A tradition we have is to interview the campus patrons on the Friday before the Monday classes start. It is a magical and enchanting evening filled with stories of the summer, serendipitous encounters, and the hope that this semester will be more positive than the previous.
This particular year, we focused on asking people why they were in the Greater Lafayette area, why they chose Purdue University, and their impressions of the urbanscape.
A few things we learned while conducting these interviews:
Fast paced to slower paced environment.
I chose this place because of Purdue.
Major difference between Illinois and Indiana? Slow. Different.
Desperation.
Go America. Live for freedom.
Until we done, we turn up.
Brian Lamb is from Lafayette and people know this.
Recruiters like Purdue because graduates are so willing to move wherever they off them a job.
Home Owners Association of West Lafayette
If students are your main economy, you need to feed the economy.
We hope you enjoy the meanderings we had throughout the evening as much as we did.
Friday Before the Monday Interviews 2013-08-16: (35:50) MP3 | OGG
Download the West Lafayette Stadium Square Strip Mall Development Interview (35:39) MP3 | OGG
We had the pleasure of speaking with Marc from Boilercribs about their development plans for the Stadium Square Strip Mall (currently housing Mad Mushroom Pizza, Jimmy Johns, Taste of China, University Bookstore, Emporium Hairstyling Center):
Marc, from Boilercribs, and his real estate development company are planning a 10-story high rise in place of the Stadium Square strip mall (~13,000 square ft) and adjacent apartment building (see map above). The new building will be (and these are just approximations since everything is still in the planning stages):
The main floor would be commercial retail space (~30,000 – 40,000 square feet)
Floors 2 – 10 would be apartments ranging from 1 bedroom to 4 bedrooms
In conjunction w our development plans across from Mackey, #BoilerCribs will contribute $250,000 cash to support the neighborhoods.
This prompted a flurry of interest from all over, including us here at the Media Collective. We scheduled an interview and have the audio available below.
In discussing the $250,000 announcement, Marc learned that the city of West Lafayette and surrounding neighborhood would like to see projects that focus on protecting, revitalizing, rehabilitating, rejuvenating the neighborhoods. The individual projects are still being discussed as this is very much in the early planning stages.
According to Marc, in tandem with the recent new construction and renovation of Mackey Arena, the Purdue Athletic Department is also trying to develop an environment where locals do not come just 30 minutes before a game, but spend a couple of hours in the area beforehand.
A specific area of concern for us is the particular commercial entities that would call this new building their home. Marc stated in the interview that several commercial enterprises already established on other Big Ten universities have expressed interest in this new development. Due to the proximity of the structure to the New Chauncey Neighborhood, the types of businesses (chain, franchise, original) will determine the community and culture that will develop there.
We understand that the term local business is not a binary, but a scale. Studies have been done that show the more locally-minded the business is, the greater amount of their capital is spent (on goods, services, wages, taxes, etc.) in the local economy. We would like to see original (not chains or franchises) businesses move into this new development. Especially ones that maximize spending their capital in the local economy. This, along with the cultural and community impact, should be at the forefront of the business recruitment process.
One idea we forgot to mention to Marc was to approach established local businesses (e.g. Triple XXX, Greyhouse, Von’s, Vienna, etc.) and see if they would be interested in pursuing a venture in this new space.
Thanks to Marc’s determination and appreciation of the benefits in transparency, he is encouraging everyone with an interest in this project to contact him (Facebook, Twitter, website). Along with input, he will also release the plans for the development to the public. With an emphasis on an open and democratic process, the new development will, hopefully, fit the cultural, community, and economic needs of the people who live in the New Chauncey Neighborhood and not just those of the outside businesses that have expressed interest.
UPDATE 2011-06-20
There was a brief question on Twitter about Mad Mushroom losing it’s location:
bwheaton07: No more Mad Mush? http://t.co/WSrxbsv
Boilercribs: quite the contrary, hoping they want to be part of new development. Love mad mush! RT “@bwheaton07: No more Mad Mush? http://t.co/GVQMIV5
This story has also caused WBBA and J&C to take notice:
Boilercribs: Phone interview with @wbaanews @mikeloizzo at 10:15am today regarding our stadium development and $250,000 neighborhood contribution
amandahamon: Just spoke with Marc from @BoilerCribs. The company is planning a 10-story high rise at Stadium Square mall in WL. More @jconline soon.
What’s up with that?A show not hosted by Ryan Hill. The intro music was created by The Media Collective.
Here is What’s up with that? season 4, episode 5. A chilly, but bright Saturday morning. Everyone was in high spirits due to Oaken Bucket game that was to commence later that day. As usual, we stood in our spot out by the brick wall in front of Jake’s taking everything in that is Breakfast Club.
This episode wraps up season 4 for us. A big thank you to everyone who participated in this season. We could not have done it without you. We have various projects we will be working on over the winter months, so please stay tuned.
The questions asked in this episode were:
You have 1,000,000 followers on Twitter and 1,000,000 friends on Facebook. What do you warn them about societies and governments?
