The Bloomington City Council on Monday approved a development agreement with owners of the CII East building at 102 East St., which would be turned into community housing. Council members also approved several measures related to a new QuikTrip fueling station, a new extended-stay hotel and a new breakfast and lunch restaurant.
Around 15 of 80 acres annexed will be developed into a QuikTrip gas station and convenience center. One resident and public commenter said the city needs more affordable housing, not gas stations. She made note that Market Street already has several convenience stores. Through tears she asked the city to reconsider the annexation. Some council members had issues with QuikTrip wanting to put in video gambling inside the convenience center.
“There were a lot of people at public comment last night, there were also a number of people who came to public comment in early March when the planning commission was reviewing this matter. All of them had great points to make. There were other comments that night that I encourage people to go listen to. I take public comments very seriously,” said Sheila Montney was elected as Alderman for Ward 3 in April 2021. “It’s so important to balance the individual interests of the community near term and long term and that’s what makes these voices very hard and sobering.”
Montney said she was talking to one of the council members before the meeting, before they heard any commenters, just about the value of that input and how much information contextually is there that isn’t available or hasn’t been shared recently that you can find in this 623 pages of meeting document.
What was on the table was a few things…the main one related to this is the annexation of about 80 acres into the city of Bloomington.
“That property currently is zoned agricultural. It’s 80 acres that was sold several months ago to the folks that own QuikTrip,” said Montney. “QuikTrip is a privately owned company about an $11 billion company. They are huge. They don’t have much of a presence here yet in Illinois, but there are some states like Texas and others that have a very strong presence,” said Montney.
What was on the agenda specifically that this commenter was talking about is the annexation of that 80 acres and proposals to rezone some of that agricultural property to business property to the purpose of, a small portion of it, being built as a QuikTrip travel center.
“This particular brand distinguishes themselves from truck stops for a number of reasons. Their focus is short haul fuelers, people who just come in to gas up, get some food, they will have a kitchen in there and actually provide food and things like that. The issue on the table was should the city of Bloomington annex this 80 acres. That was the number one. There is a neighborhood nearby, that is further down… this neighborhood is between Market Street and Washington Street on the west side of that freeway. Very nice folks in a tight knit neighborhood that came together,” said Montney. “With regard to this 80 acre acquisition, when Bloomington looks at growth and there was a map out on during the meeting later in the broadcast if anyone wants to look at it, as to how Bloomington over time has grown through acquisition.”
Montney said that area is the connecting point between the city of Bloomington and Rivian. QuikTrip has more than 900 U.S. locations.
When you look at services that are being required and to her point the demand for housing is significant, that’s really a major issue and a direct route between downtown Bloomington and Rivian. With regard to the annexation I felt it was in the best interest of the city of Bloomington to annex that property for that reason,” said Montney. “If you look at the taxes paid currently they are very marginal on the agricultural land, but looking at it more broadly the opportunity there to accommodate some of the needs that are driven by the economic decision is very important.”
Sheila Montney was elected as Alderman for Ward 3 in April 2021
Montney also said the taxpayer it’s not going eat costs if this isn’t successful.
“If you read what the plan…102 East LLC is going to be investing $4 million into renovating the building commonly known as CII East and their plans for the building are to make several apartments and four short term rental units and the first floor will have some office space in it,” said Montney. “The city’s participation in this has to do with things that are prospective in nature in regards to the additional tax revenue that will be generated and then offsetting some of that future tax revenue will be the incentive.”
Montney said there’s also the provision of some parking places in the Lincoln garage for about 20 years, those parking places are fixed overhead for the city.
The city is making available these 20 parking spaces at the Lincoln Parking Garage for a period of time.
“That’s not anything that would add to the taxpayer. I think in this case there’s been a lot of support for this project. If you think about the city’s participation in this project you often have to think of what would be the next alternative. This building has been vacant for over 10 years so you have to ask what would the cost be to demolish this building, as an example.”
Eight apartments, four short term units, and the space on the first floor is what is projected to occupy the “eyesore” CII East building.
“It’s about property tax abatement so as this property generates income that’s where the cities participation really comes from,” said Montney.
