Officials still don’t know what could go into the former Joann Fabrics and soon At Home sites on the west side of town, but housing and businesses that provide high paying jobs would be ideal.
Joann closed earlier this year after filing for bankruptcy. At Home, a home furnishing store, filed for bankruptcy in June and began closing stores across the country. Bloomington’s location wasn’t in the initial list of closures and announced only earlier this month that it would close at the end of September.
Jane Kupersmith, director of economic and sustainable development for the city, said big box stores like Joann and At Home are magnets that attract not only locals but people from Bedford and Martinsville. But in times of economic uncertainty, she also understands why some have closed.
“With cost of labor being high, cost of goods sold being high, there's just a lot of pressure on the retail market,” Kupersmith said. “Conversely, there's uncertainty on the horizon in the job market for consumers, and so there's maybe a little bit of caution on the part of consumers looking ahead. It's not an enormous surprise to me that some businesses are feeling the pinch right now and have made the decision to close.”
Eric Greulich, development services manager for the City of Bloomington, said the former Joann and At Home sites fall within the mixed-use zoning district. In these areas, retail and car-oriented businesses are allowed. So is housing, which Greulich thinks is needed the most on the west side of town.
“Housing is a needed resource within our community,” he said, “and certainly housing that is close in proximity to goods and services, like these areas where you're surrounded by retail, grocery stores…so that you don't have to get in your car and drive everywhere.”
Greulich said many of these big box stores are built horizontally: they’re single stories and don’t have any residential component. He’d like to see a better use of the land available.
“That's not a great, efficient land use,” he said. ‘We would rather see development occur vertically and have a mix of uses within there.”
Kupersmith said the city isn’t directly involved in deciding what businesses go where; that is up to the property owner. The city’s role instead is to create conditions that make Bloomington more appealing to businesses. That starts with building a diversified housing market that brings in more people.
“We do that by having a good housing market, having childcare options, having a good school system, having entertainment options,” she said. “These are the things that really drive workforce to a place.”
In Monroe County, local wages are about 79 percent of the national average, but the cost of living is around 99 percent of the national average.
Jennifer Pearl, president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation, said any business that can raise wages is especially important for the community. Key industries that drive wages up are those in life sciences, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.
