The new Monroe Convention Center expansion has a name. Officials called it “obvious” and “simple.”
The name will be Bloomington Convention Center.
The Capital Improvement Board, a city-county board formed to oversee the expansion, approved the name unanimously at its monthly meeting Wednesday. The original plan was for the board to vote on the name next month. CIB Naming Committee Member Jim Silberstein said the process took less time than they expected, so the board moved the vote up to help the marketing process begin.
“As simple as Bloomington Convention Center sounds, it meets exactly the need for that kind of external market,” John Whikehart, CIB president, said at the meeting.
The existing Monroe Convention Center space, located across College Avenue from the future expansion, will also change its name to Bloomington Convention Center, Silberstein said.
The three-CIB member committee tasked to recommend a name came up with it after a Zoom meeting with local stakeholder groups, like the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County History Center and Indiana University, Whikehart said. They included the same groups that gave feedback on the center design last year, Silberstein said.
Silberstein said these groups quickly came to a consensus: the name should be Bloomington Convention Center. The Zoom lasted no more than 45 minutes.
Jay Baer, one of the CIB Naming Committee members, said any name that wasn’t obvious seemed like a disservice to its sales and marketing. He said other cities named Bloomington across the country, which he jokingly called “lesser Bloomingtons,” don’t have convention centers with that name.
Silberstein said they opted for the “convention center” suffix, rather than “civic” or “community” center, because Visit Bloomington Executive Director Mike McAfee and Monroe Convention Center Executive Director Talisha Coppock told them it would be an easier sell to convention groups outside the city.
Baer said of similar facilities they looked at, the majority had the same naming pattern they came up with.
Though the name is changing, Joyce Poling, also part of the CIB Naming Committee, said they still want to remind people of Monroe County’s history with the center in some way. She told the Indiana Daily Student that includes recognizing its monetary contributions through the county food and beverage tax imposed in 2017. That money is earmarked to fund the center expansion, though the project has seen delays over the years.
Some Ellettsville political leaders want to see their share of those tax dollars go back into their town. House Bill 1080, if passed, would make that change this July. Whikehart told The Herald-Times that this bill would not affect the convention expansion plan.
Silberstein said county recognition could include plaques or historical documents inside the building, but the “next phase” will be for the CIB to discuss how to go about that.
The board also approved Wednesday a final design phase and budget. The final design budget is $70,764,852, which is $11 more than the cost the board approved in the last design phase. Of that, construction will cost $52,000,000.
The CIB next meets March 26, when it will likely authorize property transfers and its first construction bid package. According to the project schedule, construction is still on track to begin in June this year, with the project being completed in January or February 2027.
