If a meeting Monday night is any indication, Greater Lafayette residents want a replacement for Chauncey Hill Mall that both caters to students and includes local restaurants that don’t rely on a student clientele.
That’s part of the challenge which the land’s owners, Lafayette-based Trinitas Ventures, and a team of architects must overcome following a sensing session that’ll last all this week.
“We’re in the planning and in the dreaming stage," says Trinitas CEO Loren King. "And so dreaming: I want to hear what people want and then we’ll be able to address concerns when we get a little further down the road.”
Public concerns in Monday night’s opening presentation included how to retain the charm of the place so alumni continue to fondly remember the shopping center where they spent time as students and want to come back.
But architect Neal Payton pointed out Purdue University has changed dramatically in the past couple decades, so the near-campus area already looks substantially different than many alums remember.
“To single out this humble little shopping center as the pinnacle of what…may be…may be a lot to put on this little shopping center," Payton told the crowd.
Payton’s team will hold update meetings which incorporate public ideas for the space on Wednesday and Friday evenings at 6 p.m.