BLOOMINGTON (25News Now) – On Friday, Illinois State University (ISU) agreed to spend $17.5 million purchasing the old General Electric Road building in Bloomington from insurance company Country Financial.
ISU plans to make this the home of their new College of Engineering. The goal is to have students taking a class there in 2025, with a full move-in planned for 2026. The original plan was to renovate two buildings on campus.
“The amount of renovation that we have to do here is relatively minor, so it helps us with the timeliness, it helps us with opportunity, and the cost is also significantly less,” said ISU President Aondover Tarhule.
ISU will borrow money for the purchase. As students come in to pay tuition, they will pay off the loan.
Tarhule said opening the new engineering school was always part of the university’s plan, even before they bought the building. The property includes another building that won’t be part of the engineering school itself, but it will hold ISU staff beginning in 2027.
The purchase marks an expansion into Bloomington for the Redbirds. The initial plan is to use shuttles to take students from the main campus to the engineering building.
Country Financial is selling the building because they have more hybrid workers post-pandemic. Three years ago, they decided to move a lot of their workers to their Towanda Avenue campus.
“We really believe that there’s a lot of power in bringing our employees together. Because we work differently now, and we’re committed to a hybrid schedule, it makes it even more important for us to have those meaningful moments together. So, having them all on one campus will help to facilitate that,” said Carl Bridges, a senior vice president for Country Financial.
According to an escrow agreement with the purchase, Country Financial will maintain ownership of the building until Dec. 31, 2026. That’s because insurance employees from IT and customer service still work in the building.
ISU and Country Financial are expected to close on the sale Nov. 15.
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