name of a technology center housed in a 3-story 22,000-square-foot building—which stands on the southeast edge of the Trades District, just south of The Mill. The Forge is planned to provide office space for technology companies that are beyond the startup phase.
The construction of The Forge is essentially complete, with a ribbon cutting set for this Friday (Nov. 22). The target for the first tenant move-ins is Jan. 1, 2025.
The nearly $13-million budget for The Forge was supported by a $3.5 million grant from the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA), in addition to TIF (tax increment finance) funding that was approved by Bloomington’s RDC.
The same Lilly grant that is funding The Mill’s purchase of Tract 1 and Tract 2 is also supporting The Forge, by helping to offset the cost of some tenant improvements.
Based on H-T reporting from a decade ago, in 2011 Bloomington’s RDC paid Indiana University $9.3 million for the 12 acres that make up the Trades District, part of the larger 65-acre certified technology park.
