WEST LAFAYETTE – Since Purdue announced plans two years ago for its Discovery Park District – a live-work-play development plan to transform the western edge of campus and help pay off the university’s half of a $120 million State Street project – the cranes have been busy on the other side of campus.
Three projects of 10 stories or more, with 2,100 student beds up high and retail space down low, are going up in the West Lafayette Village area, just east of campus. Those buildings – in one case, as tall as possibly allowed by federal aviation guidelines – are direct results of West Lafayette and Purdue’s investment in State Street, in the words of developers.
The additional tax revenue expected from those three properties – The Hub at Pierce and Wood streets; and Hub Plus and Rise at Chauncey, side-by-side on State Street near the corner of Chauncey Avenue – are expected to cover West Lafayette’s $60 million stake in the State Street project.
Things moved so quickly that the city has signaled to other developers that it already might be time to slow down.
On the west side of campus, things are different.
Work has been considerably slower on a 20-year land use plan meant to recruit developers for 450 acres of Purdue Research Foundation land. Ground broke in January on Aspire, an 835-bed apartment complex at the corner of State Street and MacArthur Drive, which once held a number of Married Student Housing units.
The situation gave way to some antsy feelings Wednesday when Purdue Research Foundation officials came to tell the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission that they were ready to put more money at risk to build sewers, water lines and utilities to clear the way for housing, retail and industry they’re betting will follow.
“We want to see a payoff out there, west of campus,” said Larry Oates, president of the West Lafayette Redevelopment Commission, which oversees bills for the State Street project and the tax dollars generated by new development near it.