Bloomington officials are putting the brakes on plans to build a bike park at the site of the former Thunderbird Motel after state lawmakers bought them more time to try to develop the location.
The plan to build a skills park — with ramps, jumps and mowed paths — was designed to be temporary, allowing the spot at Interstate 494 and Hwy. 77 to maintain its tax-exempt status while local leaders continued the search for an appropriate developer.
But after legislators, during a special session last month, agreed to extend the property’s tax-exempt status, Bloomington leaders decided they no longer needed that backup plan.
“We’re going to keep the site focused on economic development purposes,” Bloomington Community Development Director Kim Berggren said, noting that extending the property’s tax-exempt status had been “one of our priority requests” for state lawmakers this year.
The Bloomington City Council voted unanimously Monday to cancel its plan to buy the property from the Port Authority for $1. The property will now maintain its tax-exempt status until 2031.
The Thunderbird Motel, with its kitschy midcentury signage, had long served as a local landmark. When it was built in 1962, it was near then-Metropolitan Stadium, where the Twins and Vikings played, and it was the first Bloomington establishment to have a liquor license, according to the Bloomington Historical Society.
Despite criticism for its lack of cultural sensitivity toward Native Americans, the Thunderbird remained a time capsule of birchbark canoes, taxidermy, and conference rooms named after tribes into the 2000s. It became a Ramada, before the Port Authority purchased the property for $18.5 million a decade ago to save it from low-density development. The building was demolished in 2016.
Finding a new plan for the property has proved difficult.
