Feature by Tom Muckerheide

In February of this year, the members of the Capital Improvement Board, in a meeting with community stakeholders, unanimously approved to change the name of the Monroe Convention Center to the Bloomington Convention Center. While it may seem small, this change of name is an important step in the grander transformation of the convention center, representing the exciting new opportunity for downtown vitalization that residents of Bloomington and Monroe County are beginning to see.

The Convention Center has for decades served as a cornerstone for the local community. Located on 302 South College Avenue, the convention center allows a dedicated space to showcase Bloomington’s local art and to help a variety of local and regional organizations host events. With in-house catering and its location nearby hotels and the city’s vibrant restaurant scene, it is little wonder that Talisha Coppock, executive director of the center, speaks so proudly of its role in the community.

“We opened the building in 1991. And at that time, our community really needed a place to hold events, and we wanted to capture the tourism market, and that was part of a whole revitalization of downtown Bloomington, and restoring an old historic building into an event venue made a lot of sense,” said Coppock.

However, important changes are coming to the convention center. The Capital Improvement Board leads the charge, endowed with the funding structure and political authority to facilitate an ambitious expansion project aimed at addressing the most pressing needs of the center. It will also oversee the new center’s operations following its completion. 

Such a project wouldn’t be possible without the cooperation of the City of Bloomington and Monroe County. In 2023, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners passed county ordinance 2023-24, creating the Capital Improvement Board, a group of volunteers and community leaders appointed jointly by the City of Bloomington and Monroe County. Throughout 2024, discussions took place over the design goals for the renovated center, involving participation by Schmidt Associates architecture and the Boards of Zoning Appeals and Public Works. Schmidt Associates has previously worked on important community projects, such as the expansion of the local Ivy Tech building. For the actual construction work the CIB will rely on Weddle Bros. in addition to the owner’s representatives J.S. Held who work to coordinate all parties and ensure the project remains within the budget and design outlines. 

In February, the final design was approved by the CIB, representing a monumental step in turning long held hopes for a new and improved center into a reality. John Whikehart, President of the Capital Improvement Board, is excited about all the work that has been done in the past year to integrate Bloomington’s character into the architecture of the expanded complex.

“I think the community is going to be very happy about the design. One of the things, not one, several of the things we wanted to make sure we were emphasizing, was the uniqueness of Bloomington and this building will both complement the current building, but it also has its own new architectural features. There’s a butterfly sloped roof on the building, which everybody was pretty excited about. There’s an open garden roof area on the building, so conventioneers can come from the inside to the outside into an open garden space,” said Whikehart.

This March, the City Council approved the bonds for construction, allowing the CIB to move forward with actual building, which is expected to begin in June of this year.

What excites most business and community leaders of Bloomington is the addition of Convention Center space of approximately 60,000 square feet. This space comes from the parcel of land east of the existing center, between Walnut street and College avenue.

“We’re able to go from 250 attendees now to 500 to 600 when this expansion is completed, and we’ve had to turn away conventions because we just weren’t big enough to host them,” said Whikehart.

For Board President Whikehart, recent developments on the project have demonstrated an impressive drive by local officials to support the expansion project, even if it has been a long time coming. 

“So we’ve been meeting for 22 months, and we’ll break ground in June. So I like to say that for government work, it’s been at warp speed, considering that the six years prior to that, lots of nothing happened. So, it’s been an eight year project in progress, if you will, and certainly over the last 22 months, it’s moved from an idea, to design, to we will begin to let bids here very soon, and we will break ground in early June of this year,” said Whikehart.

The CIB was founded in 2023, but Whikehart has been involved with previous efforts to expand the center. In 2019, the City and County established an expansion advisory board. However, the ensuing pandemic put plans to an abrupt halt, and the board was dissolved shortly after.

While Whikehart has been involved with the project for 8 years, Talisha Coppock, executive director of the Convention Center, said that desires for an expansion of the building have existed for decades, ever since it was transformed from the Ford Model T assembly plant in 1991. In her view, the diversity of Bloomington events and attractions has made the need for an expanded center a clear one for her and her team. 

“It was very obvious that we needed to go to that next step, just because Bloomington is, like, almost the number one destination in Indiana, because of all the amenities. It’s why we all live there, right? Like all the different things that you can do here. And different topics, you know, we’re very strong with environmental topics. The Kelly School of Business is very strong, so there’s a lot of variety here,” said Coppock.

WFHB spoke with Mike McAfee, executive director of Visit Bloomington, who also volunteers at WFHB as a DJ. He said that over the past decades, a number of issues have arisen which kept plans for the convention center from materializing.

“We’ve basically pushed it back or held off on doing this or that, just when, whether it was COVID or 9/11 or, you know, whatever it might have been. So [there’s] normal, I mean, not normal, but impacts on the economy, or things like that, for just trying to find the most favorable time to do it,” said McAfee.

In a column featured in the Herald Times, Coppock summarized the main problems with the current center, highlighting the disparity between the center’s size and the experienced demand for major events, conferences, and other conventions. She wrote, “planners and organizers tell us the biggest gap in our current offerings is the addition of a large, flexible space for multi-day conventions, exhibits, performances, non-traditional sporting events and public consumer shows such as art markets. A host hotel is needed to provide overnight room blocks and parking to accommodate attendees to provide a reliable experience. We owe it to our community to be a leader in a venue where we are proud to host events.” 

Community leaders envision a wholesale reimagining of the Convention Center. Coppock is excited for the unique Bloomington atmosphere that the center will contribute to the entire area.

“I think that whole bigger picture of redeveloping the south side of downtown is very important. And I think encouraging the small business atmosphere around that for support services of a convention center expansion is important as well. And I think the design of the building very much fits within the Bloomington character. I love that, you know, it’s picking up on the red brick, the limestone, that it’s a warm feeling, but a professional atmosphere. And I’m super excited that we’ll have art be a big part of continuing in the existing building and in the new building,” said Coppock.

Visit Bloomington leads the city’s marketing by cultivating a tourist oriented experience for those outside of Bloomington, acting as a key repository for information on local shops, museums, restaurants, and more. According to them, medium and large sized groups suffer greatly from restrictions in room space and capacity, with Monroe County placing last in civic space per capita.

While space might be a primary concern for convention attendees and community members, director McAfee shared that from Visit Bloomington’s perspective, this expansion project represents more than just added rooms and amenities to the convention center. To him, this is about the service the city can provide to enhance Bloomington’s reputation. This includes expanding additional parking space and building a new hotel in cooperation with developer Dora Hospitality.

“We’re gonna, we’re gonna take this incredible community asset, the Monroe Convention Center, and we’re going to finally increase it to a better size that’s going to allow us to service groups that want to come here. And we’re going to expand across the street and build a new hotel, all in an area that really is kind of an eyesore in the heart of Bloomington, and we’re going to improve everything about everything about that block and that area where it’s happening quite a bit. And just again, we’re looking forward to growing that market, and seeing the building be a success,” said McAfee.

But what does this mean for the Bloomington community on the practical level? During our interview, Whikehart pointed to steps the board has taken to ensure the Convention Center remains open throughout the process. The construction is slated to be finished and ready for use by January of 2027, but that does not mean the original site will be left in the dust.

“January of 2027 the new expansion will be ready to open according to schedule. Once that happens, there will be another six months while we do some renovation of the current building. So that will follow about six months later. Obviously, you can’t do renovation and construction at the same time, or else we’d have to close the current Convention Center, and we don’t want to do that. So expansion will open January 2027, renovation completed within six months of that time, and no interruption of the ability of conventioneers to come here and enjoy conventions,” said Whikehart.

Hotel construction plans have slowed in recent months, however, with Dora Hospitality failing to have purchased the property north of the center by March according to the IDS. Whikehart was troubled by the delays, stressing the need for hotel construction and center expansion to align into the expected 2027 finish date.

“My concern, and I’m sure the concern of others, is that our goal is to have an expansion open in January of 2027, and the longer it takes for this process with the hotel to play out, the further it is out from that date before the hotel is open,” Whikehart said.

This transformation of the downtown space would not be possible without the input raised by different sectors of the community. Whikehart said that the design phase underwent multiple shifts after balancing the opinions of stakeholders and boards.

“We went from July of 2024 when we had two days worth of input from various stakeholders into the design of the building. And from that came five different designs, if you will. Those five designs were narrowed down to three. In September of 2024 we had a public meeting and received public input on design. And in October of 2024 we had a meeting of all the elected officials so that they would have input into design. Each month, as the board is method, the design has evolved, because new things come up, new opinions come in, new suggestions are made.” […] “The design of the building has completely changed from what we first envisioned it in July of 2024, to what we have designed now, after public input,” said Whikehart.

Concerns from different stakeholders sometimes chafed with existing Board plans. In March the IDS reported that the Democratic Party Deputy Chair for Labor opposed the City Council’s vote to approve revenue bonds. They cited the CIB’s treatment of organized labor, despite Whikehart’s subsequent statements to the council that the CIB sought to establish pre-qualification exemptions to make it easier for organized labor to be involved with expansion plans.

Deliberations in the past months have also centered heavily around the monetary costs of the project. Whikehart insisted that funding for land acquisition, construction, and design costs would not come from raised taxes on the community beyond the tax structure that’s existed since 2017 through the food and beverage tax. Rather, they will utilize the revenue bond approved by the Bloomington City Council.

“And so the project will be a $52 million hard construction cost project. That $52 million will come out of the revenue bond. There’s an additional $20 million that’s for architectural and engineering work, utility relocation, soil samples, all the things that you have to do in construction, a construction manager, the professional services we need both legal and controller, and that’s another $20 million, so the total cost is about 70 million, of which we have that $70 million now. So that’s a fixed budget. There won’t be any taxes raised in addition to that. And that’s the budget that we work with, and we have to stick within it,” said Whikehart.

While the present budget is locked through the allocation of these funds, previous discussions existed surrounding the implementation of the food and beverage tax, a county ordinance that placed 1% tax on all purchases of foodstuffs from places like restaurants and grocery stores. Whikehart emphasized that this revenue was split between Bloomington and Monroe County based on where it is generated.

“The county council had to pass the food and beverage tax. So it’s a county ordinance that created the food and beverage tax back in late 2017, and the way the revenue is split is it goes according to from where it’s generated. So 90% of the generation–the money generated, the revenue stream generated by the food and beverage tax–comes from within the Bloomington city limits. All the restaurants and bars, delis, every place where you might be ordering food and paying a food and beverage tax. The balance actually comes from outside the Monroe County limits. So it’s in the Monroe County, Ellettsville, etc. So the agreement between the city and the county is that the city’s 90% of the revenue generated by the food and beverage tax is dedicated to the convention center project,” said Whikehart.

Despite the concerns raised about the funding model and how the CIB will integrate contract services, the city and county have pointed to the economic strain resulting from limited center capacity. Restaurants in particular feel the ebb and flow of Bloomington demand, which Whikehart says the convention center could greatly influence. 

“One of the things I’ve learned recently is that restaurateurs know that their economy goes up and down. So when IU’s in session, the restaurants do very well. When the summer comes, they don’t do so well. They do well on weekends, they don’t do so well Monday through Thursday. All that can change by bringing conventions here and kind of flatten all that and make their lives more stable,” said Whikehart.

Director McAfee shared his experience of how the hospitality industry stands to benefit from an expansion of available space.

“Our role is to promote Monroe County to all kinds of visitors. And so there’s leisure visitors that are coming here all the time on weekends for Indiana University events, or whatever the events might be, and through the week and things like that. But business travel, people traveling Monday through Friday, is really an opportunity for growth for Bloomington and Monroe County, and so the convention center being able to host groups of three, four, five hundred people during the week is great. It’s just when we need the business,” said McAfee.

As the Sales and Marketing organization for the Convention Center, Visit Bloomington has played a large role in supporting expansion plans. According to John Whikehart, one of the goals that has persisted in the 8 years since he’s been involved with the project has been to co-locate Visit Bloomington with the expanded center. Discussions of this are presently underway, with Whikehart expressing his enthusiasm for the concept in a board meeting on March 26th.

“One of the goals has been how we can co-locate Visit Bloomington in our convention center. And if we think about that, what better way to market to conventioneers what’s happening in Bloomington than to have Visit Bloomington be co-located in the facility where our convention goers are?” said Whikehart.

Talisha Coppock highlighted the economic impact for Bloomington workers, bringing light to the contractors whose assistance in the day to day operations of the Bloomington Convention Center will only continue to grow with the building, meaning new jobs for a number of industries. The CIB stated that an expanded center could bring in an additional 500 hospitality jobs and $9 million annually into the community.

“I’m pretty excited because we use a lot of small business contractors. I mean, right now we use 42 small business contractors to keep the convention center running. And so I’m pretty excited about continuing a lot of those relationships. We’ll rely heavier on them, that as we double the space, we’re going to need to double the jobs and the support, so just all the way around. So from DJs, to bands, to the cleaners, to people who help fix the drywall. You know mechanical types of operations and security operations and marketing… There’s just a lot that goes into it,” said Coppock.

For many among Bloomington and Monroe county, this expansion project represents years of persistence and slow, unsteady work on the part of stakeholders and government officials. But in the meantime countless ordinary Hoosiers are eager to see a cornerstone of the downtown area reflect the uniqueness and pride of the community. Coppock made the case for the value of the local focus that the Convention Center has, offering a social benefit to Bloomington in addition to the economic benefit. She’s excited to see how members of the community will come to shape the new center with their own vision, emphasizing the space as one welcome to everyone.

“I think it’s hard to share all that we do, but we do 450 events a year, and the majority of our customers are locally based right now. We’ve got an interesting, educated community that likes to come out and celebrate and be together. So there’s a huge cultural and social part of this as well.” […] “We’re looking forward to it and being able to share it with the community and excited to see creative events and ideas that people have that they could use in the new space. We really want to be a community partner and support our local businesses, not for profits, and them reaching their goals. And also have the doors open for the Midwest, that they can bring their meetings and events here and help support local restaurants and local shops, local services that keep and maintain that character of Bloomington. I think we can really help support that,” said Coppock.

For more information on the convention center, you can visit bloomingtonconvention.com. More details on the Capital Improvement Board can be found by visiting monroecib.com or by attending their public meetings, the next of which is on May 21st. You can learn more about Bloomington’s various amenities through visitbloomington.com. 

For WFHB Local News, I’m Tom Muckerheide.