Redevelopments coming to Downtown Bloomington

Image Courtesy of Illinois State University

NORMAL, Ill. – Various redevelopments are set to happen in the Bloomington area. City Manager Jeff Jurgens talks about where the redevelopments will take place, the changes that will be made and the project’s intended cost.

“A lot of these buildings have sat vacant, for some of them 17 years,” Jurgens said. “So recently, we had a group come forward that had acquired interest in each of the properties and brought some different proposals to the city, and the one we landed on was to have the buildings demolished.”

Demolishing the buildings is only step one in the redevelopment plan. 

“So, after demolition, the agreement that we struck with the developer will be to have surface level parking at those location that at those location that’s going to add about 130 over 130 parking spaces to our downtown,” Jurgens said. “It’s a good location, at least temporarily, because it’s very close to the arena.”

He also goes into how parking is not the long-term goal of the redevelopments. The city council is going to have to see what developments will be needed there in the future, whether it’s commercial, housing or other amenities.

“But parking is not the long-term goal we want; that’s not the highest and best use,” Jurgens said. “We want to see these properties redeveloped into additional amenities for our downtown. It could be housing. It could be an additional commercial.  we will have to wait and see what develops in that area.”

The cost of the redevelopment, including acquiring the properties and demolition costs, is expected to reach roughly $3.9 million.