With the goal of exploring how the Inca Empire transformed the Andean territory, the Qhapaq Ñan project initiated a research project at the site of Cerro Azul – “El Huarco” a well-known site at the southern end of the central coast of Peru. We expected to uncover evidence of local strategies that intentionally or unintentionally transformed identities, polities and social organizations in those years of Inca expansion. The present talk discusses the firsthand results of our latest excavation in the 2016 field season. Initially our data shows there was a long occupation at the site. As a working hypothesis we suggest the site was re-organized during the last occupation. This rearrangement of the site, which includes the construction of a new plaza, was contemporaneous with Inca presence on the central coast. Although present at Cerro Azul, the Inca did not exercise territorial power over the site, rather this arrangement presented an opportunity for local elites to reshuffle the social and physical landscape of Cerro Azul and in its surrounding territory.