- Call the meeting to order. David jumps on. We'll be able to include him in that. We can certainly go
- back a little bit, catch him up to speed. I know he got the packet ahead of time. Today is a special
- meeting that was called to review an opportunity to look at the visitor center, downtown visitor center.
- floor plan. Mike has provided some detail in the packet here. If you've got that online. Otherwise,
- I think I have an extra copy. And just as a clarification. So
- In our role here, we're really looking at funding. This is something we're able to fund out
- of the innkeeper's tax. It would be an appropriate use of the innkeeper's tax for the development of
- a business center downtown. But Mike's provided some of what might be entailed in that. I'll let Mike
- and his team talk a little bit about that. And then as we come to the end,
- Of course, it always boils down to it. It boils down to money. And so we can talk about the amount that
- feels appropriate to provide or not for this use. And then we'll talk about where our financial standing
- is. So Mike, you and your team, you want to take it away and show us a little bit about what you're
- planning? So did everybody get these floor plans? They didn't come with the packet.
- Um, but uh Yeah, I sent it with the packet. Um, now i've got the uh, there's two there's two There's
- two options in there. Um Oh, interesting. I'm sorry. Those are just um, so so spring point um is the
- design company that we chose to do the project if we do the project for it. Bolden Construction is a
- local construction company that works with SpringPoint to do this. They might get asked to see a couple
- of layout 4.8 options. And we spent a little money with SpringPoint to get that done. And those are
- two options there that go back to the June meeting.
- stuff I presented at the June meeting with all the different ideas and things for exhibits and what
- would be in the visitor center. That's it right there. Those different displays would be culinary, Indiana
- University, arts, outdoor recreation, that type of stuff. We have our reception desk in there. We have
- one office, two restrooms,
- a mural on the wall, possibly a small stage, a couple of other different exhibit types, a retail area,
- you can see those. Now we are not in, those are just what ifs. The way this would work is once the funding
- is approved, visit Bloomington staff, board of directors,
- anybody from this body that wanted to get involved in a planning process with Springpoint and us to
- determine exactly what it would all be, we need to do that. You know, there are things up for debate.
- Visit Bloomington, we feel that, you know, there is a public restroom in the 4th Street garage. We feel
- we shouldn't have public restrooms in the visitor center because then it's gonna become, that's what
- it's gonna become, is a public restroom. But there's certainly stuff we can talk about.
- There's two of them because we are going to be a facility that's going to, if you have more than 15
- people, if you're hosting more than 15 people at a time, by code you have to have two bathrooms. That's
- why there's two bathrooms there. And again, it's just a couple of different sample layouts right there
- along Walnut Street and that area in the garage. $600,000 is the,
- top-end amount of what the design and build process would be. It would be about a five-month long process
- once the plans were approved to do the build out. So I don't know the exact timing. If we can't go back
- in front of the County Council to get the appropriation approved until March or April, then we'd be
- looking at late, hopefully that's fixed in late 2026 when it would be completed.
- But my board has approved the lease, the Fortsuit Garage lease for us contingent upon the innkeeper's
- tax appropriation being approved by the CDC and the county council. I know I talked before all the different
- benefits of us moving into this location, the proximity of being down here near this convention center.
- Obviously, number one priority is promoting and marketing the convention center.
- Um, but, um, certainly our old space that we're in now, um, not, you know, traffic wise, not a lot of
- traffic coming in there. Um, we don't like the opportunity to be downtown, engaging with Republicans
- downtown and doing all the things we can do there. Send, talk about the Monroe County tours and experience,
- send them out all over the county and that type of stuff. Now this,
- visitor center would only be the visitor center with the one office for the, for Teal, who runs the
- visitor center for us, or whoever would be working at that day. Our offices would remain on North Walnut
- Street. We would close the visitor center. We wouldn't have a visitor center out there except with a
- vestibule, which we'd keep open with visitor guides and things like that. Until only one day,
- the space next to this in the garage becomes available and we can potentially look at that as a place
- to move our professional options down the line. So the use on this would be general downtown visitor
- information. I know in the past you've talked about doing tours.
- hosting receptions or things in conjunction with the Convincence Center, we could be a great venue,
- we could be an offsite reception area for things like that. Being open during homecoming weekend and
- different times when visitation is high and on weekends more, just doing more to engage with students
- and just visitors more than we can right now in a public location, but absolutely.
- And you talked about marketing and the convention center. And so as you're doing that, I'm assuming
- this would be the launch point, bringing tours of the convention center that would start in the end
- and that in those locations and things like that. That seems to make sense to us. I know that not set
- in stone, but I think we will have some office, one office space for Sean Ballard in the expanded convention center.
- to work some sales out of in conjunction with Jean and everybody, or I could use it or whoever.
- But yeah, we definitely think it's gonna be, the way we're doing it, it's gonna be a really beautiful,
- attractive, engaging space. And it is gonna be a great starting point for any type of group that we
- want to take on a tour of the traveling tourism stuff. So I could see us doing
- downtown walking tours or sports facility tours. We've got a sporting group that's coming in, a place
- to meet for that and things like that. Questions, thoughts? There'll be an interactive area in there
- where people can dial up their own itineraries and things like that with some technology within that.
- OK. Lydia, just to
- general financial update for us and where we stand with funding. Mike's asking 600,000 on the upper
- end is what I heard. These are not official numbers, but our current balance in the general fund is
- almost exactly what it was
- the January carryover. So we're right at the same amount. That includes the $500,000 that has been expended
- roughly this year for the car farm. So even if we haven't spent any of our balance at this point, so
- that is still sitting at around 4.3%.
- 4 million, which is what it was to carry over for the year and with the collection that came in September.
- And then the 1.2 million more that we're anticipating coming in in October, November, and December,
- just based on history and business volume that's on the books, we would anticipate rolling over at least
- that amount as a carryover balance.
- into 2026. So, just as a reminder, our budget did go through the county and that was preliminarily approved
- and I think finally approved. And so what we had presented at the time was a budget of 3.266 million.
- And that included increases for staffing, both the visit Bloomington and provincial center management
- company. So that 3.266, if you'll think about that, that's what we have kind of encumbered for next
- year. We're anticipating based on 2024 numbers and where we're doing in the month, if we didn't have
- that month skip,
- 4.1 million coming in in 2026. If the business is flat with a posh opening, that might go up a little
- bit. If business is the same, a business volume stays the same. So that's about a $875,000 delta that
- we'll still be adding to the balance in addition to just
- the 4.4 million. So we're not at a point to where an expenditure of this size, just a straight expenditure
- allocation would not dip into the balance as we feel we need a balance once we start getting into 2027,
- 2028, as we're running a larger operation in the commencement center,
- spending more money on expenditures before the volume really picks up to the level where it's sustainable.
- So that being the case, financially, I feel like we're in good shape in order to be able to recommend
- this $600,000, but I do think we need to put a dollar limit on what we would approve or ask the county
- to allow us to add to the budget. It's a budget appropriation, additional budget appropriation
- for 2026. And that's what we did last year when we did the car spawn project. So hope that helps as
- far as just giving you the financial overview of where the innkeepers packs Williams and what decisions
- could. So this question may be out of segment, but these are just samples, right?
- Right. They're still finalized, make some changes, whatnot. What plus the thought process, you got the
- one office for Teal and Rivers running. But staffing wise, how do you guys staff that portion now, since
- it's all in the same building, since it's separated? We have two people there most of the time. The
- person running, the person operating the plant basket, and probably Teal or some other person, yeah.
- We're gonna staff it with two people to start it off with just to make sure we can service it. You know,
- eventually once we get the hang of it, it might only be one people. I plan on cross-training the entire
- staff at Visible Retail to be able to open and close that visitor center and work it. And my mind is
- on security. And we know we're gonna get some people coming in there. We know the location.
- You know, it's a double-edged sword. We're gonna make that area a little bit better and safer and nicer,
- just like the conventions center in. At the same time, we know some people are gonna wander in there.
- We're gonna have to be trained to deal with that. But I would think, you know, two people, I don't,
- we are located right next to the city parking services. So it is a pretty secure area as far as the
- city taking care of that. I'm not looking at,
- time to hire a security person at this point. You know, we might do that on occasion when we know we
- need it or something, but, you know, we're not, we, right now we have Teal, Teal handles services for
- groups as well as she runs the visitor center out there. We will, as Mike said, we've got in our budget
- for this coming year 26 to hire a
- second condition salesperson, we'll call it a junior salesperson who worked under Sean. That person
- can also be cross-trained to handle some of those services as well, to get the hang of groups and dealing
- with them. So we may look to eventually transition that from Teal to those services for this new person.
- But I think,
- I hope that the demand and the amount of people we have coming into the new visitor center, once we're
- open and stabilized after a few months, we can maybe chart. We right now, we have four to five, three
- to five part-time people that work out at the visitor center and are trying to ask to pay them an hourly
- wage. I would have been so glad to maybe make that into a full-time person. That's our specialty is
- running that visitor center and being the expert on it.
- I think that can come with time in 47. So I think there's gonna be a lot of things we figure out, our
- operations over that first year of the best way to do it. But you know, I'm worried, I'm, my mind is
- on insurance and liability insurance and different ways to do things that we do them now, but we've
- got, we've got, we'll have some time in 26,
- get that all figured out. Water and the facility is already ready with many of the utilities that are
- ready to go to come out of getting them hooked up in the housing that needs to be built. I guess, Michael,
- I like both design and building. I think it makes sense. I think the example from the Maryland Fishery
- Bureau leader helps me put it into kind of a perspective. I think that's a
- to play out for what they're trying to do. I was just looking at the office space, and they can,
- you know, it's gonna be, they don't think we want Sean maybe have a spot where he could stage up when
- he's gonna have a site to come in, but not be in Teal's space, you know, just so as we look at that,
- that would be model top, making sure that there's a functional labor. If you need to get in there,
- you can get in there and be functional without stepping all over what's he was trying to do from that
- portion of it or Sean or anybody for that matter. How do we work the office space to make sure there's
- a couple of different terminals or something that they didn't have their own in the spot? Yeah. And
- I think those things are conversations we'll have. The way I envision this is, I think, once we have
- the approval to move forward is call in Spring.
- We'll certainly use the planning sessions to figure this all out and get everyone's input on just things
- like that before we make a final design of what it's going to be. So from this point, we're looking
- for a motion to approve a certain amount or discussion on what that amount is first? Yeah, I think Mike
- has given a range on page two, I think.
- Total design build out, it looks like between $500,000 and $600,000. Well, based on the financial picture
- that you posted, I think that maybe $600,000 without further discussion makes sense to me if we're anticipating
- If things stay flat, then we're going to have another 875 over what's budgeted coming in. I think 600
- is fair, personally. It would be a non-repeating cost. So for me, that's important, is that that money
- is freed up the next year to help support a larger
- I notice maybe this would be a separate expenditure, but I don't see any mention of like marketing of
- the new visitor center. I mean, you probably want to like update the billboard halfway and like advertise
- to a lot of people and make them
- check out our business center in downtown. Yeah, that would be built into our marketing, our global
- marketing expenses for how we're gonna do that. And as Mike said, it sees us probably utilizing more
- funding for that in the future. So I think that would be a part of our request when we're budgeting.
- For sure, we wanna make that retail area more robust and actually make money versus now we kind of use
- it just for branding purposes and things like that.
- You know, you know, I hope to some of the tours with what's the day in there and figure out where we
- can do tours and things chart, you know, chart selling tickets for tours and trying to at least pay
- the tour guide. So, yeah. My one caveat is this. So we're not going to make budget on coffee mugs. So to
- Kirby's point, using the space to help market the community and land the big convention, in my mind,
- is the payoff of space in this location next to the convention centers. We are paying heavily premium
- for the space, and we're willing to, at least I'm willing to invest money in the space, but understanding
- the real payoff is landing the conventions that will
- generate the economic benefit for the community and using this space to do it. So as long as we keep
- that in mind, that we're looking at not just handing out a brochure or selling keychains, those, I'm
- happy to take the money for mugs and keychains and things like that, but the real benefit here is being
- able to land the convention planner that generates 300 room nights a night
- in the community and saying, yes, Bloomington is the spot. And so if we're able to use this space to
- help with that, then I'm on board. Yeah, we agree with you. When I said more robust, I meant more successful.
- We already have a very small retail area. So we already have a small retail area. Yeah, I agree with
- you. There's so much in this community to promote.
- and highlight and to sell people on that you need to be in Bloomington, not at Belterra or French Link
- or Terre Haute. There's so much about this community that we should and could be highlighting.
- I think for me, being able to do that and do that well is important to help them land it here rather
- than the next community. Yeah, our physical roofer area is smaller too.
- Yeah, just to piggyback on that just a little bit, I think from the hotelier side, how many times do
- we get the question, there's not a game going on, what can I do? Free 24 hours, you know, what can I
- do to be able to have a resource that we can send them to, to where they can highlight, oh, you've got
- this option, this option, this option, that's also going to be the same stuff you're selling to the planner.
- then you're providing another service to the guests that are already here as well. Maybe they buy a
- t-shirt or a key chain, that's fine. I'm all about the key chain. Now we know. Yeah, yeah. So that being
- the case, I would put forward a motion for $600,000 for funding.
- that we could set aside in the next fiscal year to our 2026 budget and allocation out of the general
- fund for $600,000 for the development and build out of the Floyd Street garage space development of
- that year. So that would be my motion. I second that. Motion and a second.
- Any further discussion? Not on that portion yet. Marcia, would you move us to a roll call? Mike Campbell.
- Yes. Kirby Brand. Yes. So now Mike also mentioned timing. And so something to think about, and we could
- probably wait till our next meeting on that. But if they need to get started,
- we do still have funding available in the commissioner's expense. And this again, I think would be an
- appropriate use of the commissioner's expense versus unanticipated expenditures in order to be able
- to allow our operations to do what we're asking them to do. And so it may be that we need to allocate
- $100,000 in this year's budget
- to get started. Do we have the site secured? We have it held. We've got the lease. Mike's board has
- approved the lease pending the ability for us to fund the renovation which we've just given.
- And I've already, I told the redevelopment commission last week that we were looking at a January one
- start to the lease, but since we may not be, since you may not be able to go in front of the council
- to get that appropriation until in the first quarter or something like that, I told that to the redevelopment
- commission, they said no problem, we understand that stuff. You guys, we want you to know that, so.
- No risk of losing the property in the middle of the bureaucracy, I think. No, and we'll get back to
- the county to see. I mean, it is mid-October. We'll see if there's a way to shorten it to be able to
- do that. And I do feel that if we were to start a planning process in November, in here before the end of 25,
- we wouldn't be looking at $100,000 to spend. We'd probably be looking at $10,000 to $20,000 to get that
- going and have these meetings and get some more plans going so perhaps we could have something more
- concrete in February or something, you know, when we did go in front of the county, you know, spending
- a little bit more. So, you know, I would just, I would hate to spend $100,000 on them for some political
- reason. We have no idea about them now.
- them to approve the appropriation. I'm not saying that's gonna happen, but I mean, it took us two decades
- to get here, so. Well, I certainly hope not. You said you've had some expenses to get, obviously, the
- samples thrown. What kind of money did you spend so far? $2,100 for those sketches. I just got my invoice
- this morning. And that's just coming out of your general, your general fund,
- Okay, any other questions on the appropriation? And we'll get with the county to see if there's any
- way to shorten that time frame or something. I know last time we had to wait until 2026
- to get in front of the county again, to add the course appropriation back in. But that was because we
- were in November at the end of the year to be able to get on their calendar. I don't know if there's
- an opportunity there. There may not be. But we'll love. David might have, might could have helped us
- a little bit with some of that. So we'll follow up with our county.
- County Council reps and see if there's ways to do that to get, so that we don't have to wait until April
- to start something. So we'll see what we're able to do and we'll report back at the next meeting. Any
- new business? Other new business? We have an update on cars.
- It's not done yet. It's supposed to be done on November 24th, but they do have one field laid. We didn't
- lose the lacrosse tournament that we were going to have because of the neutral fields. They can't come
- in anyway. This week is one. They were here last week, and they did an area on site. It's actually going
- to be less expensive for them because the grass fields are cheaper to rent. But there is one field that's
- laid, and it looks great.
- They just got one away. But we also just got a new flag football tournament that's going to be on the
- new fields. It's a big, big droning in popularity right now. So big stuff is happening. It's out with
- another group this week on site visit. Any other new business or old business?
- Okay, any public comments? Okay, seeing and hearing none, I would move for adjournment of the meeting.
- Thank you for coming and for rearranging your schedule to be here on short notice.
- not short notice, but shorter notice or unscheduled, right? Not our normal scheduled quarterly meetings.
- So I appreciate you being able to make some additional time to come and look at this. All right, then
- we stand adjourned.