Project Vision

Hopewell is the City's most significant housing opportunity in a generation. The vision is a new neighborhood that looks and feels like Bloomington — human-scaled streets, front porches, a mix of housing types, and residents of every income level living side by side. A neighborhood built by local builders, for local people. Hopewell is expected to improve market access, address housing supply challenges, support long-term community goals, and importantly, make it easier to build the kinds of homes Bloomington residents are asking for.

Key components of the Hopewell South project include:
• A mix of housing types and price points with homes of all shapes and sizes for all our neighbors—buyers, renters, families, seniors, and everyone in between
• Pre-approved home designs to streamline permitting and reduce costs
• Opportunities for local builders and contractors to participate
• Legal frameworks to support permanently affordable and market-rate homes
• Ongoing community outreach and developer training to build transparency and local capacity
Learn more about the history and vision of the Hopewell project.

Learn More on Bloomington's website

Small-Scale Development Workshop

Hopewell South is designed to make it possible for local builders—not just large developers—to deliver attainable homes in a great neighborhood.

Friday, August 14, 2026 from 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM. Join us at the Small-Scale Development Workshop to learn from the Incremental Development Alliance. This workshop focuses on project formation for small scale real estate development. Workshop attendees will take a big picture view of neighborhood-based development and analyze what makes it a good project, how a building makes money, and how small developers interact with the broader ecosystem of professionals in the built environment. Workshop attendees will be awarded 5 points toward their Hopewell Neighborhood Redevelopment proposal response.

REGISTER FOR WORKSHOP

Small-Scale Developer Boot Camp

Wednesdays from October 7 to November 4, 2026 from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM.

Graduates of the Small-Scale Developer Workshop are eligible to attend Small-Scale Developer Boot Camp. This Boot Camp will give participants an opportunity to apply training to their actual development project. Participants will work through exercises like building and refining their pro forma. Participants will leave Boot Camp ready to pitch their project to lenders and get started building.

REGISTER FOR BOOT CAMP

Request for Proposals

Fall 2026 Qualified residential builders and developers will be invited to submit proposals for the construction of homes on individual lots within the Hopewell South neighborhood.

The official request for proposals (RFP) for residential development partners will be issued by the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission (RDC). Please reach out to the RDC for more information about the anticipated RFP.
The RDC has done the hard work so that builders can focus on what they do best: building.

Selected developers will receive:
• Fully permitted, build-ready lots. Each lot is delivered with a complete permit-ready package: site plan, architectural construction drawings, landscape drawings, utility stub-outs, and all required engineering. No additional design work or design consultants are required.
• Pre-approved architectural plans. The Hopewell HOME Catalog is a library of homes designed specifically for each lot. Plans are pre-approved by the Building Department; IRC permits are ready when your lot sale closes.
• Completed infrastructure. Streets, alleys, sidewalks, public right-of-way improvements, and utility mains are installed by the RDC before lot conveyance. Builders connect to stub-outs at each lot line.
• RDC as equity partner. Land payment is deferred to the sale of the completed home, not due at lot purchase. This eliminates land carry cost and substantially reduces the equity a builder must bring to the project.
• RDC-provided appraisals. The RDC will have the neighborhood appraised as a whole and will provide unit-specific appraisals to each developer for construction financing — eliminating a significant predevelopment cost and time burden.
• A fully entitled project. The Hopewell South Planned Unit Development has been approved by the Plan Commission and Common Council. All public hearings are complete. No further zoning action, public meetings, or entitlement work is required for residential construction consistent with the approved PUD.

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