Mayor floats $4M buyout to take over convention center

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The administration of Mayor John Hamilton wants to pay the county about $4 million to take over the Monroe Convention Center to jump-start the facility’s expansion, expected to cost tens of millions of dollars.

Administration and local tourism officials hope the expansion would allow more local and out-of town organizations to host events there and allow the city to bring in more tourism dollars. That additional spending, the officials say, would boost the local retail and hospitality industries and create more jobs.

“We’re missing out on opportunities” because the center is too small, Deputy Mayor Don Griffin said.

For subscribers:Downtown Bloomington leaders weigh in on proposal for city to buy convention center

The administration hopes to get an agreement in place by the end of September, in part to be able to forestall any action by the state Legislature that might rescind the food and beverage tax, which is to pay for the center’s expansion.

“We don’t want to sit on this,” Griffin said.

The proposal has garnered strong support from local tourism and business officials. Some local business owners also said they support an expansion, though some downtown merchants had a rather tepid response.

But the administration has yet to convince some crucial and as of yet skeptical city and county officials who will have to sign off on the plan.

Highlights of the administration’s plan include paying off the center’s existing debt of about $2 million and paying the county $1.9 million over the next 18 years. In return, the county would transfer ownership of the convention center and nearby land to the city.

More:Bloomington's convention center expansion: What you need to know

The city would take full responsibility for an expansion, which in 2017 was projected to cost $44 million. The debt was to be paid through the food and beverage tax, a 1% tax that everyone pays for prepared foods in Monroe County. The tax generated $2 million in the first six months of this year. The city got 90% of that, with the county getting the rest.

Proponents: Expansion would provide economic boost

Griffin said the community has outgrown the convention center, which opened in the early 1990s.

“We’re a lot bigger than we were,” he said.

The community has been talking about an expansion for years, and while the pandemic delayed negotiations, Griffin said the project should be restarted now.

Eric Spoonmore, president and CEO of  the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, said he sees a convention center expansion as an economic development opportunity. The current center’s size limits the number and types of conventions the city can host, he said. Additional events could help especially on weekdays when local businesses usually see fewer customers. The expansion also would help fill some of the empty downtown storefronts, he said.

Spoonmore described the proposal from the Hamilton administration as a “creative solution” to the parties years-long struggle to come to an agreement. The city could focus on the conventions center expansion while the county takes care of its criminal justice center.

Spoonmore said community leaders also see themselves a bit under the gun, as proposed legislation at the state level during the last session threatened to sunset the food and beverage tax in communities that were collecting the tax but not spending it.

If that tax were to disappear before the debt on the convention center is repaid, the community would have to find another —  likely politically less palatable — funding source.

The legislation was defeated, but Spoonmore said it required some 11th-hour intervention from Blooomington.

“We dodged a big bullet,” he said.

Spoonmore said it’s likely that the legislative proposal will return, which means proponents of a center expansion are “racing against the clock.”

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington mayor floats $4M buyout to take over convention center