A Bloomington shopping center that houses several popular restaurants on 10th Street will undergo a massive redevelopment project that requires some of them to move by August. However, the owners of two of the affected businesses say they hope to keep it open during construction.
The Indiana University Foundation and another owner of the buildings reached an agreement to rebuild the Crosstown Shopping Center.
Officials say the redevelopment will most likely take place in two phases, starting with the east side building. Those businesses, including Soma Coffeehouse, must move out by Aug. 1.
Jeff Mease, the co-founder and CEO of Lennie's and Pizza X restaurants, says he hopes to keep the businesses open in their current spots through phase one of the redevelopment.
"The idea would hopefully be that we can negotiate a new lease in the new building they're going to build and be able to keep in operation until we develop that and move in," Mease says.
Matt Kavgian, the director of strategic communications and projects for the IU Foundation, says they will tear the current structures down, then construct new, multilevel buildings with room for IU offices on the second and third floors. He says current businesses could have the opportunity to come back.
"No guarantees or promises are being made to anybody," Kavgian says. "Certainly people will have the option to try to come back in there, there are no plans to bring in anything or anybody else at this point."
Lennie Busch is the co-founder and CFO of Lennie's and Pizza X, which will have over a year to make moving plans before the second phase begins. She says they don't want to move, but they're making lemonade out of lemons.
"In some ways it opens up some avenues for us to kind of re-look at the concepts and freshen them up and get some better, more energy efficient equipment and that sort of thing in," Busch says.
Mease and Busch say the move will be costly, but they're optimistic the outcome will be better for both restaurants.
It's unclear how other businesses in the complex will be impacted in the long-term.
Kavgian says the foundation is offering support and in some cases relocation assistance to businesses. He says they waived rent costs from now until August.
