By Howard Packowitz
BLOOMINGTON – Two of Downtown Bloomington’s largest landmarks are a long way from being sold, according to the city’s mayor.
State Farm vacated its original headquarters last year, and Mayor Tari Renner said city government can’t do very much to speed up the sale of the nearly 90-year old building at 112 E. Washington St.
“At this point, we don’t own the building. State Farm owns the building. If they can sell it to somebody, then we can work with them, or if they’re willing to work with the city more directly, we’re willing to do anything that’s necessary,” Renner said during a recent interview with WJBC.
Renner is confident State Farm is doing what it can to sell the property because the insurance firm has made significant investments in maintaining the building over the years.
Downtown’s tallest building, with 200,000 square feet of office space, was State Farm’s headquarters until 1974.
Renner said State Farm executives have kept in contact with him, City Manager Tim Gleason, and the city’s economic development coordinator, Austin Grammer.
The mayor wants the city to acquire what he described as “strategic” buildings downtown to stimulate development. He said City Manager Tim Gleason also has creative financing ideas to help the downtown.
“That’s one of the difficulties of trying to revitalize downtowns is you have large numbers of buildings that are right next to each other, right on top of each other that are owned by different people,” said Renner.
“What happens in one building has a ripple effect for sometimes the entire downtown, or at least the entire block.”
Meantime, Renner said he’s “cautiously optimistic” the city will eventually sell the government-owned Grossinger Motors Arena, but a sale is not imminent. Renner said private investors and venue operators have approached the city, but a buyer will need “deep pockets.”
The mayor said major selling points to a private buyer is that the arena is in very good condition, the money owed for the arena is only a fraction of the initial cost, and a new owner would benefit from the city’s efforts to revitalize the entire downtown.
Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]
