By: Diane Benjamin
I’ve received several reports from citizens about State Farm leaving their building in downtown Bloomington. One person just commented they are in the process of moving out the last group now.
When did the evacuation start?
Why isn’t that public knowledge?
Did the Bloomington City Council know?
Is the City of Bloomington going to continue to steal your money to support a place very few people want to be?
How many people are no longer working downtown?
When is a discussion going to happen with diverse citizens about the future of downtown?
Why are the only voices heard those who own property downtown or work there?
When is the Council going to realize the City Core is Veterans Parkway?
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When is your government going to realize downtown belongs to lawyers during the day and drinkers at night?
I’ve been told by several friends who worked before getting moved that there that they are rehabbing parts of the building for safety and have been doing so for a while. It has not been a secret at all. They have all said the plans are to move people back in once the work is done.
I talked to a construction worker who was there and he said he thinks he’ll be on the job the next couple years. He mentioned the job being a lot more involved than it was originally thought to be, which required more movement.
I will guess this will impact the restaurants and bars downtown because a lot of Farmers grab food in the morning and afternoon. I wouldn’t be surprised to see other buildings in the area need a lot of rehabbing as well.
I heard at least a year ago the elevators weren’t reliable. My church pays a fortune to have a relatively new elevator inspected every year. Were theirs?
Foundation issues = millions and millions of dollars. Do you think SF will really spend that on nostalgia? They don’t need the space since their B-N workforce has dropped…
Heard it was going to sit “dark” for awhile to make sure they don’t need the building anymore. Lots of work needs to be done and they don’t want to pay to fix it…
Tari usually sticks us with the bill. Maybe State Farm will “ask for help” because this project will, of course, revitalize the downtown, right? Can you imagine all of the businesses that will be tripping over themselves to move to the downtown?!
This brings up an issue that I’ve heard downtown business owners discuss, including Jamie Mathy. The cost to rehab and/or expand functional areas of these buildings are astronomical due to the changes in code over the years (ex. ADA). So, the small mom-and-pop shops, especially, are reluctant to refurbish or expand their businesses (beyond the cosmetic) as it may remove the “grandfather clause” and ultimately price them out. These business owners have a fair point and I’d probably feel the same way were I in their shoes. However, that necessarily means that what we have in downtown is what we have. They and we are stuck.
I wonder how much asbestos there is in that building? If I had to guess a lot. Then try remodeling on those upper floors where everything has to be lifted up there.
I know when I was on a school board we looked at remodeling one part. By the time you figured in the cost to remove the asbestos and making it ADA compliant it was cheaper just to tear it down and build new. Elevators aren’t cheap.
SF would probably be better off just to abandon it and let employees work from home. Why would they want to keep a relic like that. Oh the memories. LOL Like someone posted about the Elephant Dome and the sweet spot in the local propaganda newspaper …. where the wrecking ball hit is the sweet spot.
Have heard State Farm’s been wanting to sell that building for years, but there are no buyers.
There’s an easy fix for that. I’m sure the city of Bloomington would take it off their hands. Would make a lovely hotel.
Yes, Yes, Yes or 100% right
Are there any readers that are downtown during the day and can check out all the SF owned parking lots to see if they are empty?
Hey, how about the city taking the building andmaking it their new city hall! Tari could have a luxury officce on top and be able to city the downtown slide down the decrepit sewers.
Will be interesting to see the final disposition of this large building. I suspect that it won’t sit idle more than five years before a decision to demolish will be made. Hopefully, a use or buyer will be found for it. Senior housing not likely because of need for large number of electrical and plumbing installs. Multiple stories not desirable for such housing because of fire evacuation concerns. Being located in Illinois is not a plus, although being in Bloomington is a plus. Appears to be just too much square footage for use by the public or private sector. We’ll see……