California furniture giant planning OKC store (https://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r=722-California-furniture-giant-planning-OKC-store)

Living Spaces, with nearly 30 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas, is planning its first location in Oklahoma.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces022621a.jpg


The chain has selected the empty land on the southeast corner of May and Memorial, just south of Quail Springs Mall.

The Oklahoma City furniture market is dominated by local companies and the addition of Living Spaces would be the first large outside competitor.

Based in La Mirada in Southern California, the company has been in an aggressive expansion mode, having recently opened several stores in the Dallas Fort Worth area including two massive distribution centers.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces022621d.jpg


The Oklahoma City location would be a massive 148,000 square showroom to include décor items for the dining room, bedroom, home office, outdoor and youth; the Magnolia line by Joanna Gaines is one of many featured brands.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces022621e.jpg


Most Living Spaces locations have a kid's fun room and climbing complex and a cafe.

The stores are staffed with around 100 non-commission employees and feature prototype 'homes' that showcase lifestyles from rustic to modern; the goal is to help guests envision their own dream home.

Living Spaces promotes its products as stylish, diverse and well-priced.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces022621f.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces022621b.jpg

Thanks to Pete again for this info!

It's not the Ikea that a lot of us always wanted, but I'll take it! :D

To put this in perspective, the old Hemisphere's furniture store on the east side of Quail Springs was around 50,000 square feet. This store will be similar in size to the nearby Lowes on Memorial.

Living Spaces: 148,200 square feet
Mathis Brothers on Reno: approximately 246,000 square feet - I'm not sure how much of this is showroom vs warehouse/delivery staging
Bob Mills on Reno: approximately 120,000 square feet

As much as I appreciate the location on the north side of OKC, I wish this was going someplace else (Chisholm Creek or even along Highland Park) to prevent another giant store right off a main road. If someone with a crystal ball could look into the future to let us know if JCPenny is slated to close at QSM given their current status, just tell Living Spaces to just wait and take on that space.

Living Spaces were hugely popular in California.

Very different than Mathis Brothers or the other local places. The employees are non-commission and are more like design consultants than salespeople. The place feels a lot like a West Elm but on a huge scale.

This is awesome news. Looks like a cool store.

Thanks to Pete again for this info!

It's not the Ikea that a lot of us always wanted, but I'll take it! :D

To put this in perspective, the old Hemisphere's furniture store on the east side of Quail Springs was around 50,000 square feet. This store will be similar in size to the nearby Lowes on Memorial.

Living Spaces: 148,200 square feet
Mathis Brothers on Reno: approximately 246,000 square feet - I'm not sure how much of this is showroom vs warehouse/delivery staging
Bob Mills on Reno: approximately 120,000 square feet

As much as I appreciate the location on the north side of OKC, I wish this was going someplace else (Chisholm Creek or even along Highland Park) to prevent another giant store right off a main road. If someone with a crystal ball could look into the future to let us know if JCPenny is slated to close at QSM given their current status, just tell Living Spaces to just wait and take on that space.

Ya, as much as I hate it, it seems like north OKC is really taking on the Dallas city plan. Put whatever, wherever, as quickly as possible. It presents wonderful growth, but creates gross developments and horrible traffic flow.

Ya, as much as I hate it, it seems like north OKC is really taking on the Dallas city plan. Put whatever, wherever, as quickly as possible. It presents wonderful growth, but creates gross developments and horrible traffic flow.

letting people who own property do what they want with it ..... what a crazy concept ..

Ya, as much as I hate it, it seems like north OKC is really taking on the Dallas city plan. Put whatever, wherever, as quickly as possible. It presents wonderful growth, but creates gross developments and horrible traffic flow.
The Dallas city plan has beautiful landscaped freeways, large 6 lane divided roads with turning lanes, sidewalks, and doesn’t allow businesses to place curb cuts every 50 feet. Where can you find that in NW OKC?

I've been watching this corner for my entire adult life. As development has literally circled it in every direction, it has remained a huge mystery to me why it has stayed vacant. It represents, in my view, literally the most perfect location across the entire turnpike stretch. For those worrying about the traffic, I would ask them what they would have expected to eventually take this corner. It was never going to be a city park or large homesites on acre plots.

I’m not terribly excited for the constant covering of the creeks.

Finally something is going in on that corner!

The way the store is positioned, it looks like there will be more commercial development along Memorial.

I bought a sofa at Living Spaces and I am real pleased with it! It is part of the Magnolia collection and was priced very good! I do like their furniture and price point! It should be successful in OKC! The sales person was very knowledgeable and the quality is good!

I went to Living Spaces in Dallas this weekend, and it's definitely a very nice store with lots of options. It's nice going in to look at furniture and not have a leech watch your every move. Very excited for this to be coming to OKC especially since I'll be only 5 minutes away!

Speaking of memorial.. what’s the point of the miles of ugly falling apart chain link fence? Is it to protect the turnpike from trash?

I think it’s the single most ugly part of the most busy corridor of our city. Can’t something else be done here??

Speaking of memorial.. what’s the point of the miles of ugly falling apart chain link fence? Is it to protect the turnpike from trash?

I think it’s the single most ugly part of the most busy corridor of our city. Can’t something else be done here??

I think the point is to keep pedestrians off the interstate. Obviously it doesn't do a good job if its falling apart.

I think the point is to keep pedestrians off the interstate. Obviously it doesn't do a good job if its falling apart.
It doesn’t even work that well anyways. Not sure if it’s me but I’ve noticed a huge uptick of people just randomly walking along freeways in OKC. I think even OHP is getting burned out about doing anything about it.

I agree it looks cheap! There's an area of high end homes, new business and restaurants then there's the chain link fencing. Don't get me started on the narrow crossovers! Here's what the look like on Central Expressway in Dallas. Copy this OKC!
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Maps5^^

Kilpatrick Turnpike is funded and maintained by the OK Turnpike Authority.

I agree it looks cheap! There's an area of high end homes, new business and restaurants then there's the chain link fencing. Don't get me started on the narrow crossovers! Here's what the look like on Central Expressway in Dallas. Copy this OKC!
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I strongly suspect eventually OKDOT will have to do this widen I-35 from I-40 to I-240. Eventually, sooner rather than later, OKDOT will have to widen it and adding only a single lane wouldn’t be very prudent. It will need 2 or even 3 more lanes each way. ROW is pretty constricted so some pretty innovative designs will be needed.

It will be a billion plus dollar project alone so it won’t happen unless a major funding change happens at the state level.

It would be great if the just made the crossover bridges wider and safer more visible there along the area of the Oklahoma Heart Hospital corridor. I guess that's an OKC not ODOT cost?

I've been watching this corner for my entire adult life. As development has literally circled it in every direction, it has remained a huge mystery to me why it has stayed vacant. It represents, in my view, literally the most perfect location across the entire turnpike stretch. For those worrying about the traffic, I would ask them what they would have expected to eventually take this corner. It was never going to be a city park or large homesites on acre plots.

Here is the legend as it was explained to me many years ago, and I hope someone will correct it if I am wrong---shopping cart inventor and civic leader Sylvan Goldman was also a smart and long term investor. His team were aware of the plan for the outer loop of Oklahoma City over 50 years ago and bought property accordingly. They partnered with Blanton Properties to handle the property sale with the intent of selling when the price was strong and fit the growth of the city. Not wholesale dumping on the market. This is why the red and white Blanton Properties signs have stood along the Memorial Road corridor from roughly Western to the west for over 40 years.

I apologize for posting this 3 weeks after your original query.

^^^^^^^^^^^
I don't have any specific info to support OR to dispute this, and it seems reasonable. That said, pretty sure that generally speaking the development dead zones along the northern edge of that portion of incorporated OKC had more to do with white flight than anything else. The city was reliably creeping in that direction in the post-war era, but several court rulings moved OKC in the direction of forced busing throughout the 1960s and culminated in a 1972 order that required individual schools to more closely represent the minority student population in the district.

White parents responded in droves by moving to places with largely white school populations, for instance Edmond, which in many cases is literally across the street.

After that you saw large scale suburban housing development shift north and west. While we all think of commercial retail as being drawn to street frontage, what REALLY draws it (especially national credit retail) is proximity to rooftops AND the demographics of said rooftops. In this case the broad swaths of undeveloped land on the outer edge of the City limits was a hindrance and land along that stretch became much more difficult to develop for an extended period. Nowadays we think of Memorial and also the Kilpatrick Turnpike as having massive traffic count, and while it is largely true it certainly wasn't the case when the turnpike opened around '89-'90 (they used to literally make jokes on the radio giving shout-outs to the single individual driving on the turnpike) and that overall low traffic count persisted for quite a few years.

Living Spaces files building plans (https://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r=736-Living-Spaces-files-building-plans)

As we were first to report in February (https://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r=722-California-furniture-giant-planning-OKC-store), California furniture giant Living Spaces is planning a store in far north Oklahoma City.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces072121r.jpg


Earlier this week, the company filed their building permit application for a 138,000 square foot, $20 million store on the southeast corner of May and Memorial.

Their plans reveal the intention to construct four custom-built houses inside the store to showcase different lifestyles to include Modern, Farmhouse, Spanish and Rustic. The Oklahoma City location will be one of the first in the chain with this feature and the first location in the state for Living Spaces.

There will also be a play area for children.

Living Spaces will hire approximately 100 non-commission employees and has a robust Internet site where a large number of items can be ordered directly.

Design consultants will help families as they shop including celebrity collections like Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, and items described as 'timeless and sophisticated' by Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent.

Long popular in the Western U.S., Living Spaces promotes itself as a purveyor of stylish, diverse, and well-priced furniture and home décor.



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces072121o.jpg


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Speaking of memorial.. what’s the point of the miles of ugly falling apart chain link fence? Is it to protect the turnpike from trash?

I think it’s the single most ugly part of the most busy corridor of our city. Can’t something else be done here??

It's actually an old attempt to keep animals from entering and obstructing traffic.

It's actually an old attempt to keep animals from entering and obstructing traffic.

That is probably a good thing. There is nothing more terrifying than hitting a deer while going 80 mph.

Nothing says upscale like a chain link fence lol

I know what that area needs:


https://youtu.be/Avo0-8GvBlA

^^^^^^^^^^^
I don't have any specific info to support OR to dispute this, and it seems reasonable. That said, pretty sure that generally speaking the development dead zones along the northern edge of that portion of incorporated OKC had more to do with white flight than anything else. The city was reliably creeping in that direction in the post-war era, but several court rulings moved OKC in the direction of forced busing throughout the 1960s and culminated in a 1972 order that required individual schools to more closely represent the minority student population in the district.

White parents responded in droves by moving to places with largely white school populations, for instance Edmond, which in many cases is literally across the street.

After that you saw large scale suburban housing development shift north and west. While we all think of commercial retail as being drawn to street frontage, what REALLY draws it (especially national credit retail) is proximity to rooftops AND the demographics of said rooftops. In this case the broad swaths of undeveloped land on the outer edge of the City limits was a hindrance and land along that stretch became much more difficult to develop for an extended period. Nowadays we think of Memorial and also the Kilpatrick Turnpike as having massive traffic count, and while it is largely true it certainly wasn't the case when the turnpike opened around '89-'90 (they used to literally make jokes on the radio giving shout-outs to the single individual driving on the turnpike) and that overall low traffic count persisted for quite a few years.

I can confirm seeing a map of OKC highways 50 years ago including an outer loop encircling the city. The current Kilpatrick is roughly in the same place but the east loop was to be down Sooner Rd. If l remember correctly, there was to be a south outer segment following the S. Canadian to Norman and east 23rd was to be upgraded to a freeway.

I can confirm seeing a map of OKC highways 50 years ago including an outer loop encircling the city. The current Kilpatrick is roughly in the same place but the east loop was to be down Sooner Rd. If l remember correctly, there was to be a south outer segment following the S. Canadian to Norman and east 23rd was to be upgraded to a freeway.

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Here is the state map from 1974 and you can make out the proposed outer loop (Kilpatrick) and also the east side that was never built.

https://www.odot.org/hqdiv/p-r-div/maps/state-maps/pdfs/1974b.pdf

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By 1988 the east loop proposal was gone and what remains was just the north and western portions along Memorial and Sara Rd.

https://www.odot.org/hqdiv/p-r-div/maps/state-maps/pdfs/1988b.pdf

Thanks!

Pete is this still happening?

Pete is this still happening?

Yes.

I check on the building permit periodically and they are still sorting a few things out via back-and-forth with the city, which is typical of these larger projects.

I would expect them to start work soon.

Wow that's interesting. If you overlay that with google maps you can see that Sooner Rd there just south of that 35/Turner interchange is already divided four-lane almost like a highway. Continuing south of 122nd, your an see what appear to be the outlines of the right-of-way that may have been bought up years go in anticipation. f you go even further down south to where the proposed highway curves and heads toward the river, you can see what could be easement of the same thing. Now, all this could just be the lay of the land, too. But kind of fun to follow along the proposed path nonetheless.

Dirt is flying at this corner. Lots of work being done as of today.

Your original post said 148k sq ft and the other post you copied in (I suppose from another news source) said 138k sq ft. Do you know what they are planning on now?

Your original post said 148k sq ft and the other post you copied in (I suppose from another news source) said 138k sq ft. Do you know what they are planning on now?

The original planning filing showed 148K but then they filed their final building permit the number was 138K.

Work has started (SE corner of May & Memorial):

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces013022a.jpg

Further west on memorial, traveling north on Hefner taking the Kilpatrick East exit...on the fly over ramp there's a 3 story structure being built. I assume it's a hotel. There's a County Inn Suites and a Holiday Inn Express in that same area.

Further west on memorial, traveling north on Hefner taking the Kilpatrick East exit...on the fly over ramp there's a 3 story structure being built. I assume it's a hotel. There's a County Inn Suites and a Holiday Inn Express in that same area.

It's a medical facility: Memorial Park HealthPlex.

It's a medical facility: Memorial Park HealthPlex.
Pete, I think I’ve asked this before but I can’t remember what you said or where the post is at sorry, but does Pappadeaux still own the land they were going to build on?

Pete, I think I’ve asked this before but I can’t remember what you said or where the post is at sorry, but does Pappadeaux still own the land they were going to build on?

Yes, they do still own it.

They had it for sale for a while but pulled it off the market.

They've owned it since 2014.

Thank you. I’ll keep holding my breath. Hopefully they make the right decision.

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Any idea when this might be open for business?

Any idea when this might be open for business?

I would think by the end of the year.

They are going to do very well here. Quite different that anything else we have and I really like their style.

I would think by the end of the year.

They are going to do very well here. Quite different that anything else we have and I really like their style.

Do they have a decent selection of MCM furniture? We've gotten our dining set, 2 sofas, desk, bedroom set, and a couple of chairs and tables from Suburban Contemporary and they have great stuff, but it's pretty expensive. Be nice to have an alternative...

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces081022a.jpg

It's actually an old attempt to keep animals from entering and obstructing traffic.

Yes, this. Now if the city wants to do something to spruce it up, then the city can do it. Moore chose to replace their fence with the white plastic stuff. It does make that stretch look nicer than ratty chain link. But it also comes with a much higher cost. And Memorial is a far stretch longer in that area than the few miles for Moore on I-35. So if you want something like that, bring it up to the Ward representative. And be prepared to explain why a cosmetic thing like this is needed more than a practical service for another part of town. Say sidewalks.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces090422a.jpg


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Construction is nearing completion on Oklahoma's first Living Spaces store at N. May & Memorial near Quail Springs Mall.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces011923a.jpg


The 140,000-square-foot store on the southeast corner of that intersection will open in March according to a Living Spaces representative.

Inside, there will be four 'homes' each showcasing a different furniture style: Modern, Farmhouse, Spanish and Rustic.

And addition to a large selection of furniture and home décor, the OKC location will also offer a cafe and a play area for kids.

Living Spaces will employ approximately 100 non-commission employees and has a robust Internet site where a large number of items can be ordered directly.

Design consultants will help families as they shop including celebrity collections like Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, and items described as 'timeless and sophisticated' by Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent.

Long popular in the Western U.S., Living Spaces promotes itself as a purveyor of stylish, diverse and well-priced furniture and home décor.



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces011923c.jpg


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Pete, what's going in on the hard corner there? An OnCue or 7-11, maybe?

Pete, what's going in on the hard corner there? An OnCue or 7-11, maybe?

Nothing yet but it looks like they have room for 2-3 businesses.

In addition to their store that will open at the end of March, Living Spaces has leased 56,000 SF for a distribution center in the new complex at 89th & Pole Road:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/livingspaces020823a.jpg

How many tag alongs with new to market businesses has there been with in the past decade or so?

Costco, Carvana, now Living Spaces.

How many tag alongs with new to market businesses has there been with in the past decade or so?

Costco, Carvana, now Living Spaces.

I wonder if that's typical when businesses like these are new to a market? I'm genuinely curious