The Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission voted Thursday against a petition to demolish the Player’s Pub building. The matter will be forwarded to the city council to be considered for historic designation.
The decision, which had been postponed to let commission members consider both sides, was 5-3. Commissioners, including Ernesto Castaneda, urged keeping at least the façade of the building because of the building’s history.
"This is part of downtown Bloomington. If we’re going to continue demo-ing buildings of this character, of this value, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I just think it’s worth saving, there’s a lot to be done, yes, but I think this is one of those buildings that needs to be saved,” Castaneda said.
Besides being home to the Player’s Pub, the structure on South Walnut Street was built in 1926 by the Mitchel brothers, local developers at the time. It was leased by Boxman’s Restaurant from the late 1920s to the late 1950s; the eatery was beloved by many locals.
Josh Alley, the petitioner and property owner, talked about building’s poor condition and the high cost of rehabilitation, money he said he doesn’t have.
“We’ve had conversations with the three contractors that we’ve reached out to to potentially do this project. Saving the initial façade is not economically feasible. You know, it’s always easy to talk about spending money that’s not yours so that’s the situation we’re in,” Alley said.
Many of the surrounding business and property owners favored demolition to revitalize the area but other community members saw value in keeping the historic façade to maintain the street’s character.
