The Bloomington City Council on Tuesday approved boundary modifications to the Bloomington-Normal Enterprise Zone, which provides state and local tax incentives for businesses within the zone.
Tuesday's adjustment was made in part to include additional businesses not previously within the zone.
The motion approved adds about 173 acres of new housing and retail parcels to the zone, the two largest of which are at Six Points Road and Jumer Drive. The Six Points addition is east of the new city fire station and has access for water and sewer. The Jumer Drive location includes the vacant lots of the Shirk Commercial Subdivision, from Veterans Parkway to Hershey Road. It is zoned for business and light manufacturing, but has not seen development for the past decade.
“That was supposed to be a Kroger. It has lapsed, they have been subdivided, nothing is happening,” said Kelly Pfeifer, Bloomington's director of development services. “They get a lot of interest from multifamily or mixed-use developers, so we want to add those areas onto this.”
A couple of stalled apartment complex sites also will be added. The area already included in the enterprise zone at The Links at Ireland Grove Road was expanded to include the site of the formerly-planned The Links apartment project, which was planned on Tullamore Avenue.
“It may not be apartment units, but we're hoping for some housing, that is still the plan,” said Pfeifer.
The site of the possible 56-unit Wittenberg Woods apartment complex at South Morris Road also was included.
“They're ready to break ground if the enterprise zone passes. So that's what these are about. We're really taking seriously the endeavor to get housing,” said Pfeifer.
Leslie Drive was included to aid in expansion of the Parke Regency Hotel and Conference Center in east Bloomington.
The new enterprise zone will now be 17.16 square miles, when it previously encompasses 16.89 square miles.
