Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson and other officials announced 714 S. Rogers St. as their recommended relocation spot for the Bloomington Police Department headquarters.
Thomson announced the recommendation at an information session Monday night, which took place at the current BPD headquarters. While it’s not an official proposal or finalized plan, both the city and the police union agreed that South Rogers Street is the best choice for BPD’s new home.
The current headquarters is located on East Third Street downtown, but according to Thomson and Chris Ciolli, the vice president of Weddle Bros. Construction Company who has been evaluating relocation sites, this location has not been meeting the department’s needs. The building experiences issues such as a maxed-out power supply, flood damage and lack of space.
BPD has experienced staffing shortages, and while she envisions a fully staffed force, Thomson said the downtown location isn’t allowing them to operate at full capacity as is.
“Once we're fully staffed, which we will be, it'll be even more cramped here,” Thomson said during Monday’s meeting.
After extensive site evaluations, the South Rogers Street location emerged as the leading choice. Ciolli first emphasized the durability of the building, as it is made almost entirely of concrete and steel, as opposed to the historic wooden frame of Showers West, the original proposed relocation spot. The relocation plan to Showers West fell through early in 2024.
“One thing about this building that I think is positive is it's rugged,” Ciolli said at the meeting. “It's a concrete structure. There's not a piece of wood in there that I'm aware of.”
The property, which is already owned by the city, provides easier access to main roadways for faster dispatch times, has sufficient parking for the department’s fleet and, Ciolli said, offers a much longer-term solution than the other options.
“There’s room for future growth and expansion, possibility of co-locating some sort of services, if that was the desire of the city,” Ciolli said.
The South Rogers plan is not without its faults. The building will still require interior demolition and will need to be brought up to code. However, it is the only plan that has the combined support of the city and the union, which was a large part of the original pushbacks to the possible Showers West location. The Fraternal Order of Police President Paul Post spoke briefly at the meeting, voicing his support for the project.
“It's a really good space I think that we can repurpose,” Post said. “So, we look forward to working with Mayor Thompson and her administration and doing something else.”
While the new proposal was largely well-received by the city and the police union, Monday’s meeting was the first time residents heard of the plan. Paul Ash, one of the founding members of the McDoel Gardens Neighborhood Association — located near the site — expressed cautious support for the project.
“I should hate this, but I don’t,” Ash said.
Residents are familiar with emergency services in their proximity, as the proposed location is close to the site of the former IU Health Bloomington hospital, which stopped operating late 2021 and began demolition in 2022.
“We’re not going to be real happy with a whole bunch more sirens going off in the neighborhood, but we're used to it,” Ash said. “And at least they won't be flying helicopters over us the way the hospital was doing.”
Thomson reassured residents, saying it was “not really a proposal yet,” and she was planning on getting community feedback and making changes as needed.
“I do want to note that I'll be knocking doors in McDoel next week, talking about this, getting one-on-one input and happy to come to a neighborhood meeting,” Thomson said.
Still, she expressed that this location was the best-case scenario and is reluctant to “put the police on hold too much longer.”
Residents also expressed concerns about the appearance and of the location, describing the building as “brutalist.”
“We haven't done anything in terms of design yet, but I think many of us would like it to be more attractive, whether we do that through landscaping or actual changes to the facade of the building,” Thomson said.
The push to relocate has been an ongoing effort. The city purchased the Showers West building in January 2023, originally planning to move both the fire and police departments there, closer to city hall, which makes up the eastern part of the Showers building.
However, this initiative became complicated quickly, after local business tenants of Showers West were reluctant to terminate their leases and the FOP raised opposition, citing issues of safety and accessibility. By February 2024, the city voted to reject all renovation bids for the location.
City officials were then forced to seek alternative options, which Ciolli has been evaluating over the past year. He went through several of these solutions during the meeting, including expanding the current headquarters, moving to Showers West and repurposing the vacant, city-owned property on South Rogers Street.
Showers West, despite its central location and initial project complications, had other major drawbacks including poor road access, limited parking, short-term viability and a lack of expansion potential. Expanding the current headquarters offers better road access and parking, but requires expensive renovations, a temporary facility and addressing issues like flood damage, electrical limitations and ADA non-compliance, making it less cost-effective.
Thomson estimated it would take at least 18 months to complete the project, including design, approvals and renovation, but that is a tentative timeframe depending on the actions of the city and the community.
With inflation and rising construction costs, Ciolli noted that the price tag is still uncertain. However, an initial cost analysis puts the South Rogers renovation at $22,903,848, which is the least expensive of the three options Ciolli laid out during the meeting — the estimate for Showers West was $23,850,000 and the estimate for expanding current headquarters was $23,523,568.
The slideshow with information from Monday’s meeting can be found here, or contact the Office of the Mayor at 812-349-3406 or comms@bloomington.in.gov.
