Bloomington Convention Center (formerly Monroe Convention Center): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:59, 9 February 2025

The Monroe Convention center stands at the southwest corner of 3rd Street and College Avenue in downtown Bloomington.

Starting in 2017, the convention center saw renewed focus by local government—Bloomington and Monroe County—in their efforts to expand the building footprint and to renovate the existing facility.

[This timelines is not up to date as of Feb. 25, 2024. The half decade since fall of 2019 needs to be filled in. In addition, the ways the citations are given with a link over the word "link" probably needs to be thought through.]

Timeline

2019-09-04 The Monroe County board of commissioners announces Sept. 16, 2019 joint meeting of the board, the county council, the city council, and the mayor, to be held on the topic of the convention center expansion. [copy of announcement from commissioners]
2019-08-20 Food and beverage tax report made to advisory commission. From January to July 2019, a total of $1,998,203.56 was collected. Of that amount, $1,778,237.86 went to the city and $219,965.70 went to the county. [copy of the food and beverage tax report]
2019-07-24 Monroe County board of commissioners call for meeting to discuss convention expansion to be attended by board of commissioners, county council, city council and mayor. Among the key proposals in the memo is the creation of an capital improvement board (CIB) to handle the convention center expansion. [copy of memo from county commissioners]
2019-07-17 County board of commissioners approve purchase of NAPA parking lot land [BSB coverage]
2019-07-15 City of Bloomington closes on purchase of property north of current convention center [BSB coverage]
2019-05-19 Steering Committee votes for northward expansion. [copy of slide deck with expansion options] [link to meeting video recording]
2019-04-18 Final day of three-day series of design charrettes for convention center expansion [copy of news release about design charrettes]
2019-02-06 City council appropriates $350,000 for design fees. Costs adding up to the $350,000 include: Phase I Programming and Concept Design and Phase I Community engagement ($195,500); Reimbursables ($19,500); Additional services, including topographic and boundary survey, site appraisals, environmental surveys , drone Imaging of the site, interior and exterior mobile scanning of convention center building ($135,000). [copy of appropriation ordinance]
2019-01-22 Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission approves recommendation of $4.12 million from county and city food and beverage tax funds. The amount approved from the county's portion is for appraisals, environmental review and surveys not to exceed $60,000 and to be expended only in area bounded by 3rd Street, Madison Avenue, Second Street and Walnut Street. The activities supported from the city's portion include a matching $60,000 for the same appraisals, environmental review and surveys in the same geographic area. In addition, from the city's portion the convention center's architects fees were approved at an amount not to exceed $4 million, corresponding to 10 percent of construction costs, estimated at $30–$40 million. [copy of FABTAC recommendation]
2019-01-17 Food and beverage tax report included in city council meeting information packet. For 2018, $2,558,850.56 was collected. Of that amount, $2,247,037.07 went to the city and $311,813.50 went to the county. [copy of food and beverage tax distribution numbers]
2019-01-16 Monroe County board of commissioners approves request for $60,000 of funding from food and beverage tax. ??
2019-01-16 Bloomington City council approves request for unspecified dollar amount of funding from food and beverage tax. ??
2018-12-14 Recommendation by Steering Committee of Convergence/Schmidt Associates as project architect is approved by Mayor John Hamilton, Commissioner Amanda Barge, County Councilmember Cheryl Munson and City Councilmember Chris Sturbaum. [copy of memo from deputy mayor Mick Renneisen]
2018-10-12 MOU signed by Mayor John Hamilton [copy of MOU]
2018-10-10 MOU signed by Commissioner Amanda Barge [copy of MOU]
2018-07-25 MOU signed establishing Steering Committee. Members are: County commissioner (Amanda Barge), Mayor (John Hamilton), County Council member (Cheryl Munson), City Council member (Chris Sturbaum), Board of Commissioners resident appointment (John Whikehart), Board of Commissioners resident appointment (Susie Johnson), Mayor’s resident appointment (Valerie Pena), Mayor’s resident appointment (Adam Thies), Jointly appointed resident (Jim Murphy). [copy of news release]
2018-06-25 First meeting of Monroe County's Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission [copy of news release]
2018-04-30 Initial appointments confirmed to Monroe County's Food Beverage Advisory Commission.The appointments for the three members of retail establishments subject to the tax are: Michael Cassady, chef and owner of the Uptown Cafe, Helen (Lennie) Busch, co-owner and CFO of One World Enterprises, and Anthony (Tony) Suttile, general manager of the Fourwinds Lakeside Inn & Marina. The commission also includes president of the county board of commissioners (Amanda Barge), the city executive (Mayor John Hamilton), a member of the county council (Shelli Yoder) and a member of the city council (Steve Volan). [ copy of news release]
2017-12-13 Monroe County council votes to enact 1-percent food and beverage tax. [copy of meeting minutes] Yes: Cobine, Yoder, Munson, McKim. No: Jones, Spoonmore, Hawk.
2017-10-18 City council approves resolution (Res 17-38) in support of food and beverage tax. The vote on the city council was 7-0-1, abstention from Isabel Piedmont-Smith and Andy Ruff absent. [copy of resolution]
2017-10-04 Support for food and beverage tax requested from city council in press release by Mayor John Hamilton. [copy of press release]
2012-01-13 Consultant report on feasibility of convention center delivered by HVS Convention, Sports & Entertainment Facilities Consulting [link]
2009-05-13 Governor signs P.L. 176 allowing Monroe County to enact a Food & Beverage tax. The law sets the rate of 1 percent and constrains the use of revenue from the tax to "only to finance, refinance, construct, operate, or maintain a convention center, a conference center, or related tourism or economic development projects." [copy of state law]
2002-00-00 Consideration of convention center expansion begins? According to the 2012 from HVS Convention, Sport & Entertainment Facilities Consulting, "Expansion of the BMCCC has been under consideration for at least ten years." [copy of HVS report]

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 * '''2019-01-22''' Food and Beverage Tax Advisory Commission approves recommendation of  $4.12 million from county and city food and beverage tax funds. The amount approved from the county's portion is for appraisals, environmental review and surveys not to exceed $60,000 and to be expended only in area bounded by 3rd Street, Madison Avenue, Second Street and Walnut Street. The activities supported from the city's portion include a matching $60,000 for the same appraisals, environmental review and surveys in the same geographic area. In addition, from the city's portion the convention center's architects fees were approved at an amount not to exceed $4 million, corresponding to 10 percent of construction costs, estimated at $30–$40 million. [[https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/01-22-2019-Food-and-Beverage-approval-for-use-of-tax-City_Council-20190206-Packet.pdf copy of FABTAC recommendation]]
 * '''2019-01-17''' Food and beverage tax report included in city council meeting information packet. For 2018,  $2,558,850.56 was collected. Of that amount, $2,247,037.07 went to the city and $311,813.50 went to the county. [[https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/2018-Food-and-Beverage-Tax-Distribution-City_Council-20190206-Packet.pdf copy of food and beverage tax distribution numbers]]
-* '''2019-01-16''' Monroe County board of commissioners approve request for $60,000 of funding from food and beverage tax. ??
+* '''2019-01-16''' Monroe County board of commissioners approves request for $60,000 of funding from food and beverage tax. ??
 * '''2019-01-16''' Bloomington City council approves request for unspecified dollar amount of funding from food and beverage tax. ??
 * '''2018-12-14''' Recommendation by Steering Committee of Convergence/Schmidt Associates as project architect is approved by Mayor John Hamilton, Commissioner Amanda Barge, County Councilmember Cheryl Munson and City Councilmember Chris Sturbaum. [[https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/01-25-2019-memo-to-council-from-Renneisen-City_Council-20190206-Packet.pdf copy of memo from deputy mayor Mick Renneisen]]