Bloomington City Hall
(Ethan Burks, WFIU/WTIU News)
This article has been updated.
The City of Bloomington is walking back the part of an ongoing project seeking to relocate the police headquarters into the western portion of the city hall building.
At the request of Mayor Kerry Thomson, the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission on Monday unanimously rejected all four construction bids for the space, also known as Showers West.
A resolution rejecting the bids was added to the commission’s agenda the Friday prior. It reads, “The City of Bloomington and the RDC have determined that while the bidders were responsive, they no longer meet the vision and scope of the project.”
Kerry Thomson at a Monday Redevelopment Commission meeting. (Lucas González, WTIU/WTIU News)
Thomson said she reached that decision through an assessment of the project’s finances and discussions among members of a recently created working group on the Showers West.
“What was not clear was the cost of terminating leases and several other pieces, as well as the practicality of having Showers West as our public safety center,” Thomson said. “It became very clear that fiscally we just didn't have the money together.”
Moving the police headquarters into Showers West would have put the city $9 million short of funds earmarked for the project, according to information provided Wednesday by the city.
By rejecting the bids, the commission has made it possible for the city to use Showers West for a different public purpose, which is what Thomson said she plans to do.
“Showers West is obviously a tremendous opportunity for us, and we’ve already said fire administration is likely to go over there,” Thomson said. “We interestingly already have several nonprofits over there that sort of circle around public safety in some way, and so there is some discussion about how we can make it some kind of collaboration center.”
City Attorney Larry Allen said the city is not abandoning the project entirely but is no longer moving forward with the plan as it was originally designed under the previous mayor, John Hamilton.
Larry Allen at a Monday Redevelopment Commission meeting. (Lucas González, WTIU/WTIU News)
Allen has also said the city does not plan to sell the current Third Street police station, which Hamilton wanted to do to help fund the project. The city council rejected the sale in December after relatives of the original owners of the land the station sits on spoke out against it.
When asked about her position on selling the station, Thomson told WFIU/WTIU News, “Unless the original donors have a change of heart for some reason, ethically, that’s not something I’ll consider.”
The Showers West advisory group has contemplated several options for the future police headquarters, some of which include keeping the existing station, according to Thomson.
“One was to proceed with Showers West and the fire projects as they were, one was to do just a remodel of the police station with no expansion,” she said. “Another was to do an expansion of the police station, and then the final was to move the police out of there and put them in an entirely new location.”
If the city expands the existing station and adds extra space to accommodate fire administration, it would be about $12 million short of existing funds. If it builds a new police station with a fire administration space on-site, it would be about $14 million short.
Even if it renovates the police station and brings fire administration to Showers West, it will still be about $1 million short.
The city purchased Showers West last year for about $8.75 million, intending to use it for a future police headquarters and fire administration after floods damaged the police and fire stations in 2021. The project has been controversial since its inception, garnering criticism from members of the local police union, who have long opposed it.
The project was funded through city council-approved bonding of about $30 million in public safety projects. The other projects include a rebuild of the fire department’s downtown station, a remodel of the station on Woodlawn Avenue, and the construction of a new training and logistics center.
Thomson said the fire projects will still move forward, adding, “The bond is approved for public safety in general. That’s not to say it won’t be partially used for some kind of police renovation or move, but frankly, once we’re done with the fire needs and what we already have in Showers West, it won’t be enough to fund an entire project."
She also said the building the fire department is currently renting as a logistics space is now up for sale, creating an urgent need to establish a new logistics center. The logistics center houses the fire department’s equipment.
In recent weeks, the commission has approved several early lease terminations for tenants still in Showers West — but at least six have said they don’t want to move.
Thomson said the city will put any further lease negotiations on hold and will continue to lease space to tenants who want to stay in the building.
