Dave Bangert

Journal & Courier

One of the worst kept secrets in the land rush swiftly unfolding near Purdue University is that a third development with 10 or more stories would land soon along State Street in West Lafayette’s Village area.

While still a month or two away from the formal approval process, details are starting to emerge about a project dubbed Hub Plus.

This one would top out at 15 stories at State and Salisbury streets, just down the State Street hill from where the 16-story Rise at Chauncey retail/student housing development will stand, according to preliminary plans filed with the Tippecanoe County Area Plan Commission.

The proposed Hub Plus comes from Core Spaces and Up Campus Properties, a Chicago-based development team behind The Hub, a 10-story apartment complex geared for students in the works at Pierce and Wood streets.

The partners also have ties to two other Purdue-oriented projects: Fuse, a five-story mix of ground-floor retail and upper-story apartments across Northwestern Avenue from Mackey Arena; and Chauncey Square, a six-story retail/apartment complex at Chauncey Avenue and South Street in the Village area.

The Hub was the first in West Lafayette’s budding high-rise trend spurred by the city and Purdue’s $120 million investment to improve State Street as a gateway into West Lafayette and campus.

“When we set out on the first one, we did not have the second one in mind,” said Steve Bus, of Up Campus Properties. “It came up when we were working on the first one. It’s great to have an address like State Street for a second, follow-on project.”

Negotiations over designs for Hub Plus were four months in the works before developers submitted a planned development rezoning petition at the end of April, according to Ryan O’Gara, APC assistant director. The city’s planners have considerable say over what they’ll consider on planned developments that are taller than West Lafayette’s 35-foot limit on new construction.

O’Gara said the concept “has gone through many changes right up to their formal rezone filing.” All parties continued to meet as recently as Thursday, aiming for consideration by the Area Plan Commission and the West Lafayette City Council in June or July.

“We’re closing in,” said Erik Carlson, West Lafayette development director.

Here are some of the details, at this point.

Hub Plus would take up an acre where a Smart Shop gas station and a vacant lot sit now. (As landmarks go, Hub Plus would be across the street and slightly up the hill from Triple XXX restaurant.)

According to plans filed with APC, Hub Plus would have between 240 and 340 apartments, with a maximum of 830 bedrooms, along with 250 parking spaces in a four-level, internal parking garage.

At 15 stories, Hub Plus would fit in with the city’s insistence that development along State Street create some sort of stair-stepping effect up the hill. O’Gara said Hub Plus’ roof would be about 20 feet lower than the one on Rise at Chauncey, which would be right next door. (As landmarks go, again, Rise at Chauncey is planned to go where University Lutheran Church is now.)

Rise at Chauncey is within two feet of the ceiling allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration, based on the flight pattern for Purdue Airport two miles away.

O’Gara said Hub Plus and Rise at Chauncey construction will create a “seamless connection.”

“Though the buildings will not be internally connected,” O’Gara said, “they will abut, which spares the city having a ‘no-man’s land’ between the two buildings on State Street.”

Hub Plus would have 13,748-square-feet of retail space, according to APC documents. Bus said that space would be split into five pieces. He said conversations have started about what businesses might go in there.

“A lot of this goes hand-in-hand with the big investment the city and Purdue have been putting into State Street,” Bus said. “Once State Street is done, retailers will begin to look at coming farther down the street, so we have real good connectivity all the way from Grant Street down to River Road.”

Bus said his team is aiming to have Hub Plus open by August 2019. Work on the State Street project – which includes a series of ring roads meant to reduce traffic on State Street near campus – is scheduled to wrap up at the end of 2018.

Despite complaints from some West Lafayette residents about the changing skyline and flavor in the Village area, the city council voted 8-1 in favor of it in March. The council voted unanimously in favor of The Hub, with its 599 bedrooms, in October.

At the meeting in March, Larry Oates, president of the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission made the case that the city was reaping exactly what it hoped to get – big private investments, high-density projects – with the time and money put into the State Street project. (The city’s $60 million portion of the State Street project will be covered by the additional property taxes generated by new projects near the corridor, such as The Hub and Rise at Chauncey.) Oates also was the one who – in Mayor John Dennis’ words – “spilled the beans” on Hub Plus.

Will there be room for a third high-rise and the 830 bedrooms it will add to the student housing market? The city wouldn’t be down to details – particularly about how Hub Plus blends in with State Street at ground level – it didn’t think so.

“There’s still some back and forth,” Carlson said. “I think we’ll get there.”

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