Wabash Landing
West Lafayette, Indiana
Indiana Planning Association: Outstanding Project Award (2002)
Indiana Land Use Consortium: Models of Success Award (2002)
National League of Cities: James G. Howland Gold Award (2004)
The City of West Lafayette, Indiana sought to develop an 80-area site along the Wabash River featuring a vacant Sears department store building. After numerous developers proposed simply building big box retail on the site, Development Concepts, Inc. was brought in to examine the development potential and craft a creative development approach for the site. After examining the ‘highest and best use’ for both the Sears building and the entire levee area, DCI presented several potential development scenarios for the site.
Final recommendations by DCI included new housing development, along with retail, entertainment, civic, and office space. The efforts of DCI resulted in more than $108 million dollars of public and private investment and several state and national awards.
DCI worked with the City of West Lafayette, a town of 30,000 and home of Purdue University to develop a plan to convert 20 acres of out-dated development along the Wabash River into a community retail center with a sense of place. The result increased West Lafayette’s ability to capture a larger market share thus supporting a movie theatre, several restaurants and the top performing hotel in the County. DCI’s understanding of the market potential and translating that into a viable development program was the critical step in creating this outcome.”
Sonya L. Margerum, Mayor (1980-2003), City of West Lafayette
