It’s taken nearly half a decade, but the owner of West Lafayette’s Wabash Landing apartments and retail center is back on track with plans to redevelop vacant retail space.
West Lafayette Economic Development Director Chandler Poole says owner Jimmy Curtis plans to build a five-story, 115-unit apartment building where vacant storefronts line the walkway that bisects the mixed use development.
Poole says the city has been working with Curtis ever since plans to build a hotel in that space fell victim to the recession in 2011.
“A hotel did not really fit the mix very well, and there are already systems in place for property management because of their apartments, so that project made much more sense," he says.
Because the city owns the walkway and the parking garage attached to the existing 92 apartments, Poole says the city must sign off on Curtis’s new development plan.
Also, theWest Lafayette Redevelopment Commission approved a preliminary agreement to allocate up to one million dollars in property taxes from the new development to help Curtis finance part of the project.
Commission president Larry Oates says there’s no risk to the city because Curtis will only be paid when the development generates tax revenue.
“So this is a way for us not only to incentivize him to do something that will bring more people to the Wabash Landing, the potential of somewhere around 100 new residents in those apartments, but in addition, would bring new revenues to the Levee-Village TIF district,” he says.
Also under the agreement, the city would resume maintenance and management of the 684 space parking garage which Curtis' company had been managing.
Curtis was not immediately available for comment, but Poole believes the project will win zoning approval in the coming months, and construction may start in the fall.
