McCarty Hope Apts. for homeless veterans, seniors advances on city-owned land
Plus, APC asks: Is a saturation point coming for near-campus housing projects, as 551-bed Sullivan project heads to West Lafayette City Council?
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A few notes this morning on projects recommended Wednesday by the Area Plan Commission.
McCARTY HOPE APARTMENTS FOR HOMELESS SENIORS, VETERANS ON CITY-OWNED LAND ADVANCES
A plan that would add up to 40 units aimed at housing for currently homeless seniors and veterans advanced Wednesday with a unanimous recommendation from the Area Plan Commission.
McCarty Hope Apartments initially would include 24 units from the Lafayette Transitional Housing Center on land owned by the city of Lafayette along McCarty Lane, behind Lafayette Market Place shopping Center, according to plans submitted to the APC.
“I think this is a wonderful arrangement that's going to serve and help a lot of people in our community and certainly meet an important need,” Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski told the APC Wednesday evening, just before a vote on rezoning for the project.
The Lafayette City Council, which would make a final decision on the planned development rezoning request, is scheduled to consider the project at its Sept. 2 meeting.
Jennifer Layton, president and CEO of LTHC, told BiL that the project would be developed by Fort Wayne-based Keller Development. She said LTHC had lined up and $7 million of the $9 million to get construction done, but that it was stalled as the agency tried to land a spot where rezoning wouldn’t face challenges. She said she’d hoped to find property that was along bus routes, near Lafayette’s medical services and close to the Veterans Administration, which has offices on Park East Boulevard just off McCarty Lane. She said that led her to city officials to discuss ideas and options.
In 2024, the city had picked up 15 acres just west of the new public works campus in a land swap for property once targeted as a potential well field near the former Aretz Airport, along the Hoosier Heartland Highway. That land, situated across from CAT Park’s soccer fields and behind Lafayette Market Place on Indiana 38 East, was set aside for future use.
Roswarski told BiL that the city was open to giving the property to LTHC if it would help get people into housing.
The initial plans filed with the APC call for 26 single-bedroom apartments on three acres. A second phase with another 14 apartments could follow. Layton said LTHC would prioritize seniors and veterans for the apartments. The complex would include support services, she said. If rezoning is approved later this summer, construction could start in late-2025 with the apartments opening by the end of 2026, Layton said.
Layton said the project would add to the 99 apartments LTHC has in other parts of Lafayette.
QUESTIONS ABOUT SATURATION POINT ON NEAR-CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT COME WITH APC VOTE ON 551-BED SULLIVAN PROJECT
Despite concerns by a neighboring student housing co-op about parking – along with budding questions about whether near-campus developments are hitting a saturation point – a project that includes 551 beds and ground-floor retail a few blocks from campus received a positive recommendation Wednesday from the Area Plan Commission.
The Sullivan, a six-story, 285-unit complex, would go in a West Lafayette block bound by Fowler Avenue, Vine Street, Wiggins Street and Chauncey Avenue, as proposed by local developer Shane O’Malley. The project would include 7,000 square feet of retail space at the corner of Vine and Wiggins and a 178-space underground parking garage, according to plans submitted to the APC. The project’s name and some its architectural features are nods to Louis Sullivan, a famed Chicago architect whose “Jewel Box” series includes what is now a bank branch at the corner of State and South streets several blocks away.
The project would replace nine existing buildings used for student housing, including 125 beds, according to a presentation given to the APC Wednesday. Ryan Munden, an attorney representing O’Malley, said tenants in those buildings have been informed that construction won’t start until current leases are up, if the planned development request is approved.
O’Malley and Tomish Developers this summer finished 4-Up, a six-story, 334-bed apartment project a block to the west.
Residents of Maclure Cooperative, a student housing co-op at 128 Wiggins St., questioned whether parking included with the project was enough.
“There’s not going to be easy access for people who already live here, let along accommodate a development such as this,” Samantha King, president of the Maclure Cooperative Alumni Association, said.
Munden said the project had similar parking ratios as other near-campus projects approved by the city in recent years.
Regarding those recent projects, Jason Dombkowski, an APC member appointed by the West Lafayette mayor, said landlords were starting to report vacancies near campus, after years of vacancy rates listed in county rental reports at less than 1% for years. Dombkowski asked when and whether, with several large projects approved within walking distance of Purdue’s campus, the city would hit a saturation point.
Jenifer Van Schuyver, West Lafayette’s redevelopment director, told APC members that a housing study released in 2024 showed an existing need for 3,200 units in the city at that time. She said that since then, the city council had approved projects with 2,800 units. She said that didn’t account for increases in Purdue enrollment in that time or the potential for up to 1,000 jobs connected with the arrival of SK hynix’s semiconductor facility, expected to open in 2028.
“So, we’re still under the threshold of the units we feel we need,” Van Schuyver said.
This summer, the city saw four projects open that added 426 units with 926 beds within walking distance to campus. That doesn’t include the opening of Third and West, a 402 unit, 984-bed apartment complex just west of campus that Purdue is leasing as a residence hall for the next two years.
Among the city-approved projects on the way in the next one to three years are these, according to city records:
Hub Chauncey at the former Chauncey Hill Mall site, 681 units with 1,688 beds.
Rambler at the corner of State Street and River Road, 585 units with 1,322 beds
The District at Tapawingo, between South River Road and Tapawingo Drive, 960 units with 1,820 beds
The Approach, South River Road and Williams Street, 268 units with 655 beds.
The Standard, Wood Street between Pierce Street and Chauncey Avenue, 253 units with 690 beds.
Initial plans also have been filed with the Area Plan Commission for Chauncey Annex, a proposed 15-story, 294-unit, 816-bed project at State Street and Chauncey Avenue; and Alta Vida, a 173-unit, 465-bed project proposed at 224 and 240 S. Salisbury St.
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