From left to right: IU President Pamela Whitten, former Bloomington Mayor and SVP at The Mill John Fernandez, current Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson, US Senator Todd Young, The Mill board chair Ravi Bhatt, and executive director of The Mill Pat East.
(Clayton Baumgarth, WTIU News)
Entrepreneurs and politicians on Friday celebrated opening The Forge, a multimillion-dollar commercial workspace and tech center in Bloomington.
The recently constructed three-story building at the center of the Trades District is intended as office space for the city’s growing tech sector.
Exterior of The Forge, a multimillion dollar office space run by The Mill. (Clayton Baumgarth)
U.S. Senator Todd Young of Indiana, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson and Indiana University President Pamela Whitten spoke at the opening ceremony at The Mill – a nonprofit and workspace tasked with overseeing the Trades District’s development.
Creating the tech center required huge investments of local and federal dollars.
The City of Bloomington bought the land from IU in 2011 for the future Trades District. The City Council covered the $9.3 million price by selling revenue bonds.
The Mill paid for construction with a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Sen. Young wrote a letter of support for the project to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. He also voted for the pandemic-era CARES Act that made the funds available.
“I have to say for me this is the most exciting thing that’s happening this year in Bloomington south of 17th St,” Young joked, referring to IU’s undefeated football team. “There’s many unrealized value propositions right here in the heartland, and we aim to realize those value propositions here at The Forge.”
Pat East, executive director of The Mill, helped run The Forge’s development. Unlike The Mill, he said, The Forge will primarily house corporate offices rather than coworking spaces.
“It’s 22,000 square feet that will be home to AI companies, machine learning companies, defense companies, universities, corporations and partnerships,” East said.
“We’d love to have presence from Crane over here,” East said. “As the world’s third-largest naval warfare base, it’s great to have them as a partner and we’d love to have them officially over here in this building.”
WFIU/WTIU News asked East whether he’d discussed leasing office space at The Forge with Crane.
“We’re at the point now where we can’t make any announcements, but we feel confident that the building is going to be very full in 2025,” he said. So far, no office space has been rented out.
The Mill also has multiple partnerships with IU, which it sees as a partner in the development of Bloomington’s tech scene. The university recently received a $16 million grant to help develop the Trades District, part of which was used to build The Forge.
IU Provost Rahul Shrivastav, who sits on The Mill’s board of directors, wants the partnership to improve the university’s startup culture and commercial goals.
“We are developing a pipeline through IU Innovates as those ideas mature, as faculty research is ready for translation,” Shrivastav said. “We are hoping The Forge and the Trades District in general will be the point that helps them translate that in a big way.”
Rahul Shrivastav (Clayton Baumgarth)
As the Trades District’s footprint grows, high-tech space occupies more of Bloomington’s downtown. WFIU/WTIU News asked Thomson how The Forge, and the Trades District in general, will fit into the rest of the city.
“I think it already fits into the rest of Bloomington. We’re eager to host them,” Thomson said. “As we all know, we need more housing here in Bloomington to be great hosts. But what we also know is that we have a great quality of place, and so businesses want to come here.”
