Chauncey Hill Mall: Here’s what’s next near Purdue After a week of public feedback, developers offer a glimpse of what will replace a strip mall that has been a focal point near Purdue since 1979

Dave Bangert | Journal & Courier

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – After 250 people stopped in to make suggestions during a week of planning sessions, pieces started to fall into place for the District at Chauncey Hill, a development expected to replace Chauncey Hill Mall, a nearly 40-year-old strip center two blocks from Purdue University.

Much of it, architects assigned to the task by Trinitas Ventures said Friday evening, fell into line with notions the Lafayette-based developer had in mind going in as they mulled what to do with a property surrounded by new high-rises under construction along or near State Street.

So what to expect after demolition – expected to start by the end of 2019 – when the District at Chauncey Hill arrives in late 2021? Here’s a rough preview for the 3-acre property, offered Friday by Neal Payton, an architect with Torti Gallas + Partners, a firm based in Los Angeles.

► A hotel with 150 rooms. Trinitas officials have been signaling that since the first details started coming out about what’s next for the Chauncey Hill Mall site near the corner of State Street and Chauncey Avenue. Aaron Bartels, senior vice president for development at Trinitas, has said the idea is for a boutique hotel aimed for a campus audience of alumni, corporate recruiters and those simply looking to be close to campus.

► Between 67,000- and 80,000-square-feet of retail space. That likely would include an attempt to lure a small grocery store.

► A below ground parking lot with 650 spaces.

► Approximately 350 market rate housing units that wouldn’t be geared for Purdue students

► A public outdoor space that could include a small ice rink, space for watching movies or out-of-town Purdue games or for live music. (“Nearly everyone told us that was important to them,” Payton said. “Far and away the thing they wanted to see most.”)

► All of it would come in at eight to 10 stories, the tallest of the buildings coming just under the Federal Aviation Administration height limit that close to the Purdue Airport, which is about two miles to the west.

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“Interesting,” said Colleen Shaw, a Lafayette resident who was among the 70 people who came for the final session. Architects and Trinitas Ventures officials had spent the week taking suggestions and sketching possible designs in the emptied storefront that until recently was home to a University Spirit apparel shop.

“I’d love to live near campus, again,” Shaw said. “I really wanted to see what they were going to do with this place.”

Payton said that if much of the feedback confirmed assumptions going in, the depth of the attachment to Chauncey Hill Mall – “Listen,” he said, “it is what it is” – was surprising.

“I understand, because we get some sense of that everywhere we go for these sorts of projects,” Payton said. “But here, I don’t know, there’s a lot of people who seem to have a lot wrapped up in this place. … All I can say is that we’re going to create a place with new memories that will be just as great. It will just be different.”

John Harris, principal of A5 Inc., a firm hired to coordinate the planning sessions, said there are plans to do something similar, but on a smaller scale, for Purdue students when they get back for the fall semester.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: To submit suggestions, go to courb.co/Chauncey.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.