BLOOMINGTON – Rebuilding is underway at a Bloomington business that suffered two fires over the weekend.

Damage caused by the fire at Bentley Motors in Bloomington is expected to be in the millions of dollars. Several business were destroyed in the blaze. A.C. Hutchraft owns Lang Enterprises, a car brokerage firm on the property. He said he and the others can rebuild hopefully bigger and better, but, “You can’t replace memories.”

“For Bill (Bentley), this is his life, his business, he has spent hours upon hours here, and is one of the hardest working people I’ve met.” Hutchcraft said.

Owner Bill Bentley took over the car dealership from his father in 1982. Bentley’s has moved its operations across the street while cleanup work continues on its property on South Main Street.

Hutchcraft said he plans to reopen at that location within a year.

“We are still in awe of what has happened here” Hutchcraft said. “A lot of people’s lives have been affected here.”

Hutchcraft said about 80 percent of the car keys and titles have been recovered and most of the cars weren’t damaged. Fallat’s Auto Body, mechanical shop called Powell Automotive and screen printing business, Absolute Apparel, were all a total loss, but a recently built addition for a detailing shop is largely intact.

The Bloomington Fire Department has not determined a cause of the fire. It was the second fire on the property. The fire department was called to the property at about 11:30 p.m. Friday for what was reported as an electrical fire. Fire crews turned over the property to Bentley employees at about 2 a.m. The second much larger fire broke out shortly before 7 a.m. and raged for about six hours.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected]. 
Nick McClintock contributed to this report.