Residents invited to Growing Green & Gold Together update

While it has been many months since DePauw University and the City of Greencastle kicked off its Growing Green & Gold Together initiative, there has been plenty of work behind the scenes, according to officials. 

Jason Chew, project director and community liaison for DePauw, told The Putnam County Post residents can get a better idea of all that has been taking place Sept. 16 during a Year in Review forum inside the community room at the Putnam County YMCA, 1111 South Calbert Way, Greencastle. Those in attendance will have a chance to meet the leadership and implementation teams, hear updates on the project work and learn the latest details. Refreshments will be available at 5:30 p.m. and the festivities begin at 6 p.m. and will last an hour. 

Chew, who was previously a principal at North Putnam and worked in the school district, said the opportunity to serve in his role with DePauw is one that excited him. 

"As a Putnam County kid and someone who has lived here my whole life, I just saw it as a great opportunity to give back to the community in a different way and be challenge professionally," Chew said. 

DePauw University received a $32 million grant from the Lilly Endowment College and Community Collaboration Initiative in partnership with Greencastle, according to Chew.

"This grants funds our Growing Green & Gold project, and we hope it ushers in a new era of collaboration and development and an opportunity for our campus and surrounding area," Chew said. 

Chew said the Green & Gold Initiative has a few main goals and those are:

Provide housing for all

Provide programmatic and financial support to entrepreneurs

Strengthen community connections around common spaces and interest

Exemplify a small town that is safe and welcoming to all

Enhance recreational facilities to improve health and well being. 

Chew said the Green & Gold leaders are very excited to share what has been taking place behind the scenes. 

"We were awarded 32 million dollars and went through the planning and developed our projects. When you are doing the planning during the planning phase of the grant, you are not actually putting all the details to every project on paper and not fully designing things. You are getting as much of the groundwork done as you can to write the grant. Then when you are awarded the grant, you are tasked with making the things happen. For the last 10 months, my job has been trying to make those things come to fruition," Chew said. 

Furthermore, Chew mentioned it is an "exciting" time.

"We are excited about the work we have been doing, but we are really excited about what is to come. We think our implementation teams have worked collaboratively to bring some really cool things to the community. We have been busy the last year and doing a lot. Our business accelerator has been up and running. Last March, we held a DePauw student pitch competition and we asked the students to develop business ideas for the downtown Greencastle area. We had 31 pitches. That was our first big project for our initiative," Chew acknowledged. 

There will also be an update on the Seminary Square project, which Chew calls the "key project."

"We have been doing a lot of work the last year talking about who is the developer that will partner with DePauw University and the City of Greencastle to bring the mixed use development on the Seminary Square site. We are really close to announcing who that will be, which brings in the relocation of the cinema. Dr. White, our university president, has made a commitment not to take away an amenity our community has and as part of the project, we are looking at relocating the cinema into a downtown Greencastle space. We are very close to saying where that will be," Chew said.

The Seminary Square project will also feature 120 apartments that will be open to anyone. 

"We have been looking at developing a mixed use development. Think apartment complex with some retail space in that space. We are looking at one, two and three bedroom housing. As the City of Greencastle and Putnam County has been conducting a housing study, it has become evident that housing is a need in our community, especially for those who are new and looking for a place to live. Our mixed use development will look to bring 120 units worth of people to the downtown area. This will be developer owned and operated, and is not DePauw University student housing. The goal is to find a goal for people to live, and, hopefully, this fills the void," Chew said. 

Chew added the Putnam County YMCA was also part of the Green & Gold Initiative and Phase 2 is underway with the addition of a pool at the site. 

"We are really excited to be a part of that. We believe we will fully fund the addition of a pool in that space, and we are working through all the details and logistics. We are really excited about the addition of a pool at the YMCA. In the community meetings, the addition of a pool at the YMCA was something that was widely heard," Chew said.