‘Too many questions’: Bloomington police station sale stalls
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The Bloomington City Council unanimously rejected the sale of its police department headquarters on Wednesday after the families who donated the land pointed to a 1923 deed specifying the land must be used for a public park.
The city is transitioning the police department out of the building and merging it and the fire department’s operations into the Showers building where other city departments are based. The decision to purchase the west part of the building was narrowly passed by the council earlier this year.
The three proposals the council were weighing were each from student housing developers. Mayor John Hamilton’s preferred bid is $4.4 million from Bloomington-based GMS-Pavilion Properties LLC, which is already a major student housing landlord in the city. The other two offers come from New Jersey-based Aptitude Development for $4.8 million and Chicago-based UP Campus Student Living for $3.2 million. The land is valued at $3.2 million.
The land currently holds the existing police station and a few small businesses with a public park behind; it’s sandwiched among a charter elementary school, the Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington and the bus station. Prior to being the police station, the building served as city hall. The site is located downtown along a street that’s both a major artery as well as a new corridor for student housing developments.
The Waldron, Hill and Buskirk families—who are influential names locally for their donations and the arts—voiced their displeasure during public comment, saying the proposals go against their wishes of the land being for public use. Donning black hats with phrases inscribed including “Keep the Park” and “Stop the Sale,” family members said the potential sale is out of line, violates the agreement and crumbles the trust they and other donors have in the city.
“The spirit of the donation of our ancestors to the city of Bloomington was for public use,” Norris J. Chumley said. “And it is shocking, unnerving and deeply upsetting to me personally as a Buskirk and Chumley that it would be sold to a private capitalist for student housing.”
Norris J. Chumley said the sale of the building should never be carried out, and the will of the families should be respected.
Several council members said in their comments they wish they were made aware of the deed earlier in this process. Last week, the Board of Public Works did not provide a recommendation on whether or not to sell the building pointing to those same concerns.
Corporation Counsel Beth Cate said the matter of the deed and other documents related to the land is complex, and they believe the city has the legal standing to move forward. She said they will continue to have discussions with the families involved.
Potential legal workarounds regarding the validity of the deed were mentioned throughout the meeting. The family members who spoke during public comment leaned into the potential of the matter moving to the courts but did not directly say whether they planned legal action.
“Anyone who can afford a filing fee can file a lawsuit. That happens all the time,” Cate said. “If the threat of litigation stopped everyone in their tracks, every time government or anybody wanted to do something, nothing would ever get done.”
Council members gave several reasons for voting down the sale but it mostly boiled down to the ambiguity of the deed. They called the matter “painful,” and said there were too many unanswered questions. A few members voiced their concern regarding the need for housing in the city but said they couldn’t support the sale at this time.
“I understand that this project is moving at a pace and a speed that is perfectly acceptable to the administration,” Councilor Sue Sgambelluri said. “I would respectfully disagree.”
Councilor Jim Sims said the matter is painful and wants to pull back.
The meeting was the final matter of the year for the council and many of its members. It’s also amidst an administrative change with mayor-elect Kerry Thomson previously asking Hamilton to pull back on making large, strategic decisions, like the police department sale.
In Wednesday night’s meeting, Thomson asked for that same consideration, saying the land is valuable enough to receive bids in the future and more time will sort out financial and ethical questions.
“Declining these offers does not preclude us from selling this property in the future, but it does allow the city time to complete due diligence on the sale,” she said. “It does not seem prudent to rush into a deal tonight.”
The matter could and likely will resurrect after the new year when Thomson’s administration is sworn in.