This and that: Demolition in the Levee area
Work starts Thursday to make way for $250M Levee Landmark project. Plus, ice is ready at Riverside Skating Center. And the cheesiest entry yet for the BiL Holiday Playlist
Sponsorship of today’s edition comes from the Unitarian Universalist Holiday Art Fair. Visit the UU Holiday Art Fair, featuring over 50 local artists, from 5-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at 333 Meridian St. in West Lafayette. For more than 50 years, the art fair has been the place to find unique gifts including jewelry, handmade soap, ceramics, glassware, fiber arts, watercolors, ornaments, cards and more. Gourmet food, desserts and live music make it an event you won't want to miss. Check here for an artist preview and more info.
Sponsorship help for this edition also comes from Purdue Musical Organizations. The 91st Annual Purdue Christmas Show is the must-see event of the year! Gather your family and friends, and create lasting memories as you sing along to your favorite songs and marvel at the extraordinary Purdue student talent on display. Get tickets here.
THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …
DEMOLITION SET FOR LEVEE PROJECT: In case you need one final, nostalgic look at the former Campus Inn, today’s the day. Brinkmann Constructors this week informed the West Lafayette board of works that demolition is expected to start Thursday, Dec. 5, on the buildings near the northeast corner of State Street and North River Road that until earlier in 2024 housed the motel, Bruno’s, Rubia Flowers, Puccini’s, La Hacienda and China One. On Tuesday, the city approved a series of sidewalk closures to make way for the demolition work.
Up next: The $250 million Levee Landmark mixed-use project, recently rebranded as Rambler Riverfront. The development was approved earlier this year with a mix of 590 apartment units, up to 1,350 beds and 21,700 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Part of the plan includes the city getting Landmark to incorporate the downtown-style grid street layout contemplated by the city’s downtown plan between River Road and Tapawingo Drive. The rezoning request included a layout that has Brown Street ending near the current intersection with Howard Avenue. A new street – which will be called Poplar Street – would head straight north from there, rather than angling toward River Road, as Howard Avenue does now. Howard Avenue would cut across the northern edge of the property from North River Road, stopping at the edge of the Levee Plaza property. According to a city memo presented to the board of works Tuesday, demolition and work on the new Poplar Street are expected to be done by Dec. 3, 2025.
The work will not take Nine Irish Brothers restaurant on Howard Avenue or the side-by-side row of State Street businesses, Sparkletone Dry Cleaning, Starbucks and Wendy’s.
RYAN WALTERS, AN EXIT INTERVIEW: Gold and Black reporter Tom Dienhart talked with Ryan Walters, discussing what went wrong and what led to his firing this week as Purdue’s football coach. Among the observations on the way out was this on Purdue’s place in an increasingly competitive, big money world of college football: “I know sometimes Purdue kind of wants to do it the Purdue way, which I completely agree with, which is blue collar, sort of the underdog story. But when you’re talking about professional sports, and this is professional sports, you’re not asking the Oakland A’s to go beat the New York Yankees. And so you gotta at least get close to what other people are playing with.” Read the full interview here: “Q&A: Ryan Walters reflects on tenure as Purdue football coach.”
THE BRAUN TRANSITION: Indiana Capital Chronicle reporter Leslie Bonilla Muñiz had a look at a first-year policy agenda released Tuesday by Gov.-elect Mike Braun. Dubbed the “Freedom and Opportunity Agenda,” it focuses on tax relief, government efficiency, economic development, public health and quality of life factors like public safety, energy affordability and water cleanliness. Here’s more from the Indiana Capital Chronicle: “Gov.-elect Braun puts forth first-term agenda.”
LACE ‘EM UP. RIVERSIDE SKATING CENTER, IT’S OPENING DAY: West Lafayette Parks Department typically aims for the day after Thanksgiving to open the Riverside Skating Center in Tapawingo Park. The weather didn’t cooperate last week, apparently. This week is a different story (I mean, you’ve been outside, right?), and the ice is ready for the first laps Wednesday night. The session will be 6-9 p.m. Wednesday. For admission and other details, here’s your link.
HARK! THE BiL HOLIDAY/SEASONAL PLAYLIST
Let’s keep this playlist rolling. For the full Based in Lafayette Holiday/Seasonal Playlist, growing every day thanks to BiL readers, check the link at the bottom of today’s contribution. Which comes from …
Mike Shamus
Mike Shamus is general manager at the Lafayette Media group, home of K-105, WKHY and more.
“A Marshmallow World,” Dean Martin – My Grandma Rose would ask me to sing this every year on Christmas Eve while she played the piano. She would cry the whole time, claiming, because I sang so pretty it made her weep. She was 100% Irish.
“Silent Night” – My mom's favorite.
“All I Want for Christmas is Cheese” – Hopefully I won't get nailed for picking this one. I wrote this song quite a few years ago, and we have been playing it on K-105 ever since. We put it on a CD and sold 1,000 copies, with the money going to Riley Hospital for Children. I still smile every time someone brings up the song to me and, yes, it's the only good song I have ever written.
Your turn: What’s on your list?
Through Christmas (and maybe beyond), Based in Lafayette will curate three songs a day from readers. The assignment isn’t necessarily about the best or most iconic songs of the season. Just songs that you’d want in the mix and why they belong. What to get on board? Here’s what we need:
Three songs and the artists.
One or two sentences about why you chose each one – could be a memory or a short history or review about why that track belongs in your mix and why you’d recommend it to others.
A little bit about you to let readers know who’s making the picks.
Send to: davebangert1@gmail.com
BASED IN LAFAYETTE HOLIDAY/SEASONAL PLAYLIST: IN PROGRESS
Listen and bookmark it here.
Thanks for support from Purdue Musical Organizations, presenting the 91st Annual Purdue Christmas Show, Dec. 7-8. Get tickets here.
And thanks to the Unitarian Universalist Holiday Art Fair, open 5-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at 333 Meridian St. in West Lafayette. Check here for an artist preview and more info.
Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.
Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.
At least one time in its life, The Campus Inn hosted a couple during a budget honeymoon. The couple dined at Triple XXX, saving their pennies for a brighter future. They made a fine life for themselves. I don't know this couple, nor do I have any reason to believe that these statements are anything but fiction. But, with every building demolition, we should remember the ghosts, or invent some sweet ones.
I am very roughly guesstimating that between downtown Lafayette, and the areas of the Levee and the Chauncey neighborhood alone there is approaching $1B of new development either in the construction phase or approved.