In a continuing effort to expand Bloomington’s technology sector, the city announced Wednesday that it signed a letter of intent with a tech park developer.
Flaherty & Collins, an Indianapolis-based real estate developer, will be redeveloping six acres of the downtown trade district, located just north of City Hall.
This land accounts for only a portion of the 12-acre Certified Technology Park the city purchased from IU in 2011.
The intention for the park is “public investments in infrastructure to make the area attractive for private ownership and redevelopment in synergy with the community’s tech park vision,” according to a Facebook page for the City of Bloomington Technology Park Master Plan Project.
“It was always our goal from the beginning, when we purchased the properties from Indiana University, to ultimately see those properties returned to the private sector and be redeveloped by the private sector, basically returning them to the tax role,” said Danise Alano-Martin, the city’s director of economic and sustainable development.
Last year, the city went through an 18-month planning process that involved community focus groups and meetings with various stakeholders.
Then, the city developed a master plan.
“This is a significant step in a long planning process and is just getting us closer to the implementation of those goals,” Alano-Martin said, referring to the letter of intent.
This specific portion of the project will involve adaptively reusing two historic buildings downtown.
Alano-Martin said historical preservation is an important part of the redeveloping process.
The developers will be developing office spaces, an event space for events related to the technology sector as well as new locations for restaurants and housing options.
“We’re also interested in seeing something like senior affordable housing or other types of workforce housing,” Alano-Martin said.
One portion of the buildings will be dedicated to conventional office space for companies beyond the startup stage.
Though construction will probably not begin until 2016, Alano-Martin said she sees this measure as a sort of “springboard” for all that is to come regarding Bloomington’s tech industry.
“If we can create jobs and opportunities for Indiana University students to stay here in Bloomington beyond graduation, then that’s one of the major successes that we’re looking to achieve,” she said.
She noted that IU is integral in making the tech park a success.
“One of the things that’s really key to the growth of the Bloomington technology sector is the strength of the School of Informatics and Computing and the strength of the Kelley School,” Alano-Martin said. “Also, the future applied sciences and engineering program that Indiana University will be undertaking soon.”
