It’s been about six years since the last few tenants moved out of Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City.
A lone retailer remains – Sears – and a local megachurch also holds it services there, but city leaders hope to revitalize the property and have issued a request for proposals to rehabilitate it.
The Journal Record’s editor Ted Streuli says the idea has been in the works for years, but recently the city council in Midwest City approved a matching $27,000 grant for requests for proposals. The money would come out of Midwest City’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget.
“It’s a really big to the city,” Streuli said. “The mall at one time had some 78 stores in it and it produced about $1 million just in property taxes for the city. That's now down to just $70,000.”
It’s not the first time municipal leaders around the metro have tried to breathe new life into a dead mall. The former Crossroads Mall at Interstates 35 and 240 has been reinvented as a commercial and cultural center that targets Oklahoma City’s Hispanic community. Shepherd Mall at the intersection of NW 23rd Street and Villa Ave. has been converted to office space and call centers. It also saw a boost from relocated government employees after the 1995 bombing that destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, The Journal Record’s Brian Brus reports:
Circumstances are different for Heritage Park Mall, however, and the city can’t afford to let it become a dilapidated box sitting on 45 acres of empty parking lot, Dukes said. That’s why the city opted to invest in proposals rather than wait for the owner to do so, he said. [Midwest City economic development director Robert] Coleman said [mall owner Ahmad] Bahreini and his partners have limited capital resources for restoration or remodeling beyond minimal repairs. “Our preferred purpose is to bring retail back into the mall and reap the sales tax to benefit the city. Or even repurposing it to office use,” Dukes said. “Obviously, there’s going to be a windfall to the owner as well if we can help revitalize the mall with tenants.”
“Midwest City really can't afford to wait here. There's a public information meeting set for August 15, and proposals are due by September 1,” Streuli said. “Whoever the city picks is going to have to come up with three different plans, and they're going to have to work around the agreements with both Sears and LifeChurch that are in that space now.”
Untapped Market
In Oklahoma City, an old warehouse on NE 8th Street is about to house Prairie Artisan Ales. The Tulsa-based brewers want to open a taproom in a neighborhood along the railroad tracks, just east of Broadway, that also includes Iguana Grill, Sara Sara Cupcakes, and Hillbilly’s Po’Boy.
“They're hoping to be open by April 30, 2017 hoping to coordinate a little with the timing of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon,” Streuli said. “If the Downtown Design Review Commission approves their plans, they think they'll be able to start construction in October.”
The developers have been working on it for eight months, but the project was contingent upon the passage of Senate Bill 424, which Gov. Mary Fallin signed into law in early June, The Journal Record’s Molly Fleming reports:
The new regulation allows breweries to sell their high-point product by the glass at their location. “We all feel confident that if the laws didn’t change to allow us to sell strong beer at the point of sale, we wouldn’t be doing this,” Morrison said. Prairie is the third new brewery planned for downtown. Twisted Spike is working on its space on NW 10th Street. On the west side of downtown, the Sunshine Cleaners building will have a brewery as well.
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