City opposes housing complex

Graffiti covers the brick walls at the ST Semicon site, 415 N. College Ave. \nWhile the cracked windows have been boarded for more than a decade, not everyone has forgotten about the vacant building. Intergroup Realty Trust, a Florida-based developer, filed papers last week to build a nine-story student housing complex there.\nThe complex has been in the works for some time, and Intergroup President Pat Nolan said everything is on schedule. The Bloomington Board of Zoning Appeals will hear the proposal March 15, and is expected to vote on it in mid-April. \nIntergroup specializes in student housing, and Nolan said it has built sprawling three-story structures in North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Illinois. The Bloomington project would mark a turn toward urban infill projects.\nNolan said the group was drawn to the Bloomington market because enrollment at IU is about 35,000 while on-campus housing accommodates 11,000 students.\nIf approved by the zoning board, Nolan said the apartment complex should be ready for the 2002-03 school year. It wouldn't require the approval of the planning commission or the city council.\nBut the city has other plans for the site, where Semicon manufactured electrical semiconducters until 1991. Local elected officials don't care much for the Intergroup plan, although it calls for fixing up the property.\n"It's too big and in the wrong place," Councilman Tim Mayer said.\nWith the building originally planned at 13 stories, height has been a concern. Mayer, among others, said he believes it would be an eyesore across from the Showers Building, home to City Hall.\nWorried about a prime piece of downtown real estate going to rot, the city is pursuing its own plan for the property, which is now owned by the Indianapolis-based Bloomington Investment Corp.\n"We're still very concerned about the property," said City Attorney Michael Flory.\nThrough the Monroe Circuit Court, the city is trying to grant a receivership to Mansur Real Estate Services of Indianapolis. The developer would be obliged to clean up the site and allowed to develop retail and residential projects in return.\nWhile Mansur would not legally own the property, it would be guaranteed returns on its investment. Mansur, which has developed 30 projects as large as $90 million in Indianapolis and other cities, agreed to the $8 million project last July.\n"If it's at all doable, we'll do it," said Mansur Senior Vice President Bob Echols, who said his company was drawn by the economic vibrancy of the downtown area.\nBut the city isn't the only local government body with its eye on the property.\nCounty councilman Jeff Ellington said it would be the ideal site for a new juvenile correction facility that the county wants to build. The Semicon site is located only a block away from the Justice Building.\nBut the county might not have enough money to launch a project of its own in time, especially if it agrees to buy parking spaces from the city at the recently completed Walnut Center.\nEllington said he plans to lobby for it.\n"I consider this the first priority," he said.