Bloomington to break ground on convention center expansion
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After years of planning, city and tourism officials will break ground on a nearly $52 million convention center expansion project in Bloomington on Tuesday.
Currently, the Monroe Convention Center has about 25,000 square feet of meeting space and hosts around 400-500 meetings and events each year. The new building, which will connect to the current center via a skybridge, will add about 60,000 square feet of meeting space.
“It’s going to allow us to go from serving groups of 200 to 250 with the experience they want to have, to groups of 500 or 600,” Mike McAfee, executive director for Visit Bloomington, told Inside INdiana Business. “It’ll be nice to actually speak and call on and promote to those larger groups that have shown an interest in wanting to come here over the years. We’re not trying to compete with Indianapolis. We have our own niche and it’s great.”
Once complete, the entire building will be renamed the Bloomington Convention Center. It will be able to accommodate conventions, conferences, trade shows, concerts, meetings, sporting events and more.
Visit Bloomington expects the facility, which is scheduled to be complete in early 2027, will create an economic impact of more than $20 million per year.
Inside INdiana Business asked McAfee about what’s drawing interest in bringing convention business to Bloomington.
“The same thing that drives the interest here in everything: Indiana University,” he replied immediately. “Our secret sauce is that experience of Indiana University. Meeting groups love coming here; it’s just a really unique experience here in the Midwest and the Great Lakes states that we can offer here in Bloomington because of that culture and the unique community that that people love.”
A 2018 study found that a convention visitor in Bloomington spends $175-$215 per day. McAfee says that number has risen due to increased costs and estimates it’s now around $250 per day.
Plans for a 225-room hotel are also in the works. Fishers-based Dora Hotel Company has been selected as the host hotel partner and is currently negotiating with the City of Bloomington on a site location and other items. A city spokesperson said that project, which will be privately funded, will bring the overall expansion effort to more than $70 million.
The effort to expand the convention center dates back nearly a decade. In 2017, a countywide 1% food and beverage tax increase was passed to support the project.
In 2023 the Monroe County Board of Commissioners passed an ordinance to establish a Capital Improvement Board that will oversee the expansion project.