New owner for Chauncey Annex. New plans for a prime site near Purdue?
Company behind redevelopment of Chauncey Hill Mall site mulls plans across State Street, where a 15-story plan was voted down two months ago. Plus, schedule set for hearings on large-scale solar codes
The Chicago-based developers behind Hub Chauncey – a project on the former site of Chauncey Hill Mall, expected to deliver 681 units with 1,687 beds a few blocks from Purdue’s campus – are considering future plans after recently picking up a set of nearby properties.
That includes a half-block catty-corner from the old Chauncey Hill Mall site, where the city council rejected a 15-story proposal two months ago.
Core Properties recently purchased Chauncey Annex, a vacant strip center at the northeast corner of State Street and Chauncey Avenue, along with a residential lot that sits on the corner of South Street and Chauncey Avenue from Muinzer, a Chicago-based company run by developer Marc Muinzer.
Core also picked up a property at Wood Street and Chauncey Avenue, previously used as a Chauncey Hill Mall employee parking lot, from Muinzer.
All totaled, the deals were worth $14.25 million, according to county property sales disclosures.
“It’s still very early in our planning process, but we purchased the property with the intention of redeveloping it into another placemaking, mixed‑use community similar to Hub Chauncey,” Jonathan Kubow, senior vice president of development for Core Spaces, said.
“We’re always mindful of the history of the sites we consider for purchase and redevelopment,” Kubow said. “We believe this property is well‑positioned for long‑term revitalization.”
The history is fairly fresh, at least at the corner of State and Chauncey.
The West Lafayette City Council in December denied rezoning for a 279-unit, 792-bed project Texas-based LV Collective wanted to build at the Chauncey Annex site, then owned by Muinzer.
The city council’s 5-3 vote hinged on objections to the project’s 15-story height on a tight space, despite being across State Street from a pair of high rises – The Hub and The Rise – and diagonal from the former Chauncey Hill Mall.
Andree Sahakian, senior development manager with LV Collective, had made a case that the city’s downtown plan targeted the site on State Street for the most intensive development. He said the developers had heard the concerns about height and parking, working to step down the part of the project to 12 stories on the back of the high-rise and upping the parking ratio, while also offering a number of lower-priced units set aside to deal with calls for affordable housing.
LV Collective also is part of The Rambler project, a $250 million redevelopment under construction near State Street and River Road a few blocks down the hill.
Muinzer, who had at various times floated development plans for Chauncey Hill Mall and the Chauncey Annex sites, said the city council’s vote against the LV Collective plan wasn’t the reason to offer the property for sale.
“The decision to sell was not driven by the City of West Lafayette’s review of any specific proposal,” Muinzer, who has a stake in large collection of properties near Purdue, said. “Rather, the sales reflect a strategic monetization of the remaining portfolio assets following successful earlier dispositions of Chauncey Hill Mall in 2022.”
Kubow, while not revealing what Core Spaces specifically has in mind for the site, said the city council’s vote in December didn’t deter the company from picking up the property.
“A wide range of variables can affect property values on a daily basis,” Kubow said. “Our approach is to look beyond near‑term market noise and remain centered on the long‑range drivers that matter most, such as location and community impact. … Our approach to the West Lafayette/Purdue market remains unchanged.”
Here’s how things played out on the Chauncey Annex rezoning request in December:
For some other context, this is from earlier in the week:
SOLAR ZONING CODE PROPOSALS UP FOR FIRST PUBLIC HEARINGS IN MARCH AND APRIL
A first look a proposed changes to Tippecanoe County’s zoning codes for industrial-scale solar projects will come in late February, with a series of hearings to follow before the county’s one-year moratorium on major solar installations is up, the Area Plan Commission announced this week.
Public hearings are set March 4 and April 1 before the APC’s Ordinance Committee. Before that, the notice indicated, draft proposals would be posted to the APC’s website “soon after Feb. 26.”
Formal recommendations from the ordinance committee are expected to go to the APC board for another public hearing May 20. An APC board recommendation would go to Tippecanoe County commissioners as soon as June 1 – which is one day before a moratorium on zoning requests for large-scale solar projects in the unincorporated portions of the county expires.
Potential revisions to Tippecanoe County’s zoning restrictions on utility-scale solar projects have been pushed since the first installation of its kind in the county was proposed and voted down in 2025.
In 2021, the county installed zoning requirements – including those for decommissioning, setbacks and others for agriculturally zoned land – for solar projects of 10 acres or more. Commissioners since have questioned whether those requirements contemplated projects that were more than 100 times bigger.
That included a proposed 1,700-acre, 120-megawatt Rainbow Trout Solar Project in western Tippecanoe County, which was filed for required zoning exceptions before the moratorium went into effect. That project was rejected by the Board of Zoning Appeals on a 5-4 vote in August, amid pushback by neighbors.
RWE Energy and Geenex, the companies tied to the Rainbow Trout Solar Project, are in court now, asking for a judicial review of the BZA decision. That case includes a group of 11 neighbors who have been allowed by a judge to intervene in the case to make sure their objections to the proposed project are presented. As of this week, no trial date had been set. The latest filing in the case came in the past week, in which attorneys for Rainbow Trout were granted a one-month extension, to March 9, to collect materials for the official record of the case that will be submitted to the court.
If you go: Public hearings on proposed zoning changes for large-scale solar project are set for 4:45-7 p.m. March 4 and April 1 before the APC’s Ordinance Committee, at the County Office Building, 20 N. Third St. in Lafayette.
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
REINTRODUCING THE COLUMBIAN PARK CAROUSEL: J&C reporter Jillian Ellison had word about the return of the Columbian Park carousel, a project hit with assorted delays, including a contractor’s bankruptcy midway through, since it was first announced in 2019. Look for a Memorial Day opening. Here are the details, via the J&C: “After years of delays, Columbian Park’s carousel is set to open this spring.”
IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN BILL: Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Tom Davies this on a Trump administration-aligned bill moving through the Statehouse: “Indiana House Republicans pushed through a bill mandating local cooperation with federal immigration crackdowns, brushing aside criticism that the measure would misdirect police resources and was un-Christian. House members voted 61-28 on Thursday in favor of Senate Bill 76, which also would allow the state attorney general’s office to seek sanctions against businesses found to have hired ‘unauthorized aliens.’ Democratic legislators repeatedly during debate on the bill denounced the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that have led to turmoil in Minneapolis and other cities. They also condemned the legislation’s mandate that all police departments, schools and universities comply with the federal agency’s enforcement activities. Bill sponsor Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, defended the measure as ensuring that Indiana does not have ‘sanctuary cities’ or ‘sanctuary employers.’” For the rest: “Immigration crackdown bill clears Indiana House with only Republican support. House and Senate have about 2 weeks to reach final agreement on the measure.”
State Rep. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat who voted against the bill, called out the measure’s intent to open schools and universities to ICE operations: “This bill invites chaos into our communities by forcing cooperation with ICE. Republicans promise to focus on violent criminals, but ICE hasn’t held itself to that mission. We’ve watched agents racially profile, escalate tense situations, make wrongful arrests and kill U.S. citizens. Why would you invite that behavior into our schools? Into our universities? ICE has no business arresting children, and doing so on school grounds should be completely out of the question. Young children shouldn’t live in fear of being arrested by armed, masked agents. Our international students shouldn’t live in fear either. They’re not criminals. They’re smart, law-abiding visa holders. ICE has already made a mistake with a Purdue student. Last August, they wrongfully detained a pharmacy student for five days.”
LEAP’S $10B DATA CENTER CAMPUS: Just think about how nuts everything would be right now around here if water from Tippecanoe County – once a central piece of the LEAP district development 35 miles away in Boone County – was still in play when Gov. Mike Braun and others officially announced and ceremonially broke ground on Meta’s $10 billion data center campus in Lebanon. Indiana Capital Chronicle editor Niki Kelly called the moment “the worst kept secret in Indiana.” From Kelly’s account: “Meta, which owns technologies like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, will construct 13 total buildings spanning four million square feet on 1,500 acres. That includes 10 data center buildings, as well as facilities for logistics, warehousing and administrative support functions.” Water remains an issue with the project, just not as part of a pipeline plan that once aimed at the Granville area in Tippecanoe County. Here’s more from the Indiana Capital Chronicle: “Details on long-expected Meta data center campus unveiled.”
ICYMI: … and you’re looking for things to do this weekend in Greater Lafayette, here’s a replay of Tim’s Picks.
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Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
Good grief. State Street Hill is a dark canyon now... but let's add another hulking building.
I hope those who vote for this shameful ICE bill aren't surprised when Minneapolis violence arrives to our streets.
It would be chock full o' nuts, Dave.