By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington alderman will get the details on two proposals to redevelop downtown on Monday night.
Both call for the addition of a boutique hotel and other attractions linking U.S. Cellular Coliseum and the Route 66 Visitors Center. Mayor Tari Renner told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the city has an appetite for downtown development as long as it doesn’t involve city funding. He said tax breaks for properties that aren’t generating any tax dollars now are fine.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott Laughlin and Mike O’Grady’s interview with Renner on WJBC.
“If we are rebating things like that, that should probably be a no-brainer,” Renner said. “If they want us to actually cough up some money out of the city’s general revenue fund, that’s a whole different story.”
Renner said construction of the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center was a gamechanger for Uptown Normal. The council won’t take any action tonight during a Committee of the Whole meeting.
Renner added he’s glad just to see developers interest in downtown.
“I couldn’t hardly get anybody to talk to me when I got elected in terms of serious investment,” Renner joked. “We definitely have some momentum. It’s clear Bloomington is on the move, but we need to go to the next step.”
The two proposals tonight come from David Bentley who owns the CII East building and East Peoria developer Jeff Giebelhausen, whose initial proposal for renovating several blocks of downtown didn’t win the council’s favor. Renner said he has concerns about Bentley, given the problems that have plagued that building.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
