The Graduate Bloomington hotel is trying to obtain a local historic designation despite being only six years old.
(Joe Hren, WFIU/WTIU News)
The Graduate Bloomington hotel is trying to obtain a local historic designation despite being only six years old — and being criticized for it.
Hotel representatives appeared before the Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission last month to present their case for the designation. At that meeting, one commission member blasted the request, calling it “insulting” and “disingenuous.”
Representatives said the hotel at 210 E. Kirkwood Ave. deserves historic protections but admit their request stems, at least partially, from wanting to sell alcohol.
But Pablo David with AJ Capital Partners, owner of the Graduate hotel brand, said the nearby First United Methodist Church is against the hotel selling alcohol. The hotel is about 18 feet away from the church.
“The issue is that they have a council that deals on a consensus model, and there were two or three individuals out of those 15 that didn’t even want to discuss this,” Pablo said. “Part of that is why we’re here, and we don’t want to hide that. We want to be honest about that.”
The hotel is also about 85 feet away from First Christian Church. David did not clarify whether both churches oppose the hotel having a liquor license.
David said the hotel submitted its request after a church representative encouraged him to find a creative solution to the liquor license issue. Due to a loophole in the portion of state law restricting alcohol sales, it’s possible to obtain a liquor license through a historic designation, even if church leaders aren’t on board.
David and Alex Intermill, an attorney with Bose McKinney & Evans, leaned on the hotel’s location on Bloomington’s iconic Kirkwood Avenue as a rationale for seeking the designation. They also emphasized the company’s dedication to historic attributes in its portfolio.
The pair also said they are open to a historic designation more broadly encompassing Kirkwood Avenue. Bloomington’s map of historic sites shows several properties on the street are within a local historic district and others are on the National Register of Historic Places.
“Graduate Bloomington would like to extend that historic district so that it would not only be part of historic preservation along the Kirkwood streetscape,” Intermill said. “If the commission isn’t going to designate all of East Kirkwood Avenue a historic district, certainly growing that by voluntary petitions of property owners along Kirkwood would seem to fit the state code’s purpose and policy.”
The pair’s arguments were not enough to persuade certain commission members.
Commissioner Reynard Cross saw the request as a thinly veiled ploy to get a liquor license.
“I know you’re here for a historic protection so you can get a liquor license,” he told David and Intermill. “I think the most kind I can be is to describe that as disingenuous. For you to seek to gain the approval of this organization is offensive. Right? Like … insulting.”
Cross added he nothing about the building itself should qualify it for historic protection.
“The weakness of this application speaks for itself,” he said.
Most other members agreed, saying they would not support the hotel’s request. However, Daniel Schlegel and one other said they could potentially support a larger historic designation including other parts of Kirkwood.
“I’m actually kind of OK with it,” Schlegel said. “Maybe some of the other (business) owners might be enticed to help protect Kirkwood; this would just be a gentle extension.”
Schlegel also suggested exterior renovations to the hotel may help strengthen its case.
Commission member Jeremy Hackard said he was not offended by the request as Cross and even called the request “a good try,” but said the commission cannot grant the designation.
“The building is not historic in nature,” Hackard said. “We can’t consider liquor license; that is not our purview. It’s an interesting idea. I like it … but it does not meet any standards for historic designations, and it’s not even 10 years old.”
In a city staff report, Historic Preservation Program Manager Noah Sandweiss recommended the commission deny the hotel’s application on the basis it doesn’t meet the criteria for a local designation.
Sandweiss said there’s a general threshold that a site must be more than 50 years old to qualify for a historic designation, with some exceptions for sites deemed to have other significance. That said, he added the hotel does not meet any of the criteria used to evaluate properties’ historic value by national standards.
“The local and national criteria for listing are different, but I defer to both in making a staff opinion,” Sandweiss said. “In order to meet the qualifications for my position and make consistent opinions I am required to demonstrate an understanding of national standards which I then apply in my judgement of local criteria.”
He added the hotel’s case for the designation relied primarily on its interior design and collection of memorabilia, which are outside the commission’s purview.
The staff report notes hotel representatives previously applied for a historic district last October. Sandweiss’ predecessor, Gloria Colom Braña, also determined the building was ineligible.
The commission is scheduled to vote on the hotel’s request at its next meeting on July 11.
