Dave Bangert

dbangert@jconline.com

With a high-rise trend blocks away from Purdue University – one at 10 stories and one with 16 in the works, another tall one on the drawing table – ready to reshape the look and feel of the Village area, why did Chicago-based developers put down millions to buy a building that has helped define the Village area for more than a century?

Marc Muinzer, founder of South Street Capital and a familiar name in near-Purdue redevelopment in the past decade, said the purchase of the Miller Building – a three-story mix of retail, apartments and offices at the corner of Northwestern Avenue, State and South streets – was something he chased for 15 years.

It just happened to come together at a time when historic preservationists are scrambling for ways to protect the Village’s oldest buildings, not to mention some of West Side’s landmark near-campus businesses, as a $120 million State Street makeover has developers itching to put together deals.

“It is the most high-profile corner location in the market,” said Muinzer, whose South Street Capital teamed with T2 Capital Management of Wheaton, Illinois, to close on the Miller Building in mid-March. “We believe that the State Street redevelopment is a game changer.”

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What’s coming next for a building where West Lafayette’s first mayor ran his grocery store at the turn of the 20th century and where Greyhouse Coffee marks nine years in business is a bit vague now.

Michael Snyder, Muinzer’s partner with South Street Capital, in March told the West Lafayette Historic Preservation Commission that the plan was a total renovation, without going into details. (South Street Capital was there on other business that day, on the hook to sell the commission on a proposed five-story project about a mile away at 616 Stadium Ave.)

Muinzer later said by email: “Analyzing multiple options.” (That followed a slightly more effusive explanation by way of a press release aimed at the real estate industry: “We do not take the opportunity to acquire and reposition this asset lightly and are exploring multiple redevelopment options that will transform this best-in-market location and building into an asset that pairs work, retail and recreation.”)

Preservationists are watching closely.

“West Lafayette’s experiencing a land rush, if you will,” said Colby Bartlett, a member of the West Lafayette Historic Preservation Commission. “When you have an economic boom like this, that’s when historic properties are at risk. … You’d have to put the Miller Building into that class. It’s a beautiful building, it really is. Given its location, it’s absolutely key to the Village. It’s the hub of the place.”

Here’s the land rush price South Street Capital and T2 paid to former owners Miller Building Partners LLP: $4.7 million, according to a sales disclosure form filed with the state. That’s nearly 2½ times the $1.9 million listed in the most recent Tippecanoe County assessment, done in early 2016.

South Street Capital has had a hand in a number of redevelopment projects on the edges of campus, including Chauncey Square, a retail-on-ground-floor/apartments-on-top development one block to the east of the Miller Building. The firm also was involved in The Fuse, a five-story, retail/residential project across Northwestern Avenue from Mackey Arena.

South Street Capital’s project at 616 Stadium Ave. is still in negotiations, which hinge on securing a nod from the Historic Preservation Commission. Half of that project sits in the New Chauncey neighborhood, the city’s lone historic district. During its March meeting, commission members all but shut down the 616 Stadium Ave. project plans, saying they would overpower the entrance to the neighborhood. Erik Carlson, West Lafayette’s development director, said that without the Historic Preservation Commission’s initial approval, the city wouldn’t take on further negotiations without a new plan from South Street Capital.

The Historic Preservation Commission doesn’t have the same say in the Village, which is not part of a historic district.

But Carlson said there’s no interest at city hall to do anything that compromises the historic look and feel of the Miller Building on the outside. He said that early conversations with the investors don’t show an inclination to do that. (A new building on that site couldn’t be any taller than the current three stories without a planned development rezoning negotiated with the city.)

“I think that building is an important piece of West Lafayette’s history,” Carlson said. “We expect it to be around as far into the future as it has been in the past.”

County tax rolls put construction of the Romanesque Revival structure at 1893, less than a decade after West Lafayette changed its name from Chauncey. A 1914 picture calls the building the Powers Block and shows storefronts for M.B. Morgan Groceries-Dry Goods and the College Inn Dairy Lunch. Myron Morgan, who operated that grocery store, was elected West Lafayette’s first mayor in 1924, when the town became a city.

The Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Tour de Lafayette-West Lafayette” page lists uses over the years including a bank, restaurants, upstairs offices and apartments, a movie theater, a butcher shop and a bank.

Today it houses Greyhouse Coffee, Khana Khazana Indian Grill and Civvies clothing store on the street level, along with offices and apartments up top. What’s up for them?

“Actually, we are probably two to three weeks away from being able to answer those questions,” said Rob Schrumpf, lead pastor of Campus House, which operates Greyhouse. “We are just in the initial conversations with the new owner and, while our desire is definitely to stay in that location for the long haul, we don’t yet know exactly how it will pan out. We love the space, as well as the city’s plans for the corner.”

Peter Bunder, president of the West Lafayette City Council and a member of the Historic Preservation Commission, has expressed frustration in recent months about the lack of protection for historic structures in the Village. He’s singled out a number of properties – the Varsity Apartments at State Street and Andrew Place; the Purdue State Bank designed in 1914 at State and South streets as part of architect Louis Sullivan’s “Jewel Box” series; Morton School, which now doubles as a community center and temporary city hall at 222 N. Chauncey Ave. – worth defending.

The Miller Building always makes that list.

“Waiting to see how Erik Carlson and the developer get along,” Bunder said. “It would be great to close South Street and turn it into a public space with the Sullivan bank (on the opposite side of the street).”

Carlson said he’ll be watching along with everyone else to see what happens at a key intersection along the city and Purdue’s combined $120 million investment in making the Village and campus more pedestrian- and business-friendly places. (“Everyone knows,” he said, “that’s where our focus squarely is – State Street.”)

“They’re going to have their work cut out for them,” Carlson said. “But I think they know what they’re up against. It’s a heck of a building.”

Bangert is a columnist with the Journal & Courier. Contact him at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.