By: Diane Benjamin
Mayor Tari wants the Front and Center building torn down so he can get a downtown hotel.
Other City departments want the windows and roof fixed.
Um. Haven’t citizens been told over and over and over the City can’t force Huffs to fix the building? It would take too much time and cost too much money to take them to court?
Enter Bloomington’s new Administrative Court where they can dish out their own justice. A bird-cage liner story claims Huffs are attempting to comply, in fact they have fixed the roof.
Did you hear the Huffs are financing Giebelhausen’s plan to tear the building down? Did you hear the land won’t be shovel ready as claimed because underground structures won’t be removed?
Remember Alderman Sage talking about the less than adequate sewer system downtown that wasn’t built to support a hotel?
Cha-ching! Cha-ching!
Hear the costs sky-rocketing?
The City wants to “control” downtown development. The City “controlled” development of the Coliseum, how’s that working out for you? Elected officials think they have the brain power to redevelop? Seriously?
According to the proposed Giebelhausen timeline (http://www.cityblm.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=8657 Page 8), demolition of the Front and Center building will begin in October – 4 months. But the Huffs are being told to fix the building that has been empty for years with no action by the City.
Who is on first? second?
Anybody even know who is at bat?
Bloomington has developers who would have jumped on this project if it was feasible. They didn’t. Maybe somebody should ask why.
The timeline calls for a possible Council vote on June 18th. If you listened to the presentation from the Downtown Bloomington Association last Monday, downtown is doing great. It supposedly brings in $500,000 in taxes according to Alderman Buragas. No word on where she got her number or what taxes she is talking about.
I can’t wait to see who on the Council is falling for this!
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Here’s a note just for the commenter who is never allowed to post a comment again.
You can apologize and never attempt to comment again after you ready this: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=429
I could have told you earlier, but I enjoy seeing leftists make fools of themselves.
So who on the city council has the expertise to evaluate such a large construction project? Staff can’t do much of anything evidently since they’re always hiring outside consultants. Then the outside consultant in regards to the downtown hotel have already noted it as a bad idea. What has Renner built except a legacy of BS and bullying women who disagree and stand up to him? City manager Hales? There is a very good reason as to why council should refrain from these types of decisions which is they have little to no expertise on the subject matter. Worst mayor ever, worst council ever allowing for the worst city manager ever. The potted plants will be remembered for their stupidity.
Mayor Renner now has two black eyes. The first Mayor of Bloomington to be “censured.” And, a Mayor of a city that actively targets reporters’ rights to pursue and comment on information.
There will be more!
The city should have been onto the Huff’s a long time ago building a case to condemn the Front and Center building or make them maintain the building up to code. Hales, the city manager is somewhat to blame for that as well as the department that enforces the building codes. You can bet they would have been right on top of someone violating the city codes.
I think the Huff’s believe since they made off with such a deal on the Ensenberger building when Stockton wrote off their debt and buying the Front and Center and letting it deteriorate now they think their ship just sailed again to make another few grand off of the taxpayers of Bloomington. I wonder what kind of lifestyle these people live? I could care less if they go bankrupt. Personally I don’t know how they stay above water given that the Ensenberger building is nearly empty and they can’t sell those condo’s. Sounds like a scheme where they have to come up with the next big deal to cover their rear on their past debts. People like that it eventually catches up to them.
Speaking of infrastructure, go check out the hole in the road on Front and Oak street, City garbage truck caved in the road,
The DBA Manager presented that the downtown is equivalent to a second Mall for Bloomington. Alderman Buragas was saying that the $90,000.00 for the DBA was worth the investment return of $500,000.00 sales tax revenue which benefited the entire city. What was not mentioned is that the “anchors” (Library, Coliseum, History Museum and BCPA) for the downtown “Mall” are subsidized as is the managers salary. The report shows only about $500,000.00 public investment. So, where is the investment return to the city, Ms. Buragas?
Maybe they can hire another consultant to examine the sewer system. Here’s some free consulting. Downtown Bloomington will attract two types of businesses: bars and restaurants that serve booze. Ok three, maybe some coffee shops. Accept it, let people develop it for that, collect the taxes, and move on.
Living under the reign of King Koos isn’t so bad compared to this fiasco, and that’s really sad. Can’t wait to move to Hudson.
Tari hasnt even considered the fact that those buildings r decades old thus r probably loaded with asbestos CA-CHING!
They know about the asbestos, it’s supposedly factored into the price.
Why didn’t the rag ask the question of why? Why make them repair windows if it will be demolished! Why start after them now instead of years ago when it started to go? Renner, et al. will ignore the outside feasibility reports that say a hotel is a bad idea. He thinks if there’s a hotel then the Coloseum can book more acts. Ha!