First piece of $19.4M Lafayette Theater rehab ready to start
Lafayette also puts 605 Main St. up for sale … and other notes.
Support for this edition comes from Food Finders Food Bank. Join Food Finders for the second annual Free Spirited Festival, the Midwest’s premier non-alcoholic and functional beverage experience, taking place on Aug. 1, 2026, from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the beautiful Wea Creek Orchard in Lafayette, Indiana. The festival is presented by Generation NA, and all proceeds benefit Food Finders Food Bank. Get tickets here.
Lafayette puts 605 Main St. up for sale … and other notes
Lafayette is looking to offload one of two Main Street buildings the city bought in 2024, saying it’s no longer part of long-term plans for expansion space next to the Long Center for the Performing Arts and for the nearby Lafayette Theater.
The Lafayette Redevelopment Commission agreed Thursday morning to put 605 Main St. on the market, with a list price of $315,000. Offers for the building, which is being rented to the Vegan Cheese Lady restaurant, will be considered at the commission’s next meeting, Aug. 27, Dennis Carson, the city’s economic development director, said.
Carson said the deal won’t include a building at 601 Main St., on the southeast corner of Sixth and Main, which the city picked up in a package deal two years ago for a total price of $625,000. At the time, city officials said the property could eventually be used to expand the Long Center’s St. John Pavilion and lobby space as well as green rooms, artist and storage space.
“We purchased that for a long-term investment, particularly for the Long Center,” Carson said. “If we do any kind of expansions or anything with that, we could be just looking at 601 Main St. We really don’t need 605 Main.”
Carson said there are no immediate plans for that corner, which had housed a series of restaurants and bars, most recently the G.O.A.T. Pub, when the city bought it. The corner now is a micro-retail spot managed by MatchBOX Coworking Studios.
The $315,000 offering price for 605 Main St. came from the lowest of two appraisals, Carson said. The city’s economic development office will take offers on the 5,184-square-foot, three-story building until 10 a.m. Aug. 27, according to documents approved Thursday by the redevelopment commission.
The city bought the former Mars Theater in the 1980s, converting it into the Long Center, a 1,150-seat venue at 111 N. Sixth St. The city bought the Lafayette Theater, an art-deco movie house built in 1938, in 2019 and took over management in 2020.
In other moves …
RENOVATIONS STARTING ON LAFAYETTE THEATER: A $19.4 million rehab of the Lafayette Theater intended to bolster the former movie house at 600 Main St. into a downtown entertainment venue is expected to start in the coming weeks.
