A convention center expansion is in the works for Monroe County, and city and county leaders will gather Tuesday to get an update on the project, with officials hoping to break ground in spring.
Here’s what you need to know about the project and how you can provide input.
The new convention center is to be built on the southeast corner of West Third Street and south College Avenue, across College Avenue from the existing convention center.
What will the Monroe Convention Center look like?
The new building would measure 60,000 square feet and, with the existing center, would provide 100,000 square feet of convention space, said John Whikehart, president of the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board, which is overseeing the expansion.
The main feature of the new building would be a 30,000-square-foot exhibit hall, which, Whikehart said, is a flexible space that can accommodate 110 vendors, four basketball courts, eight volleyball courts or space for 2,100 diners or 4,000 people for a concert or lecture.
He said the CIB and its architectural/design partners, Schmidt Associates and Convergence Design, are still making changes to the design based on community feedback. At a recent public input session, people asked the CIB to make sure the design complements the areaâs current look but also offers something unique and authentic.
How much will the new Monroe Convention Center cost?
Local officials expect the expansion to cost about $52 million but the exact cost has not yet been determined, in part because the design has not been finalized.
Who will pay for the new Monroe Convention Center?
The expansion would be paid by all the people who have been and will be paying the food and beverage tax.
Action by the state Legislature about a decade ago enabled Monroe County to adopt the tax in 2017. The tax requires everyone who buys a prepared meal in the county â at bars, restaurants, and grocery stores â to pay 1% extra.
Whikehart, former chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington, said the CIB wants to have design work completed by December, after which the Bloomington City Council has to determine whether it wants to borrow money for the project.
That could happen as early as the first quarter of 2025. The council would have to pay back the borrowed money in installments that it would cover with money it has collected from the food and beverage tax.
At the end of last year, the city had nearly $17.5 million in food and beverage tax dollars.
Whikehart said the council will be able to borrow only as much as the food and beverage tax dollars can cover. The CIB wonât ask for any additional dollars to pay for the convention center expansion. He said the city is collecting about $4 million in food and beverage tax dollars per year.
When will the new Monroe Convention Center be built?
Whikehart said if construction can begin in spring, the new convention center would be expected to open by January 2027, with renovations to the existing center to be completed in spring of that year.
Why does Monroe County need a new convention center?
Proponents of the convention center expansion said it would allow the city to host more and larger conventions from out-of-town organizations, bringing more tourism dollars into the community and creating jobs. Proponents also said the convention center would support local organizations and businesses, including Cook, Catalent and Indiana University, which could host larger events at the expanded center, for purposes including training.
According to the CIB, the expansion will bring in an additional $9 million into the community annually, which convention goers will spend on local hotels, shops and restaurants.
Whikehart said the CIB estimates the expansion will produce an additional 500 jobs in the hospitality and related industries and will increase tax revenue.
While some critics of the projects have said tourism jobs pay on the lower end of the income scale, Whikehart said some jobs the expansion would produce would pay decent wages. In addition, he said the additional tourism jobs could help stabilize the jobs the community already offers, as restaurants and hotels nationwide face significant labor pressures.
Who will use the Monroe Convention Center?
The current center hosts about 460 events every year, and 70% are local, with the rest being regional meetings of about 250 people or fewer.
Whikehart said the expansion will allow the center to host more and bigger conventions that will come primarily from Indiana. The center last year received inquiries from 136 conventions that the existing center could not accommodate because of space constraints.
âWe donât want to turn groups away anymore,â he said.
What is the Monroe County Capital Improvement Board?
For years, city and county officials disagreed about the center expansion, location and oversight, to the point they got chided by state legislators who threatened to repeal the food and beverage tax if Monroe County and Bloomington officials failed to make progress on the project.
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State lawmakers also criticized the city and and county for using some food and beverage tax dollars during the pandemic to provide loans or grants to businesses that had been hurt by the sharp decline of tourism.
The Monroe County commissioners last year created the CIB to shepherd the convention center project to completion.
The board has seven members. Two each were appointed by the Bloomington mayor and the Monroe County commissioners and one each was appointed by the Monroe County Council and the Bloomington City Council. The seventh member was chosen by the other six CIB members.
How can you provide input on the new convention center?
The CIB meets in public meetings at 3 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at the convention center. People can participate in person or remotely. Agendas and minutes of prior meetings are available at monroecib.com. People also can contact the CIB via the website.
The CIB will provide an update on the project at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in the Duke Meeting Room of the current convention center, 302 S. College Ave. The public can attend the meeting, which is expected to draw most city and county elected officials, including Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson and members of the Bloomington City Council, Monroe County Council and Monroe County Board of Commissioners.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: $52M Monroe County convention center design to be scrutinized
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