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CFC Named Corporate Partner of the Year

CFC Properties Named Corporate Partner of the Year by the Indiana Park and Recreation Association

Bloomington, Ind.-The Indiana Park and Recreation Association, at their annual conference in Fort Wayne last week, presented property management company CFC Properties with the 2017 Corporate Partner of the Year award. CFC Properties was nominated for the honor by the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department.

CFC Properties has been a partner and supporter of the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department for the past 20 years. The company has been an annual sponsor of the Department’s summer Performing Arts Series of free, live musical performances by local artists in city parks, and has helped provide free health screenings to under-served children by participating every year in the Department’s Children’s Expo.

CFC President Jim Murphy has a deep connection to Bloomington and its parks department, which led him to serve on the Bloomington Parks Foundation Board of Directors for many years. The Bloomington Parks Foundation provides scholarships for youth to participate in Parks and Recreation programs, and because of CFC’s ongoing financial support of the Foundation’s scholarship fund, hundreds of children who ordinarily would not have been able to afford to take swimming lessons, attend summer camp, or join a basketball league have been able to do so.

CFC Properties was also one of the first businesses to step up as a sponsor in the Bloomington Parks Foundation’s Downtown Square Tree Campaign, and was presented with the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department’s Park Partner Award in 2017.

“We are so appreciative of the support we receive from Bloomington businesses and organizations that help us bring quality, affordable programming to all residents and visitors in Bloomington,” said Paula McDevitt, Administrator of the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. “We are especially grateful to CFC Properties, which has been a delightful and patient neighbor for the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market on busy summer Saturdays. Their staff is always helpful when unexpected challenges arise, and they have gone above and beyond to provide assistance when we’ve needed it most.”

“We join the Indiana Park and Recreation Association in thanking CFC Properties for their contributions to our Department, and to the people of Bloomington,” McDevitt said.

Quilting Memories

By Marcela Creps Published in the Herald Times on Thursday, March 2, 2017.

“What do you get Bill and Gayle Cook?”

It was a question that plagued Jim Murphy, president of CFC Properties, back in 2003, as thoughts were turning toward the upcoming 30th anniversary for Cook Group, a global medical device company the Cooks launched in Bloomington. CFC is its real estate subsidiary.

“I just thought it would be really cool to put a quilt together,” Murphy said.

In September 2003, the Cooks were presented with a quilt that featured 30 photos of properties the couple refurbished over the years.

On Wednesday, Gayle Cook and Murphy had a chance to revisit the quilt as it was hung to be part of this weekend’s Indiana Heritage Quilt Show at the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center.

The exhibit comes with a modern twist — an iPad that visitors can use to learn more about the properties featured on the quilt.

Murphy was excited to show Cook how easy it is for someone to look at the quilt then click on a photo for more information as well as various pictures of the building.

“Isn’t that good?” Murphy asked Cook.

For Cook, it was a fun trip down memory lane as she recalled the various projects she and her late husband tackled. The top left corner of the quilt features the first property the Cooks ever restored — the Cochran House.

Cook explained that restoration was a buzz word back in 1976, and companies were being told “preservation is good for business,” she said. “So we decided to see if preservation was good business.”

At the time, the house at 404 N. Rogers St. was for sale, and people were fearful it would be torn down. There were little “shacks” built around the home that had to be taken out, but Cook said the restoration ended up costing less than it would have to construct a new building.

When they first went inside the downtown Graham Hotel, Cook said, there was a frozen waterfall in the stairwell that went from the roof to the basement. But the building had good bones and its concrete floors meant they could do anything with the building.

Her favorite restoration was Cedar Farm in Harrison County. The large plantation included cabins for the help, an icehouse, a milk house and even a school house. Another picture on the quilt featured the property’s hay press, which used weights and oxen to compress hay for transport.

Cook said the hay press was eventually moved to nearby O’Bannon Woods State Park, where there are occasional demonstrations on how it works, complete with the use of oxen.

Many of the photos relate to Bloomington, including the Canopy of Lights, the Bloomington Antique Mall and the Wicks building. Others, such as the Laconia General Store, in a small Hoosier town southwest of Louisville, may be a little unfamiliar.

Cook explained that the store was a popular stop and the only place to get gas within a 40-mile radius. When the Cooks learned it was being closed because the owners couldn’t afford to install the necessary underground gas tanks, they decided to act.

“So we bought the store and put in new gas tanks and put in a basketball court in back,” Cook said.

Some updates were a real challenge. Fountain Square Mall and the West Baden Springs Hotel both had to have steel beams installed to keep the buildings up and safe. Murphy recalled work on the Faris building in downtown Bloomington. While removing the floor, Murphy said workers found an empty bottle of Pluto water, a French Lick product. The bottle is now on display at the hotel.

“There’s a story behind every one,” Murphy said.

The use of an iPad helps provide a better education on the various restoration projects. For example, the quilt includes the fountain at Bloomington’s Waldron, Hill and Buskirk Park that was originally located at Rose Hill Cemetery. After the fountain had been subjected to vandalism at the cemetery, Cook offered to restore it and move it to the downtown park just south of East Third Street.

The quilt does also give a nod to new construction the Cooks oversaw. The Kirkwood is included as an example of their desire to bring more residents into downtown. “It wasn’t built to pack students in. It was for another need,” Cook said.

Cook also enjoyed reminiscing about the Colonel Williams Jones House that is now a state historic site. Located in Gentryville, the home has a history with President Abraham Lincoln.

“He (Lincoln) worked for Colonel Jones, who built this house when Lincoln was a boy,” Cook said.

The quilt, designed and machine pieced by Nancy Hodson and Diana McGlocklin with additional machine quilting by Jane Pitt, will hang at the convention center during the quilt show. It will then be moved to Fountain Square Mall. A second quilt that is identical to the first will also go on public display, starting at the Showers Building. Murphy said the quilts will then move to various places so that the public can have a chance to learn more about the restoration works the Cooks were involved with.

While the properties that have been restored are beautiful now, some of the “before” pictures might have scared off many potential investors. But Cook never gave into the fear. Instead, she could always spot that diamond in the rough. “There is always a way,” Cook said.

CFC Acquires Former Red Cross Properties Next to Grant Street Inn

The Red Cross sold several office buildings, an apartment complex and a parking lot to CFC Properties last month, for a combined total of $1.5 million.

Four different plots of land, and the structures that occupy them, were obtained in a July 16 transfer following the news that the Red Cross would be consolidating its two existing locations in Bloomington 355 one on W. Third and the other on E. Seventh into one location at 1600 W. Third Street.

“We informed them, in years prior, that if they sold the property, wed have an interest in it primarily for parking,” said James E. Murphy, president of CFC, LLC.

The Red Cross property at 411 E. 7th Street will now be re-purposed as office space that will be available for rent. Even though the property at 409 E. 7th Street is residential housing with leases filled through 2016, and the plots at 410 and 412 E. 8th Street are parking lots, the recent change in
ownership won’t have a big impact on the makeup of the 400 block of 7th and 8th Streets.

The primary motivation for acquiring the land stems from the Grant Street Inn, a CFC property at 310 N Grant Street. The bed and breakfast, which is adjacent to the recently purchased plots, has 40 rooms and generates the need for a large parking space in the downtown sector.

“The near future will be the same,” said Murphy. “However, now that we own this adjacent property, and we have a very good product with the Grant Street Inn … we are considering if there is a need, or an option, to expand more guest rooms. For now, we want to maximize the benefit of that property for how it is currently constructed.”

CFC Shows-off Renovated Wicks Building

By Michael Reschke
Published in the Herald Times on Thursday, July 17, 2014

With renovations complete and all its new tenants moved in, CFC Properties invited the community to see how it created modern workspaces in one of Bloomington’s oldest buildings. “We achieved our goal of creating the best, most unique offices in downtown Bloomington,” said Jim Murphy, CFC president.

Wednesday afternoon, about 30 people gathered outside as Murphy cut a blue ribbon to commemorate the renovation. After the ceremony, the public was invited inside to meet the newest tenants and see how the Sixth Street building has changed. The building was constructed in 1915. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was the site of the Wicks Bee Hive Department store until 1976. CFC purchased it in 1995.

Technology Service Corp. occupied the second and third floors until about two years ago. After the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center contractor moved, CFC tried to lease the space on the north side of the square, but didn’t have much success. “It wasn’t marketable in its existing condition,” Murphy said of the traditional office space. CFC decided to gut the two upper floors and create something more modern. The company worked with Cigital, a tech security company, to create an open plan for the building’s third floor.

“We wanted to give everyone their own sense of space, but have opportunities for a lot of collaboration,” said Randy Moore, assessment center manager for Cigital. Cigital moved to the 6,000 square foot space in April. It previously occupied a space in the Chase building on the southwest side of the square, before running out of room. The Virginia-based company currently has about 35 employees in Bloomington, and the space in the Chase building was only meant to accommodate about 20 people, Moore said.

The building’s second floor is split between the Carmin Parker law firm and Richardson Studio photography. Michael Carmin said he and partner Angela Parker decided to branch out from the law firm Andrews, Harrell, Mann, Carmin and Parker P.C., and focus on business real estate. After working in the Johnson Creamery building since 2001, Carmin said he wanted to stay downtown. “They were able to build out for us a design to meet what we asked for,” Carmin said. “It all came together.”

Michelle and Jeff Richardson started the process of moving from a location on South Walnut Street the first week of June. Large windows on the north side of the building provide great lighting for photographs. “It’s also within walking distance of great food and beer,” Jeff Richardson said with a laugh. The basement space has been donated to the Bloomington Coding School, while the ground floor is split between VIP Nails, Spectrum Studio Inc. and Royale Hair Parlor.

A few changes, like new tiling on the ground-floor entryways and a fresh coat of black paint on the ironwork out front, are visible from the outside, but the major renovations are inside. “You wouldn’t recognize the place before,” said Ed Pritchett, with general contractor Pritchett Brothers Inc., as he admired Cigital’s office space. Murphy said there were challenges to renovating the old building, but nothing CFC hasn’t encountered in the past. He wasn’t willing to disclose the cost of the renovation, but did say it was “a pretty penny.” “We’re just ecstatic that we got the new tenants that we have,” he said. “It’s a good indicator that downtown Bloomington is viable and a great place to be.”

CFC Properties Secures High-Tech Firm for Historic Wicks Building

By Rick Seltzer | 812-331-4243 | rseltzer@heraldt.com
Published in the Herald Times on Friday, May 9, 2014

It’s software security firm Cigital, which moved into the building’s third floor at the end of April. While the firm’s line of business sounds solemn — Cigital helps companies build secure applications that protect data — its new office at 116 W. Sixth St. has a bit of Silicon Valley-style flair.

There are front-to-back skylights and large windows overlooking the square. An open design lends an industrial feel. And a lofted area at the back of the space holds a couch and foosball table so employees have a casual setting at work. “It may not be so off the wall compared to other tech companies,” said Randy Moore, assessment center manager for Cigital in Bloomington. “But we thought it was important for us to have a casual area.”

Cigital is the largest of three tenants filling two Wicks building floors that were vacated last year when longtime tenant Technology Service Corp. moved to the west side of Bloomington. Cigital is taking up the Wicks Building’s entire 6,000-square-foot third floor. A photography tenant, Richardson Studio, and a law firm, Andrews, Harrell, Mann, Carmin and Parker P.C., are splitting 6,000 square feet on its second floor. They both plan to move in next month.

The leases represent success for Wicks Building owner CFC Properties, which decided to rethink the building’s second and third floors after Technology Service Corp. departed. “We basically demo’d every wall,” said Jim Murphy, president of CFC. “It had been 25-plus years and just didn’t fit the needs of today’s tenants.”

CFC stripped out much of the two floors’ interiors and exposed brick walls. It held an open house in December to show the spaces as places that could hold large open offices or be built to suit tenants’ needs. Some of that building is going on right now to get ready for the photography studio and law firm on the second floor. CFC also plans some work for the building’s outside and renovations to its entryway foyer.

That will dress up a building that was constructed in 1915 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was the site of the Wicks Bee Hive Department store until 1976. CFC purchased it in 1995. The new Wicks tenants all talked about a strong desire to be in downtown Bloomington. Cigital moved just a few blocks from the Chase Bank Building on the southwest corner of Kirkwood and College avenues. The tech firm had outgrown its 2,000-square-foot offices at the Chase Building but wanted to stay downtown, Moore said.

“We wanted to stay downtown for two reasons,” he said. “We have a good relationship with the university, and being downtown, you’re close to the university. It’s also very convenient for entertaining visitors and out-of-town guests.” The Bloomington Cigital office, which is part of a company based in Dulles, Virginia, currently has 30 employees. It wants to expand to 35 or 40 people. “Our goal from the time we opened this office two years ago was to grow to about 20 to 25 people,” Moore said. “We were successful in doing that. It was all our old suite could handle. We ran out of seats.”

For Andrews, Harrell, Mann, Carmin and Parker P.C., the Wicks building provides an excellent view, a custom-built office and a great location, according to one of its attorneys and owners, Angela Parker. The law firm will lease just under 4,000 square feet at the front of the second floor for its fewer than 20 employees and attorneys. It’s planning to move in at the end of June. The new location isn’t too far from the firm’s current location at the Johnson Creamery Business Center at 400 W. Seventh St. “We’re moving from one historic building to another historic building,” Parker said. “We like the location, we like the opportunity to work with CFC — we appreciate working with them on a custom build that’s going to be veryefficient and very nice.”

Richardson Studio will have an additional 600 square feet of space over its current 1,200-square-foot location at 1510 S. Walnut St. after it moves into the Wicks building’s second floor, according to owner Jeff Richardson. It’s shooting for a June 7 move-in date. That will allow it to be in place for the busy summer season, which is full of high school students’ senior pictures. Richardson owns the business along with his wife, Michelle. The studio also has a full-time artist and four part-time employees. “We’ve been wanting to go downtown for a while,” Jeff Richardson said. “It’s a vibe of commerce. There are so many dynamics. It’s where business happens.”

The Wicks Building has several first-floor tenants already in its row of shop fronts. They are Royale Hair Parlor, VIP Nails Spa, and Spectrum Studio/Gallery 406. CFC also owns the Chase Building where Cigital vacated an office to move to the Wicks Building. The real-estate company doesn’t have a new tenant yet, but it’s showing the space. Moving an existing tenant up to a larger space and filling the Wicks building is a success, according to CFC president Murphy. “It’s good for them; it’s good for the industry; and it’s good for Bloomington,” he said.

CFC Looks for Tech Firms to Fill Downtown Office Space

By Rick Seltzer | 331-4243 | rseltzer@heraldt.com
Published in the Herald Times on December 6, 2013

CFC Properties hopes to take two floors in a downtown Bloomington building that’s on the National Register of Historic Places and fill them with offices for high-tech companies.

The real-estate firm, which is part of Bloomington-based Cook Group, has started a push to find technology tenants for a large chunk of space at the Wicks Building. The building is at 116 W. Sixth St. on the north side of Bloomington’s courthouse square.

It was built in 1915 and was the home of the Wicks Bee Hive Department Store until 1976. CFC purchased it in 1995. Today, the building’s ground floor holds VIP Nails, Gallery 406 and Royale Hair Parlor.
It also has about 6,000 square feet of space available on its second floor and 6,000 square feet available on its third floor.

The space, going for a price of $12 per square foot, opened up after the government contractor Technology Service Corp. moved to the west side of Bloomington. Technology Service Corp. moved earlier this year after occupying the space for more than two decades, according to Chris Cockerham, CFC’s vice president of commercial real estate.

“It was individual offices,” Cockerham said. “We went in and opened the whole thing up. We’re seeing a trend for large open space for tech companies so they can have more collaborative space.”

CFC is actively searching for a company or companies to move into the floors. It showed off the second- and third-floor Wicks space Thursday during an open house.

The second floor is a large open area book ended between large windows at the front and back. It has a mix of wood and carpeted floors, along with black ceilings and black support beams.

The third floor is also mostly open, although it has a few more walls and some offices. It’s currently less finished than the second, with an exposed brick wall in the back and unfinished wood floors.

CFC decided to try to fill the vacated space with technology tenants because tech companies often bring in higher-wage workers. Such workers can boost the overall economy in downtown Bloomington, Cockerham said.

Plus, the architecture has the right vibe.

“When you see the space, it just feels like what tech companies are looking for,” Cockerham said. “Big tall ceilings. It’s a unique space.”

December isn’t a bad time to lease commercial space, Cockerham added. Many companies want to get leases in place before the first of the year.

CFC has shown the Wicks space to several companies and is “currently courting” a company for the third-floor space, he said.

Cockerham also believes some technology companies are feeling better about the economy and are ready to expand.

“It feels like the economy is getting its footing, at least from my perspective,” he said.

CFC Properties Names Ron Walker Vice President of Commercial Real Estate

Bloomington, Ind. – CFC Properties, a Cook Group company, welcomes a new vice president of commercial real estate. Ron Walker, former president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), is looking forward to his new position.

“I am truly honored to join the excellent team at CFC Properties and to begin contributing to the great work they do,” said Walker. “CFC has had an immensely positive impact on Bloomington and Monroe County and is well positioned for continued success in the future. Many exciting opportunities are ahead for CFC Properties and I’m eager to start working with them.”

As president of the BEDC, Ron led the organization’s efforts with the Bloomington Life Sciences Partnership, the Bloomington Technology Partnership, new business recruitment, and business retention and expansion. Ron also worked closely with private employers, real estate professionals, local government, Indiana University and Ivy Tech Bloomington to establish a competitive merit for the Bloomington and Monroe County community.

“Ron brings with him tremendous knowledge of both the local and regional market here in Bloomington and Monroe County, making him a good fit here at CFC,” said Jim Murphy, president of CFC Properties. “We continue to stay actively involved in the Bloomington community, and I look forward to Ron being a part of that. We welcome him to our team.”

About CFC Properties

For 40 years, CFC Properties has been a leader in the historic restoration, promotion and revitalization of downtown Bloomington, Indiana. This includes the city’s largest bed and breakfast, the Grant Street Inn. CFC also recently expanded to Canton, Illinois, hometown of former President and CEO of Cook Group, Bill Cook. For more information, visit cfctest.cookgroup.nao.

CFC Celebrates 40th Year of Building ‘Community’ in Bloomington

CFC celebrates its 40th year as it looks to the future

By Rick Seltzer 331-4243 | rseltzer@heraldt.com

Friday, November 1, 2013

CFC Properties owns more than 700,000 square feet of commercial space, much of it in prominent downtown Bloomington buildings the company renovated itself.

It has 650 apartments and co-owns about 1,200 more. It has a 40-room inn in Bloomington, and it’s been running the Yoho General Store in Solsberry since December 2012.

That’s not a bad collection, even for a four-decade portfolio. CFC is celebrating its 40th year in existence.

“We try to do things that impact a lot of people,” said Steve Ferguson, chairman of CFC’s parent company, Bloomington-based Cook Group. “We try to engage and help the community where other people can’t in what would be impact projects.”

But CFC didn’t start out as a developer. It was actually founded in 1973 as CFC Inc. — Cook Financial Corp. The company was set up to make loans to employees of the Bloomington medical device manufacturer Cook Inc.

As other lenders became more available in Bloomington, CFC’s loan business tapered off, according to Ferguson. And the company moved into development, eventually changing its name to the more descriptive CFC Properties.

Early purchases came between 1974 and 1976, when CFC acquired the Grant Apartments, Canadian Apartments, Northwoods acreage and 411 E. 10th St. Then in 1976, CFC restored its first property, the James Cochran House on North Rogers Street.

“It’s a symbolic structure,” Ferguson said. “It’s symbolic because the thing you would hear is, ‘I can’t locate west of the tracks.’ There was sort of a divide.”

Major Bloomington properties crowd CFC’s history after that. Graham Plaza. The former Illinois Central Railroad Freight Depot on North Morton Street. The Johnson Building. Uptown Plaza. Fountain Square Mall. One City Centre. Showers Plaza. The Wicks building.

CFC also bought and held property for the Bloomington/Monroe County Convention Center until the Monroe County Convention Center Building Corp. could acquire it in 1991. And CFC has been involved in plenty of residential space, from the low-income Bicycle Apartments to Lincoln Place Condominiums to the Kirkwood luxury apartments.

Ferguson and Cook Group founder Bill Cook used to keep an eye out for ideas about how to improve downtown Bloomington.

“We’d walk wherever we were,” Ferguson said. “If we were in England, we’d walk. If we were in Australia, we’d walk. If we were in Evanston, Ill., we’d walk, and we’d look at what made communities successful. The most important fact was the fact that they were lived in.”

Events can also be important in building a successful community, according to CFC President Jim Murphy. That can be bringing in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, or it can be the annual Canopy of Lights around the courthouse.

“CFC is wrapping the trees,” Murphy said. “What it does is it brings people downtown on the first Friday after Thanksgiving. There are thousands of people. It’s creating that habit of coming downtown.”

The property company’s 40th year technically started in August. But CFC refrained from marking the occasion at the time because it was involved in another anniversary: Its parent company, Cook Group, was celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Cook Group has been conducting events at its locations around the globe to mark its 50 years. Cook just finished its Australia celebration in October.

It has one more 50th anniversary celebration to go, according to Ferguson. Cook subsidiary French Lick Resort will celebrate in November. Cook Group’s Bloomington celebration took place in August, and it included CFC, which has 80 of its own employees.

In the future, CFC wants to continue to do what’s necessary to promote downtown, according to Murphy. He also said CFC could get involved in the city of Bloomington’s 65-acre certified technology park. That land is nearly at the door of CFC’s headquarters in the Showers Building.

Murphy also alluded to some sort of mixed-use project and adding housing to downtown.

“I can see us potentially adding housing — not student housing,” he said. “Not something that’s already here today.”

There’s a Special Place in Chairman’s Mind for Downtown Graham Plaza

By Rick Seltzer 331-4243 | rseltzer@heraldt.com

Friday, November 1, 2013

Steve Ferguson can run through a long list of buildings CFC Properties renovated over its 40 years, but there’s one that’s first to leave his lips.

“I think probably the most symbolic building was the Graham,” said Ferguson, who is the chairman of CFC’s parent company, Cook Group. “At that point in time, the downtown was like a lot of downtowns around the Midwest. The major tenants had moved to the mall.”

CFC started restoration on the building, now called Graham Plaza, in 1979. At the time, it was the vacant former home of the Graham Plaza Hotel.

The building was constructed in 1929. It’s a corner formerly used as the Bowles and Gentry hotels.

Renovations at the Graham building wrapped up in 1982. Today, Graham Plaza, which has an address of 205 N. College Ave., has office and retail space. Its eight stories total more than 51,000 square feet, according to city of Bloomington property records.

It’s a far cry from the vacant structure Ferguson remembers touring on a winter day more than 30 years ago.

“The elevator shaft was one big icicle because it had internal drains for rainwater, and they were plugged up,” he said. “Pigeon manure was three-feet deep in the old kitchen. Derelicts had slept there. But you could tell it was a sound structural building.”

CFC bought the building on March 1, 1979. That was 50 years to the day after the Graham Hotel opened, according to Ferguson.

The original thought was that CFC wouldn’t own the building for an extended period of time. It would renovate it, sell it, then move on to another project.

It didn’t work out that way. CFC redid the tower, but it still owns Graham Plaza to this day.

“We wanted to set an example for other people,” Ferguson said. “Because if you do something well, then the next person is probably going to have to do something well, too. We wanted to demonstrate that the original architecture of these buildings was what you ought to do in restoration.”

The idea was to preserve the outside of historic buildings, Ferguson said. Then the structures could be modernized inside, making them attractive to tenants.

CFC did a little more work to make the building attractive to those prospective tenants. It worked with the city to make sure a nearby parking garage was going to be built. That provided enough parking for everyone who would want to visit the renovated building, Ferguson said.

There were other important parts to the stamp CFC put on downtown Bloomington — the company added space for people to live downtown, and it needed to find business owners willing to risk it by moving into the area.

And Ferguson can tell stories about the difficult renovations CFC undertook in the 1980s in the eventual Fountain Square Mall. The buildings were only standing because they were leaning against each other, he said.

But the Graham building stands apart in Ferguson’s mind.

“As far as having an impact with turning downtown around, this was sort of simple,” he said. “This was sort of a symbol of what happened.”

Grant Street Inn Goes Green

Bloomington, Ind. — The Grant Street Inn has opened a new 16-room addition. The new building was designed and constructed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements. The facility will be the fourth LEED-certified building in Bloomington, and the first privately owned LEED-certified building in town. Certification, which is based on energy usage, sustainability and indoor air quality, will be completed upon review of energy and water consumption.

The Grant Street Inn’s new addition was built to match the 1890s style of the original inn. It is a part of CFC’s larger effort toward sustainable living. The addition includes green elements such as energy-saving light fixtures, low-flow showers, solar panel water heaters and a system to capture rainwater and use it to irrigate the lawn and solar panel water heaters.

“We are so excited about this addition to the Grant Street Inn,” said Jim Murphy, president of CFC Properties. “Guests can enjoy the usual comforts of our bed and breakfast as we work to reduce our carbon footprint.”

This summer, guests of the inn were given gift cards to the local farmer’s market and encouraged to bring a plant back to the inn to be planted in the guest garden. The items they brought back were incorporated into the day’s meals. These efforts, and others designed to get people thinking about things they can do to help the environment, will continue.

About CFC Properties
For more than 35 years, CFC Properties has been a leader in the historic restoration, promotion and revitalization of downtown Bloomington, Indiana. This includes the city’s largest bed and breakfast, the Grant Street Inn. CFC also recently expanded to Canton, Illinois, hometown of former president and CEO of Cook Group, Bill Cook. For more information, visit cfcproperties.com. Follow The Grant Street Inn on Twitter and Facebook.

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Media Contacts:
Caitlin Wenz
Office: 812-339-2235 ext. 4245