A developer is planning a new apartment complex with 180 units across seven buildings on the former Verizon site along East Empire Street in Bloomington. If approved, construction could start later this year in a community starved for more housing.
The Holladay Properties project is planned for 1312 E. Empire St., on about 7.5 acres just east of Towanda Avenue. The 180 apartments would be a mix of 94 one-bedroom and 86 two-bedroom units. They’re described as upscale apartments with amenities, including two green space areas as well as a dog park.
Holladay has been looking at Bloomington for a potential project for about two years, said development manager Mike Doyle. They landed on the Empire Street property in part because it’s a centrally located infill site, he said. He praised the staff at the City of Bloomington and Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council for being “exceptionally helpful” in advancing the project. It’s unclear what incentives will be offered.
“We believe there is a need for housing (in Bloomington),” Doyle said. “We’ve tried to do our part to meet the right folks and learn the community, versus just show up and stick a flag in the ground.”
Doyle said Holladay has a lot of experience these types of high-end apartment communities. They tend to include resident amenities like a community club room and fitness rooms. They tend to be pet-friendly, often with a dog park area and pet-wash station. While plans for Bloomington are still conceptual, Holladay is considering “Zoom rooms” (shared work-from-home rooms) and “create studios,” another shared space for arts and crafts projects and other uses.
Holladay is a large commercial real estate company based in South Bend, Indiana, with nearly $1 billion in owned property and over 275 employees in 25 locations around the country. Chicago is one of its main locations.
Facing a housing shortage, Bloomington-Normal has seen several housing projects get announced but never come to fruition in the last few years. Doyle said that’s happening in other communities too.
“We’ve been very fortunate that even during these trying times, we’ve been able to get projects launched,” he said.
Doyle said Holladay has two advantages that help keep projects moving. The company’s Chicago office has a sister construction company that often serves as general contractor for its projects. That helps Holladay “have a much tighter grasp on construction prices” as they fluctuate, Doyle said.
And Holladay itself has been around for 73 years, with a track record that’s built trust, he said.
“It’s a little easier for us than perhaps some other folks who haven’t been around as long to raise the equity needed for these projects. We have investors and folks who are willing to put their money into our projects because they know we do what we’ll say we’re gonna do. We followed through in the past,” Doyle said. “And on the debt side, because we’ve been in business for so long, because we’ve been a really good partner with the partner banks we work with, we have a pretty steady stable of lenders who are eager and excited to work with us.”
It’s unclear what city incentives or redevelopment agreement will be offered to Holladay. Doyle said one of the most common structures is Tax-Increment Financing, or TIF, in which you freeze the base layer of property taxes with any increases above that rebated to the developer or used for special projects within that area. That property already appears to be inside Bloomington’s existing Empire Street Corridor TIF District, which was established in 2016.
“It has been our experience with the last few projects we launched that some form of incentive is necessary really to get us the minimum-return threshold that we need to attract the investors we need to make these projects go,” Doyle said. “Our philosophy with any sort of incentive conversation is, it’s frankly easier if you don’t need it. We really only want to ask for what we absolutely need. It’s all just a math problem.”
The property at 1312 E. Empire St. was formerly home to a large office building which opened in 1958. It was home to the GTE State Office and later Verizon. It closed in 2007 and later demolished. It's been a vacant lot for several years.
Vehicular access to the new apartment complex would be provided via three curb cuts along the south Frontage Road and one curb cut along Robinhood Lane. In all, 331 total parking spaces would be provided on site (surface and enclosed).
The Holladay project will go before the Bloomington Zoning Board of Appeals for a special use permit (since the property is zoned for office use) during a meeting at 4 p.m. Jan. 15. It’s possible the project will go before the full Bloomington City Council at its Feb. 10 meeting, Doyle said.
Holladay hopes construction can begin this year, as soon as late summer or early fall, and take about 20-22 months. That means the project could be completed by mid-2027 at the earliest.
