WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Fresh City Market, a grocery store across Northwestern Avenue from Purdue’s Mackey Arena, will close after more than three years in West Lafayette.

Jeff Maurer, co-owner of Fresh City Market, confirmed that the store would close when contacted by the J&C. But he said he wasn’t in a position to give more details, including when Fresh City would close or why.

Fresh City Market is part of SpartanNash, a publicly held company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with 145 grocery stores in nine states and 2,100 others it distributes to across the country, according to the company’s site.

SpartanNash media contacts did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.

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The same went for the management office at the Fuse, the student housing development at 720 Northwestern Ave. that includes Fresh City Market.

Fresh City Market was a spinoff from a store Mauer had in Madison, Wisconsin. The store, touted as a key to the retail mix as the city considered plans for the Fuse, opened in August 2014, catering to students, professors and others living near campus, in a store that was smaller than most supermarkets.

The news came as a surprise Wednesday.

Nick DeBoer, a West Lafayette City Council member, tweeted: “I’ve rarely been so angry. If it’s the last thing I do, we’ll get another grocery store on campus.”

Erik Carlson, West Lafayette’s development director, said he spoke with Mauer shortly after news got out about Fresh City Market. Carlson said he told Mauer that he planned to make a pitch for Fresh City Market to reconsider.

“I want to tell them some more about where we are in West Lafayette in getting residents in this urban area,” Carlson said. “With what we have coming into the Village, which is easy access to Northwestern (Avenue), for them to be pulling out now, they could really be missing an opportunity.”

Plans for Hub Plus and Rise at Chauncey – two 10-story-plus student housing/retail developments along State Street, about a mile away from where Fresh City Market is now – have come with city hopes for a grocery on that side of campus as well.

“You’re going to have 2,100 new beds along there soon,” Carlson said. “The whole game plan is people who live there never have to get into a car to live there. A small-concept grocery really fits that idea.”

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@gannett.com.