Medtronic plans Lafayette campus south of Good Samaritan

LAFAYETTE — Medtronic Inc.’s new corporate campus could be built just south of the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, northeast of the interchange of Northwest Parkway and U.S. Highway 287.

The medical-device maker, which recently backed out of plans to build the facility in Louisville, is eyeing a roughly 42-acre parcel at that site to develop a nearly 600,000-square-foot complex, according to a preliminary sketch plan submitted to city planners this week. 

“The campus would be built in two phases. The first phase would include two, five-story buildings containing approximately 400,000 square feet,” plans say. “The second phase would include one or two additional five-story buildings and a parking garage.” That second phase is expected to include a total of 180,000 square feet. 

For more than a year, Medtronic representatives worked with Louisville officials and developer Brue Baukol Capital Partners to bring the campus to Redtail Ridge, a proposed development which seeks to transform the long-vacant Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) property adjacent to U.S. Highway 36 into a large-scale mixed-use development.

Those plans collapsed in recent weeks as Brue Baukol failed to win over Louisville’s Planning Commission and City Council, members of which said the overall development was too large and too dense. 

Medtronic’s plans in Lafayette are not tied to a larger development project, which could make the regulatory approval process smoother, Lafayette city administrator Fritz Sprague said.

“We’re looking forward to a robust public process whereby the public will have an opportunity to provide feedback and input,” he said.

But unlike Redtail Ridge, which included plans for other commercial spaces, residences, senior living and potentially retail, under the Lafayette proposal, “Medtronic would be the only entity on the parcel,” Sprague said. “… That significantly simplifies and streamlines the project.”

He added: “The previous arrangement [in Louisville] was very complicated. There were a lot of players with competing interests, which made a proposal difficult for any municipality to work through.”

Sprague said the potential Medtronic site’s proximity to the hospital complex to the north helped draw the firm’s interest. 

“I think there’s opportunity for synergy for those two entities,” he said.

Sprague said Medtronic could bolster Lafayette’s employment base for years to come, and other local business leaders agree.

“From the chamber’s perspective, any time you have a company of this size locate to your community it is a huge economic boon for the whole community,” Lafayette Chamber of Commerce executive director Vicki Trumbo said in an email. “Those employees will eat in our restaurants, shop in our stores, possibly purchase homes and take advantage of the many services available in Lafayette. So we would be thrilled to have a company like Medtronic in Lafayette.”

Having just submitted its sketch plan, Medtronic must now submit preliminary plans to the Lafayette Planning Commission before final plans are ultimately reviewed by the City Council. No dates for public hearings have been set. 

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