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Jason Chew to helm community outreach for Growing Green and Gold Together efforts
Two things came as real surprises in a Tuesday meeting to update the community on a planned $100-plus million effort to transform the landscape of downtown Greencastle.
The first was how quickly that transformation will take place. The second was who has been chosen to lead that effort.
Veteran North Putnam Schools administrator Jason Chew will serve as the project director and community liaison for the Growing Green and Gold Together initiative as it aims to significantly boost local businesses in downtown Greencastle through the development of new residential units and public spaces.
Chew spent more than a decade as the principal of North Putnam High School before taking the position of director of community partnerships and operations in the North Putnam central office this last summer.
However, when Chew attended an economic development meeting and learned of this new position and its opportunity to develop the Greencastle and DePauw University communities, he jumped at the chance.
Chew said he’s ready for the opportunity “to bring the excitement back downtown — the ability to change the way downtown looks and revitalize the downtown.”
Chew noted that while he is a South Putnam graduate with years of ties to North Putnam, he and wife Alyssa lived in Greencastle when they first got married and moved north due to the fact that they both worked for North Putnam Schools.
“I’m a Putnam County kid,” Chew said.
For as excited as he is, Chew also noted that his biggest challenge as he prepares to begin his new role in mid-November will be getting up to speed with the work that’s already been done by the Growing Green and Gold Together executive committee and others.
“In my interview I said, ‘You’ve had 18 months to get to this point. I’ve got about 18 days to catch up,’” Chew said.
That committee — comprised of DePauw Vice President for Institutional Equity Dionne Jackson, DePauw Vice President for Finance and Administration Andrea Young, Greencastle Mayor Lynda Dunbar and Greencastle City Attorney Laurie Hardwick — did most of the talking Tuesday, setting an ambitious timeline for the four major projects that compose the overall effort.
“We will have spent all of the money and completed all of the projects by five years from now,” Young said. “It is a fast timeline, no question. But don’t forget that we’ve spent a year of intensive planning to determine the viability of this project.”
The overall plan includes for projects that work together to “create a comprehensive community development project.” These include:
• Seminary Square Mixed-Use Development, which will transform two city blocks into approximately 120 living units, commercial space, greenspace and parking.
• Downtown Public Space Enhancement focused on revitalizing public space that facilitates major community events in and around Courthouse Square, including along Indiana and Vine streets between downtown and the DePauw campus.
• The Downtown Small Business Incubator Fund aimed at fostering local entrepreneurship through a partnership between Main Street Greencastle, the Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center and the DePauw School of Business and Leadership.
• Putnam County YMCA and Natatorium, which will assist in adding a state-of-the-art aquatics facility to the Putnam County YMCA, which is set to open (sans pool for now) in February.
While none of this is new information and was, in fact, outlined when the Lilly Endowment announced the $32 million College and Community Collaboration grant that serves as the cornerstone of the project’s funding, what began to emerge on Tuesday were details about each of the aspects of the project.
In the case of Seminary Square, which is set to occupy the two city blocks bounded by Seminary, College, Poplar and Indiana, the planning is to request responses for proposal by the spring of 2025, with a build to take place over that year and the next.
“We’re optimistically living in those apartments by 2027,” Young said.
Of course, in the meantime that means working out a number of other issues such as where parking will occur (some of it likely underground) and where the replacement for Ashley Square Cinema will be located.
Though not a specific part of any of the four prongs of the plan, the cinema question was addressed by Jackson, who noted that the goal is to make the new facility not simply a commercial cinema, but also a space that could be used for educational purposes, such as by film studies classes at the DePauw Creative School.
She also noted the goal is to find a location that draws students further out into the Greencastle community in order to utilize it.
For those interested in contributing to the discussion on the future of Ashley Square, community engagement sessions are set for Nov. 11 at 4 and 6:30 p.m. More details will be announced later.
The Public Space Enhancement will come just a little bit later, Dunbar noted, as “we really need to get the INDOT project out of the way.”
Still, the time won’t be wasted, the mayor noted, as the team pursues grant funding for the proposed changes.
“We’re really excited to change the way our downtown looks and make it easier for people to walk and get around downtown,” Dunbar said.
The Downtown Small Business Incubator will likely be the first aspect to hit the ground running, as it doesn’t involve any sort of capital project.
Additionally, current students at the School of Business and Leadership have already expressed interest in contributing to the effort to grow and sustain Greencastle businesses.
“We don’t want to build a housing unit and have empty storefronts,” Jackson said.
Hardwick spoke on the Putnam County YMCA and Natatorium aspect of the project, noting that she has been at work trying to get the YMCA off the ground in Greencastle for a couple of decades.
“Adding this new element we never even imagined is so exciting,” Hardwick said.
The proposed pool is set to fill a number of community desires with lanes for lap swimming, a zero-entry area, small toys for children’s recreation and a space for water aerobics and exercise.
“We’re already running with this,” Hardwick said in noting another aggressive timetable. “The hope is to have it done in two years. That’s a lot of work to get done.”
That means collaboration is already taking place with the architect who designed the overall structure.
Additionally, Lilly gave an extra $1 million to help with operations and maintenance of the pool. Organizers will now set about raising funds to ensure the sustainability of the pool.
That’s the overall challenge at this time, as the scope of work across all areas of the project has been estimated at a cost of $109 million.
“Where are the remaining funds going to be coming from?” Young asked.
Jackson said the team is now working through the financing, whether it be from large-scale private investors, such as the developer needed to do the Seminary Square project, or the many contributions likely needed from community stakeholders.
“Next steps will include a lot of community engagement,” Jackson said. “Many of you are going to get tired of seeing Jason because he is going to be out in the community a lot.”
As suggested by the title, the goal is community engagement as the project aims for the growth of both Greencastle and DePauw.
“It has been an exciting time for us as an institution to work with the City of Greencastle to bring this to fruition,” Jackson said. “I say ‘our community' because my family and I have been residents here for more than two years. It’s been exciting for me to be engaged with the community on this.”
Another relatively recent transplant, Young echoed this sentiment.
“The grant was awarded to DePauw, but it is so important that this is a shared endeavor between the university and the city and community stakeholders.”