By: Diane Benjamin
I’ve heard from a reliable source that State Farm is not remodeling their downtown Bloomington building. It will be empty in mid January.
Grand Cafe is not going to re-open.
Maybe you can help compile a list of businesses no longer downtown.
Lancasters
Chocolatier
Mueller, Reece & Hinch Attorneys
Who else?
Anybody open a business downtown?
If the Council thinks moving the library and adding a bus transfer point will help, they are mistaken.
Nothing is going to help the downtown. Forget about it… a Cat D9 and a wrecking ball would help make it a place someone would want to go… maybe?
Well. Looks like a lot of bars, foo foo food, and nightlife are taking up residence around the courthouse.
How far back u want to go of what has left downtown? Within a Year or 5? Angela
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3-5 years would be good
Hobbyland
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Yep, forgot about them.
Full-tilt retail price practice won’t survive the internet for such a specialized market.
Oh I also think maybe the people who bought Grand Cafe got “done dirty” by the city one way or another at least they have the Grand Cafe Express over on Oakland.
Nightlife is the only thing that will survive downtown. It’s time the morons in city hall accept that.
I. B. C. Even a bar can’t always make it! Elks, Maybe the Back Porch news stand, even the good ole Pantagraph is downsizing-WHAT does that tell ya?
Of course, our elected components don’t have a BIT of logic or reason… They understand TWO things only! SPEND on BIKE LANES!
So so right
The city council and mayor live in the 1950’s or they wish it was the 1950’s.
I predict the next wave of change will be employers letting employees work from home where possible. I’ve said it before why does SF or any company want to invest in buildings?
Why no telling what it costs SF to maintain that old building and no telling how much asbestos there is in it.
There is a flat ton of asbestos. That remediation cost is probably weighing heavily on the decision whether to renovate or not
Not a surprise. Too much money to maintain that old building. They’re better off mothballing it. That’s a de-catalyst project! Haha! If you think Downtown is sleepy now, just wait until all those State Farmers are out of there. In response, Tari will probably respond by saying we need to “invest” more money. Diane – What are the odds that Tari and Co. will try to buy the State Farm building?
They want the bus barn, probably grand cafe for a parking lot, front and center because nobody else will develop it, CII easy because Bentley isn’t fixing it, I don’t think they can buy them all!
I spoke to an SF IT employee recently whose job is being moved to Arizona. They said 7% of the local IT staff is being moved out. While 7% may not sound like much, these are highly paid people that own homes. All local governments are kept apprised of the SF’s plans, SF is completely open with them, and always has been. Too bad, those in local government pretend it isn’t happening.
It’s a secret… only they should know about… because if the general public knew about it, they would be extremely concerned if not panicked by what is going on at State Farm. 6 figure employees with very expensive homes suddenly leaving the area? Who will buy their houses? Who can afford to buy their houses? Answer… no one except other 6 figure employees of State Farm or someone who is retired and wealthy. So how many high end houses will suddenly be dumped onto an already depressed housing market here? 50? 100? And what will this do to the already depressed home values here? Yes this means the value of your house here in town will drop. And the goods and services these 6 figure State Farm people are using in the area… what will happen when they leave? Yes, this means that service and retail businesses will have less income..Some will have to layoff people….Some will be forced to close as the employment numbers at State Farm continue to decline. This is not just about State Farm and the people who work there…this is about all the jobs that are driven by the money that State Farm people spend here. And our leadership chooses to sit on their hands with duck tape on their mouths as our economy is starting to be hollowed out? Go to Galesburg or Decatur if you want to see what that looks like 20 years down the road. That is were we are headed as our city and business leadership is silent… this is a very sad state of affairs here in #Blono.
Rivian will save the day…:)
Oh yes I forgot… they are building a truck and an SUV now – all electric vehicles too, I guess! They are definitely cutting edge since no other auto makers have made a truck and an SUV that are all electric yet! And it is also interesting how they are going to run a 5 passenger truck (frame construction) down a uni-body production line? I am amazed that anyone with a 1/2 of a brain would buy this story that they are going to run a truck and SUV down the same line and they are both going to be electric? Where are they getting the batteries? Tesla has had to build its own battery plant to supply just the batteries it needs. My god our leadership is so stupid it is almost embarrassing. And no one in our media questions any of what these jokers say? What is next? An electric flying car? You can’t make this stuff up… a comedy act worthy of being made into a TV series.
But Tari has a transparency award, BNIndy. Haha! Both Bloomington and Normal have been covering this up for a while now. They have no answers, are economically illiterate, and are more interested in ideology than problem-solving in the real world.
Yes… this is what you get when you elect a college professor mayor of your city. They exist in Ivory Towers that are isolated and insulated from the real world…the world that we live in is a concept/abstraction and not a reality for them.