City of Bloomington, Indiana Redevelopment Commission, 29 Jun 2020

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From YouTube: Bloomington Redevelopment Commission, June 29, 2020

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meeting agenda: https://bloomington.in.gov/onboard/meetingFiles/download?meetingFile_id=5992

A

All right, I called the meeting to order it's a little after 5.

A

uh I called the special meeting to order and I guess we could do row call my name.

A

Is don griffin, uh david walter.

B

Derek stanweis.

C

Oh and I'm gwen, I was gonna, I'm staff, okay, jeff, underwood controller.

D

Treasurer christina finley hand, department.

E

Larry allen.

A

All right, so um I really don't have to uh act. As I mean I guess we can just.

A

Start the agenda right: no, there's! No, um there's no yeah.

A

So yeah, what do we need? What's going on so.

C

um I guess I'll introduce uh jeff ryan, so jeff is with real america. So the.

C

Whole purpose of tonight's meeting and jeff can introduce the person who's with.

C

Him um is to provide information. Oh it must.

C

Be bruce berry. If I looked at the slides, I could see.

C

Who's the dire their director of design. I wanted to do.

C

Have with this special meaning is to provide.

C

With not only to the public but to the redevelopment commission.

C

An outline of the proposed affordable housing development.

C

That would take place at the 1730 south uh walnut street site.

C

Which is the former night moves? Property, that's owned by the city.

C

That we have partnered with real america to build affordable housing.

C

So with that I'll turn it over to jeff ryan.

F

Good evening, um as doris said, uh we're with real america.

F

um And talking about what we're calling retreat at the switch yard uh with that.

F

Great part going in, we wanted to associate ourselves with that.

F

I'm jeff this is bruce uh and the so the property. As you said, the old uh night.

F

Moves- and you can see the uh the site here is in the blue.

F

Outline is kind of an odd shape so coming in off.

F

Of walnut, there is a shared access on that. That's the.

F

Rectangle, that's right here: a shared access.

F

Site one of the tricky parts of it is where you get.

F

To the west side of the site, and it starts to drop off.

F

And this red dashed line is an existing utility easement, so we couldn't get into.

F

That, and so with, that gives you an l-shaped building.

F

Again, using you know the you can see the utility easement that's going in.

F

Through here, sanitary, and then it starts to drop off in this area, gets.

F

To um significant grade differences over here.

F

As it goes down to a a creek in this area,.

F

What this is showing is a small amount of outside.

F

Parking here with, then this is the ground floor that has retail on the.

F

Front and then parking on the ground floor.

F

And then it has the apartments that go above it.

F

And we were down there and saw some of the architectural style that's going in.

F

And the colors- and we thought you know that- could be cool to play off of.

F

Because that's some, you know good-looking designs that they're putting in on that. So that was the starting point for us, and so you see on here with this uh was this butterfly butterfly roof on.

F

Here and the materials of it so with.

F

Our design again, this is where the ground floor.

F

Is with the parking within the apartments, above so we're playing off of.

B

That, with a butterfly roof on here and using some of the same.

F

Materials and colors that are in there.

F

And this is the view that would be looking at.

F

The the park, so this is the southwest corner of the building.

F

Just pulling back a little bit again southwest corner over here.

F

Is uh the the northwest corner going up to I wait? Do I have my.

F

Directions wrong: the front of the building is over here.

F

This is this: is the back that's facing the park way over on this.

F

Side is facing walnut, so this is the retail on here. That is.

F

Facing walnut street um again with the parking underneath.

F

And then the building coming up above that.

F

And one thing: that's that I like about the design that bruce did is the way.

F

That this retail space comes out, um it actually.

F

Hides some of that parking! That's back there, uh so, especially if you're coming from downtown going south on walnut you're.

F

Not going to see parking until you're past the building.

F

So this is the south side of the building. That is.

F

South side is facing the park.

F

And a little overview it, uh we have 64 apartments in there.

F

uh With 50 of them projected to be affordable and 14 market rate.

F

For the affordable, we're doing uh average income.

F

So doing them from 30 to 50 80 of area median income, so that gives a.

F

Very wide range of rents and incomes uh planning on.

F

uh Setting aside 20 to 25 of them for stone belts, clients for.

F

Developmentally disabled to have uh integrated supportive housing, um then.

F

The majority of them being the workforce, housing.

F

A mix of one two and three bedrooms and as we committed to.

F

uh 99 year, affordability on it and the ground floor, commercial.

F

The schedule is a little bit unusual this year because of.

F

The pandemic, so that was delayed instead of having a july.

F

Application date, it has now been switched to.

F

September 18th and instead of a november allocation, uh the allocation.

F

Date has been changed to january 28th, um assuming we're successful the rest of.

F

Our schedule would not change much from what we had before we'd be looking at.

F

Closing on the finance and starting construction.

F

In july, about 16 months for construction puts this in october of 22.

F

To start leasing november to finish and then.

F

Five or six months to lease up.

F

So that covers what we have on that and be happy to.

F

To go through any again or um answer any questions on that.

A

How much square footage is the uh is the commercial portion.

F

The commercial is about three thousand square feet.

F

Thirty five 500 I've been corrected, 3 500.

A

Do you do do you have any idea what you want to put there? Are you just going to.

A

Do the commercial space do a vanilla space in and then try to.

A

Get market rate for try to get someone in there.

F

uh What we want to do is to work with the city to find an appropriate user.

F

um So yeah we want to to rent the space out.

F

But we're not just going to take whoever we never just take. Whoever comes along.

F

We have other buildings uh that we have commercial space in and we've had people.

F

Come up and say that they wanted to put something in and we've said.

F

No, we don't think that's the right fit, so we need to find the right fit. That.

F

Works for us and for the city jeff. Yes, could you speak to the.

B

Facade materials uh just kind of go through each of those.

B

Shades what those represent in terms of actual material, certainly I'm actually.

F

Going to have uh bruce answer those, let me put the screen back.

E

Up, I can do it from memory, but if they probably won't see.

F

Give me one second here.

E

So the the ground floor never mind. Sorry the ground floor.

E

Parking would be um masonry, it would either be a um a.

E

Brick veneer or a uh we have maybe explore a.

E

Precast concrete, that's textured, to look like brick and.

E

Painted the upper floors, the darker gray was a.

E

Fiber cement lap siding the lighter gray is a fiber cement panel.

E

Siding and then the white was also a fiber.

E

Cement panel, siding honestly, all of it is, is a fibrous man.

E

Just a different different variety of texture.

E

The the brown outline or the brown that surrounds the balconies.

E

uh Is uh still fiber cement or it might be called it's there's a.

E

Product called nichiha that's supposed to look a little bit like a stained. Wood.

E

Or uh and then the red inset inside the balconies fiber cement as.

E

Well, it's all real, durable materials.

G

Do you have a sense for what the total budget would be on that project?.

G

And then the other question that I have is.

G

On your other projects, what are some examples of who the commercial tenants.

G

F

One second: let me get to your first one: there.

F

We are looking at a construction budget of about 11 million dollars in a.

F

Total budget a little under 15 million dollars.

F

uh And other commercial tenants we have in uh in south bend uh building that we.

F

Have there has a cafe an architecture company.

F

And a bar in it in fort wayne, we just got a.

F

Furniture company in another building, we have a local.

F

Farm to uh table restaurant, a hair salon.

F

Somebody else just moved in, but I'm blanking on who that is.

F

um So it's it's been uh local companies that have been doing.

F

A

A

Was that a require, I don't remember guys, was that a report, the.

A

The commercial component was that a uh that faces, um I guess walnut street was.

A

That a uh a uh component that we insisted on.

A

F

Do you remember was a request in the rfi? Yes,.

C

Sorry I couldn't get off mute, quick enough, but yes that was a requirement.

C

That was listed in the rfi.

A

It was a requirement, yes,.

A

That's just a lot: that's that's a lot of money that could go to more affordable.

A

A

That's all that's my opinion.

C

Now I think we looked at it donald as you know, on that side of town.

C

Particularly there's not a lot of retail.

C

You know there may be commercial spells, but not a lot of retail and thought that.

C

Maybe there could be some businesses put there that could.

C

Serve the residents of the um housing complex.

A

Sure, yeah, you're, right or visitors to the park.

C

Correct it is at the entrance of the park this.

A

Is true yeah I would love it to be a coffee shop.

F

Ice cream shop, you know a cafe kind of thing I think, would be.

F

A great use for there, especially going to be a neighborhood secret shop.

C

Yeah because you're funny.

C

That development, of course, is right next to that, it's the.

C

Eastern entrance to the park and the park, the.

C

Other parking lot for the entrance into for parking for the park yeah. It makes.

A

And it makes sense you are on a commercial corridor right there.

A

And you're right there's nothing really, there's very few things facing.

A

Walnut street right now so this could be. This could create a trend so.

A

I see it we're going to take over that mcdonald's.

A

B

I wondered I wanted to ask if there were any kind of local.

B

Design inspirations uh for the design as you've got it.

B

Sketched out so far, I'm aware I appreciate how many.

B

Constraints there are on the site, especially on the budget.

B

And so on, so I know not everything is possible, but.

B

Are there any particular cues that um you could pick up on that uh say.

B

Bloomington to you what what um what I'm seeing currently.

B

In the in as rough as it is, is something that does sort of resemble the design vocabulary of a lot of the so-called big box um kind of student-oriented apartment.

B

Buildings that have that have cropped up around town and I wonder.

B

If there are other models or kind of local.

B

Precedents that can help to inform the look of this as it as it.

B

Develops in more specifics from here on out.

F

Yeah, the the design uh cue that we were using.

F

Is uh some current architecture? That's new.

F

In switch yard park- um and this is just a first draft.

F

So uh you know we we are still refining it.

F

um But it is uh doing a very local, not just bloomington.

F

But our neighbor there of the park, hey and uh eric, I think you're starting.

A

To recognize the five over one design that is so prevalent where it's.

A

It's uh everything is done like that for right now, these lower.

A

um You have like metal framing on the first level and.

A

Then, and then uh wood on the this is, is that how this.

A

Is done metal framing on the and then wood on the top go ahead? I'm sorry concrete on the.

F

Ground to then be able to do the four floors of wood. On top of it.

F

And the reason we did that was to maximize the site.

F

Without uh doing that, then parking becomes very much a challenge so.

F

We needed to put parking tucked under the building with the apartments above.

C

It so jeff. I was wondering because it's.

C

Really kind of hard to get an idea of like um what.

C

Eric was saying with the background of real america being green, and it looks.

C

Like the building is all green and gray, if there's any way to get.

C

Some better just full shots of what the building looks like.

E

Sure, certainly.

E

Actually, the colors are more the gray there's a gray white.

E

Dark gray and red um I didn't want to be completely cliche.

E

But red just kind of spoke to me being in bloomington.

E

But I tried not to go overboard with it uh and we tried to play off of.

E

Like jeff said, the shapes um and some of the textures that we saw.

E

Going in in the park, I think that performance.

E

Space is: uh isn't there an outdoor there's, an outdoor performance space.

E

Right there that we face that um has that same style, roof.

E

We're not necessarily suspending the roof, like is in the picture that he has.

E

On his screen, but we're trying to imitate that shape a little bit and play off of that and be part of the local character of.

E

That specific neighborhood, I guess, but.

E

We can definitely get some cleaner, some cleaner images for you.

G

Hey don, this is cindy. um I've got to drop off here.

G

Shortly um is there any action that we needed to take.

A

I don't think so. I think we're just talking right.

C

So, okay, I wanted to just be able to present the design to you and get.

C

Feedback from the commissioners on the design.

C

As we move forward regarding exteriors okay, thank you yeah a couple.

D

Questions here, uh first, one on your floor plan.

D

uh Indicate an elevator, uh are you gonna, be able to hold on to that.

D

Thing or the last set of apartment buildings we.

D

Looked at, uh they dropped it as they got into.

D

Development realizing that they could not afford it.

F

Oh, no, we we will stick with the elevator. We would never do a building of this height without an elevator.

D

Okay, second question concerns uh this uh corner area, where you have.

D

Showing some outside seating, umbrellas and so on is that part of an.

D

Apartment or part of the lounge area uh explain a.

D

Little bit more about that, I appreciate it.

F

Yeah that area the two wings that go off from that are where the apartments.

F

Are that area that has the umbrellas and the outside eating is the core where our common area is.

F

So in that area it has that would be coming into.

F

The common room that has a gathering area.

F

Kitchenette um tv, that kind of stuff the fitness center.

F

Management maintenance- well, maintenance buy wouldn't be there, but the management.

F

Office and our other common space, so it plays off of that. So you know the.

F

The community room would be able to have space.

F

On that second floor uh inside, but also on nice days, be able to come outside.

F

Also and then this would be accessible only.

D

To the residents, perhaps by a key card or something like that.

D

Correct: okay, no further questions.

A

I I have kind of a comment that that, and I may not be sure.

A

I'm just going to say it. You may get some flack for.

A

A

The surface that you're putting on the uh on the building the.

A

The fiber cement board- um you may get some.

A

Some flack for not having either brick or limestone.

A

I mean some of it, I mean most of that's okay, but you may need to put some more.

A

Natural uh stuff to kind of dress it up: okay,.

F

We'll look at doing that, I mean I'm. Am I wrong guys or will no.

H

You're you're right I mean I just spent four years on the plan. Commission.

H

I can tell you wholeheartedly that it's one of those things where.

H

um Even the planning commission is getting tired of the four over one.

H

um Even though we understand they would understand the.

H

Constraints of the site, they'll understand, you know how much is going to.

H

Affordable housing, however uh they're gonna ask for modulation more.

H

Modulation, because it looks like it's just a long flat building, they don't.

H

Want to see that they're going to want to see more.

H

Architectural appeal, considering it's the entrance into our.

H

Brand new park, they want to make sure that that's something that's of community appeal in addition to livable.

H

And you're not wrong don and the in the brick and limestone comment.

H

um Most of any that came forward say you know utilizing.

H

Limestone and it's made as its main architect, one.

H

Of the main architectural facades uh automatically.

H

Was looked at as a very favorable uh petition coming forward, I think.

H

You know the the creativity here uh is really really good with how, with.

H

The constraints with accessibility- um I would just.

H

Caution on a couple things, so I definitely keep.

H

I mean I would never imagine that you get rid of an elevator or a four-story.

H

Because I feel like there's a lawsuit waiting to happen, but the other thing is um I've seen throughout town.

H

Anyone that doesn't use keycard and just a like a handle and a lock students.

H

Or people or friends yanking the doors.

H

Until they finally are just open and breaking them, so I mean I would just.

H

Just be smart about how you're, how you're uh you know think about use.

H

Cases right think about the worst case and then implementing that that solution uh to the best of your ability and.

H

Whatever the budget may be, because you're gonna be in a very high.

H

Traffic area and a lot of people are going to want to come to this place.

E

So, regarding your comment about the articulation and the.

E

Offset of the building not being there, maybe that's.

E

A function of the fact that we covered the balconies on the top floor.

E

uh The the ins and outs are are ever so often, obviously.

E

But they're they're not very they're, not as pronounced as you.

E

Pointed out, I guess I didn't really see it that way at first, but.

E

uh We could uh interrupt that so that the.

E

That's vertical slot goes all the way through.

E

And it probably is the facade down to some.

E

More um vertical pieces so that that brown like right over the.

E

Red the top, you know yeah right there. If we.

E

If we kind of eliminated it right there at that plane and let the.

E

In and out of the building be a little more prominent is what I'm kind of hearing absolutely, because what you're gonna.

H

Hear is um uh pedestrian appeal.

H

You know when you're walking by you don't want uh some monolithic structure.

H

Overtowering you, um and so that's, that's kind of where they're going to come.

H

I mean I was, I was part of. I was on the planning commission during the.

H

The recreation of our unified development ordinance so.

H

um Taking that amount of time and applying it to this, you already have a.

H

Very good model, you know uh you know sketch for.

H

Your petition, they're gonna, ask you to revise it, but.

H

Going in ahead of time, knowing that will hopefully decrease the.

H

Amount of work on that back end.

E

We're also going to commit to working with a local architect and getting their.

E

Input on design I've made some contact with um the one.

E

That doris recommended uh spring point. I think it's called oh.

E

Yeah yeah that way we're not completely.

E

Coming in cold uh with the ins and outs of the bloomington and the.

E

Design process there and yeah it's a little bit harder here than.

H

It is like say, caramel or zionsville, so.

H

You know I'm not gonna sugarcoat it for you guys.

B

I guess I would um I'd echo some of the things that.

B

That nick says just as both as practical advice, you know moving forward and as.

B

As maybe, aesthetic preferences based on seeing a lot of new uh buildings go up.

B

Here over the last 10 15 years to me, it's it's almost a question both of.

B

um Simplification and of complexification, that is.

B

That I think how it reads anyway, from from the um the computer sketches, is.

B

It's a very uh it's a big bulky presence.

B

And being able to maybe undulate and modulate.

B

And and kind of create more of a sense of.

B

A village a retreat, if that's, what we're going to call it.

B

That involves you know some interactive undulating spaces on one hand, but on the.

B

Other hand, maybe simplifying what now read as a lot of.

B

Different um building surfaces and materials and.

B

Articulations and colors- maybe that can be uh there- can be a.

B

Little less of that, there can be a little more of the um of the kind of the the massing that that that one.

B

Expects in a good, solid um apartment, building um where it doesn't.

B

All each part doesn't have to be called out in in.

B

A special way, so I guess I could imagine going in both.

B

Of those directions, that is, if we can relieve some of of the bulk and the.

B

Flatness of it, and on the other hand, if we can um find.

B

That the the right materials and colors that really kind of simplify uh the current uh complexity of.

B

Of these many differently articulated surfaces.

B

um Again, I realize we're just spectators here, but it's our building too so.

B

I appreciate you're, giving it uh us a first.

B

Chance to kind of weigh in on some of these issues, because it's.

B

It's going to be a huge landmark huge and a landmark.

B

And it's important to do it right, as you know,.

C

So I thought I would share the building back with you, so you could see it.

C

Unfortunately, I can't get my video back on.

A

What what are the windows down at the bottom that I'm looking at are those.

A

uh On the main floor is, are those um is that parking? What is what is that on.

A

The main floor on the on the main level, it's parking and it's.

E

It's openings. This is not actually windows. It's.

E

The parking area we could, um I mean, sometimes people fill those with.

E

Grill work, but that's a budgetary concern as well.

E

It tried to break the essentially the building.

E

On top is bigger is a little bit bigger than the building the.

E

Podium that it sits on, so that's why I didn't take a lot of.

E

Masonry materials up more than one story, because then you've got to support them.

E

Above there, but the the floor plate with the way the units.

E

Are actually cantilevers a little bit past the uh the building on the first.

E

Floor and so uh see that yeah you're.

A

You're, it's it's a hot it. It's a hard spot.

A

In the sense that uh it's not just your your road frontage.

A

Isn't like you've really got three uh three.

A

A

Elevation, I mean you're you're the how the thing has to be pretty.

A

From behind, because it's overlooking the park.

A

And then, and then on the side there, it also has to look attractive.

A

Because it's it's got a lot of frontage. That's the driveway.

A

Into the park, and then you've got the main frontage, which is on walnut street.

A

So it is it's, it's not an easy.

A

Especially when we're talking about an affordable.

I

uh Component in there, it's not it's, it's it's a challenge. It looks good, though.

A

I'm not um and that's why we did do this as.

F

Four-Sided architecture: we didn't dumb down one side of it uh anyway. We knew that there'd be the views from.

F

From from every direction, so yeah we're doing it that way.

D

Well, I do like how you step down for your retail along south walnut.

D

To you know, break up that mass, because majority of people will be looking at.

D

This building doing 30 35 miles an hour.

D

And they'll see those scents that one story area.

D

And that there's something behind it, so you know perhaps that's where you want.

D

To put the most bang for the buck is making that uh one story.

D

uh The best looking, instead of just repeating some of the.

D

Materials you're already using already just by thoughts, doesn't mean a lot.

H

uh From my from my experience, um if we're talking about that main level,.

H

With what you're doing uh you know it's, you know you can't just have a solid you.

H

Know void, you know, I mean solid mass, uh so breaking it up with the what was what you're calling like open.

H

Space windows kind of stuff, it's good. What I've also seen is working.

H

On establishing almost like a great that you can put public art on.

H

Or you know commissioned work that um that has.

H

Gone well in the past, and I know you know bloomington's trying to model.

H

Itself, like other cities that are doing that to bring you know at the end of the day, it's a it's a parking garage.

H

I you know, I understand, because we talked about this for the fourth street.

H

Garage as well, however, bringing some visual interest to.

H

That area, as dave was saying, is, can be, um will be.

H

Requested um or looked at because it's kind of just there.

H

Might as well, you know you're walking by it might as well make it somewhat.

H

Attractive which side would you focus that on would.

E

You focus that on the walnut street side or the park side.

E

Or I would focus on the park side.

H

Okay, people are driving past really fast on.

H

Walnut you're not going to be seeing too much it's the people walking around they're going to be seeing it.

A

And in the walnut I mean it's in the building it, it.

A

You kind of created human scale because of the.

A

The the building, that's in the front, if we're calling that a separate building.

A

But yeah, I think, behind at the park.

E

They can kind of see the blockiness now I really didn't it really didn't.

E

But I do now I can work on that. That's why these.

H

Collaborative teams work, you know we're all in it together and.

F

Like we said in the next couple weeks, we should have a local architect on board.

F

To help us out also and and put on new ideas on it,.

F

um You know, I think what you're seeing here is pretty much.

F

Just bruce's idea, so um you know he's one person and uh you know we'll.

F

We'll uh branch that out a little bit and and get somebody local and it's a.

H

It's a great first run not taking any way anything away from.

H

That so it's pretty building all right.

A

We have any other questions, guys.

A

All right, um doris, is doris still here I don't have.

C

Anything else I just want to thank both um jeff and bruce for.

C

Presenting uh this preliminary design.

C

And I want to thank all the commissioners for their comments.

C

So, hopefully, that we can be able to take into uh that they'll take into account.

C

And then work on um making some modifications to the designs and will.

C

Keep you updated. Okay, thank you meeting is adjourned, have a good evening.

A

All right as well.

I