Canal Square Apartments (photo courtesy Purdue University)
Purdue University is set to spend $70.1 million to buy a 320-unit apartment building along the Canal Walk in downtown Indianapolis that will eventually be used for student housing.
The university’s board of trustees unanimously approved a plan to acquire the Canal Square Apartments, 359 N. West St., during its monthly meeting Friday morning.
The purchase by the Purdue Research Foundation from Indianapolis-based developer and property manager Barrett & Stokely Inc. is expected to close later this year.
Purdue, which split its Indianapolis operation from Indiana University in July 2024, has since bought several properties to bolster its nascent 28-acre campus at West and Michigan streets, south of Indiana Avenue.
Canal Square Apartments, which is almost fully leased, is a four-story property that fronts the west side of the canal north of New York Street. The market-rate property, built in 1990, includes 479 bedrooms and 440 parking spaces, as well as street-level retail space, Purdue officials said.
The 400,000-square-feet building occupies 3.63 acres and an entire city block directly across West Street from the IU McKinney School of Law, making it the southernmost property in the core of downtown that Purdue will count as part of its Indianapolis real estate portfolio.
“We really felt like this was an excellent opportunity and a very strategic opportunity to continue to support our growth and direction, and an appropriate investment to support our growth,” Evan Hawkins, the university’s senior director for administrative operations, told IBJ. “There’s just so much vibrancy and culture along the canal. Purdue looks forward to being a partner, a contributor and a good neighbor, and to see the canal thrive and be a part of that.”
He said the university intends to honor all existing leases in the complex as part of the acquisition, although a property management plan has not been finalized.
The $70 million purchase price usurps downtown’s previous high-water mark for apartment acquisitions this year, according to IBJ research, passing the $50 million acquisition of The Cosmopolitan on the Canal apartments in April.
Purdue is already moving full-steam ahead on its 50-year master plan for its Indianapolis extension. In June, it unveiled that plan, which calls for a dozen buildings on the 28-acre plot, as well as a smattering of other structures on the western side of the city, opposite West Street. It eventually hopes to have at least 15,000 students on the campus.
Work is already underway on the first ground-up building on the 28-acre campus, the 15-story Academic Success Building at the southwest corner of West Street and Indiana Avenue. When it opens in 2027, the $187 million structure will offer housing, classrooms, retail areas and laboratory space.
The Purdue Research Foundation earlier this year bought the building at 518-520 Indiana Ave. for $4.5 million, which it turned into a student center that debuted in August. Purdue trustees on Friday also voted outright to acquire that property to add to its own real estate portfolio.
And late last year, Purdue acquired another property near the Indianapolis Canal Walk, a building previously home to the American College of Sports Medicine.
Local firm Arrow Street Development is also expected to begin construction on the 12-story apartment building it plans for the former Indianapolis Eye Care Center at 501 Indiana Ave.
The purchase of Canal Square is “more of a mid- to longer-term play as we continue to grow in Indianapolis,” said David Umulis, Purdue’s senior vice provost for Indianapolis. “There is a lot of additional space in there that isn’t just the apartments … the types of things that will provide us with some additional growth flexibility.”
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