What would you replace Heritage Park Mall with?

[bombermwc]

Do it's a dead mall and has been for 10 years. It's a safe mall, but it's dead. There's nothing left except Sears (gotta keep that Craftsman stuff baby)! So what would be put in it's place? I've got two options that I think would work well.

1. Residential - just bulldoze the mall and replace it with housing development. Leave the couple of outparcels and Sears and you've got an already graded neighborhood with easy access through all the lights. Plus it provides the needed room for devlopment on the west side of MWC. Other devlopments on Air Depot less than a mile away filled up VERY quickly in what little space there was.

2. Mixed Use - there is no office space to speak of left in MWC. The MD Tower and Parklawn have been it for years and we need more. People build these little house looking complexes that use the space very inefficiently. MWC has been in need of more multistory office space for years (as shown by how the hospital has bought many small buildings around town since the space on Parklawn is full). So how about a couple 10 or so floor buildings? Maybe even make one of the a residential tower. MWC is in need of more upscale condo/apt. type developments as shown by Legacy being so popular. So again bulldoze and make some vertical space happen....plus it's always bugged me that Del City's bank tower is taller than anything in MWC, even if it is by only a couple floors....arg!

Comments?

[SOONER8693]

I like #2.

[SoonerDave]

It's really sad Heritage Park has just kind of sunk into an abyss...you'd like to think something like that could be rehabbed....

The problem with any rehab project is that HP is only a stone's throw away from the new development going in along SE 29th, and I can't fathom anyone who would want to try and establish (or re-establish) a big retail presence in the face of that kind of competition.

I frankly don't know what you can do with HP. The last anchor, Dillard's, left a few months ago, and I frankly don't think Sears cares if the rest of the mall is even there. I've already been told that Chik-Fil-A will close upon opening of a free-standing site on 29th, so the out-year prospects for the rest of the mall are seemingly ever-diminishing.

Multi-use office space, ala Shepherd Mall, may be the only viable option available.

-SoonerDave

[Lauri101]

I like # 2 also.

Midwest City could benefit from offering more office space, and vertical is the way to go for efficiency.

The condo idea is great - a straight shot down Reno to get downtown, but close to shopping areas.

[bombermwc]

Now all we need is the investor...LOL

[BricktownGuy]

The owner apparently had some redevelopment plans to renovate it to keep it into the existing mall shops.

[bombermwc]

Yeah well that was 5 years ago when he said that....has he done anything? No. Has the mall continued to decline? Yes.

Since then, Dillard's left, as well as many smaller tenants. Inside, you basically have the shoe stores Chick-Fil-A (until the new one is built on 29th), and mostly crappy mix stores. Not to be stereotypical, but it's the general idea of the shops that sell crappy purses, CD's, and junk...one after another.

[Lauri101]

Too true, bombermwc, and sad. I'm old enough to remember when that piece of land was a dirt bike track and I remember the excitement when Heritage was open for business.

My daughters and I did a lot of shopping there. The last time I went, I was appalled at the dirt and disrepair, not to mention lack of places to shop.

Maybe we need that dirt bike track again?

[bombermwc]

I found this site today....interesting but not sure how current it is.

Heritage Park Mall | Shop on the Edge of Midwest City

Would be interesting if it actually happened.


and a little tag line I found somewhere...

"A lot of people do not realize that the intersection of Reno and Air Depot had some of the highest traffic counts in the city in 2004 with just under 30,000 cars per day, which is well above most retailers' minimum criteria, he said. The fundamentals are there. They just need to be presented better."

[Lauri101]

If they go lime green, I'll NEVER go there!

UGH!

The design isn't bad, but those colors...<shudder>

Can you tell I hate lime green?

[bombermwc]

If they go lime green, I'll NEVER go there!

UGH!

The design isn't bad, but those colors...<shudder>

Can you tell I hate lime green?

I think you need to check your eyes or your monitor....it's yellow not green. Not that it's any better because its still ugly.

[BricktownGuy]

I found this site today....interesting but not sure how current it is.

Heritage Park Mall | Shop on the Edge of Midwest City

Yes, this is what I was referring to.

[Rifleman2C]

"A lot of people do not realize that the intersection of Reno and Air Depot had some of the highest traffic counts in the city in 2004 with just under 30,000 cars per day, which is well above most retailers' minimum criteria, he said. The fundamentals are there. They just need to be presented better."

The whole mall has been just a bit on the clunky side from the beginning... even if it was based on the Sears on the corner plot (is that true?), the traffic pattern input/output was pretty inefficient, anyway.

With 30K vehicles passing that intersection in 2004, it is a testament to the idea of the mall that not too many have decided to stop by in the past three years.

Time to go with a new more 'approachable' approach.





Although, I'll bet Sears won't change a thing.

[soonerfaithful]

Well we now know what will be going into Dilliard's space.

Thu December 6, 2007
Church buys mall space

By Richard Mize
Real Estate Editor
If the Christian Gospel was meant to be distributed at the retail level, Edmond-based LifeChurch.tv's newest future campus is in a perfect place:
The former Dillard's at Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City.



Life Covenant Church Inc. bought the nearly 100,000-square-foot space — attached to the mall, not a freestanding building — this week. The church paid $1.5 million to Fred Mazaheri's Midland Capital LLC.

LifeChurch.tv, which has about a dozen campuses in Oklahoma and several other states, has no immediate plans for the space but eventually will open a church branch, said Bobby Gruenewald, pastor-innovation leader.

"We don't have a particular timeline or timeframe as to when we might start or when we might open,” he said, noting that news of the property acquisition will whet east-area members' desire for a meeting space.

It's not the church's first former retail location. LifeChurch.tv's south Oklahoma City campus is in leased former store space at 7800 S Walker Ave., an Oklahoma City campus is in leased space in a former Wal-Mart at 5821 Northwest Expressway, and a campus in Fort Worth, Texas, is in a former movie theater attached to a strip center, Gruenewald said.

The congregation, part of the Evangelical Covenant Church, constructed buildings for campuses at 2001 NW 178 and in Stillwater. The church also has campuses at 7015 E 41st Street in Tulsa and in Mesa, Ariz., Wellington, Fla., Albany, N.Y., and Hendersonville, Tenn. The main church is at 4600 E Second Street in Edmond.

When it comes to real estate, "we've done a little bit (of) everything” to start new campuses, Gruenewald said. "We look at the most effective use for our dollars. Buying and leasing property (is usually) more cost-effective than building.”

LifeChurch.tv will bring new life to Heritage Park Mall, but not the kind most mall owners are looking for, said Mark Inman, the broker with CB Richard Ellis-Oklahoma who represented the church in the transaction.

An open, functioning space beats a dark, abandoned space, he said, but it probably won't mean a business boon for the rest of the mall, which has been struggling for years. Managers for the mall's out-of-state owners could not immediately be reached.

The church will renovate and improve the space, however, which will help the overall appearance of the property, Inman said.

Dillard's closed its Heritage Park Mall location in February. The mall owners, who were not involved in the sale of the separate Dillard's property, probably would have preferred another big anchor store, Inman said.

The mall owners' plans for improvements remain in place, according to the mall's Web site.

In one place, the Web site also says: "We have many unique locally owned stores where you are likely to find exactly what you are looking for.”

But in another place, under several lease specials, the site says: "Retailers Needed. Heritage Park Mall seeks a variety of retailers: Apparel, Restaurants, Music & Movies, Novelty & Gifts, Specialty Stores.”

With Dillard's now gone and the old Montgomery Ward space long empty, Sears is the mall's last remaining anchor, Inman said.

Someone posted memories of Heritage Park Mall on the "Dead Malls” Web site — deadmalls.com — in April 2006. LifeChurch.tv won't resurrect the mall, Inman said.

"It's a user for a piece of real estate that probably would have sat for a long time,” he said.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Well we now know what will be going into Dilliard's space.

Thu December 6, 2007
Church buys mall space

By Richard Mize
Real Estate Editor
If the Christian Gospel was meant to be distributed at the retail level, Edmond-based LifeChurch.tv's newest future campus is in a perfect place:
The former Dillard's at Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City.



Life Covenant Church Inc. bought the nearly 100,000-square-foot space — attached to the mall, not a freestanding building — this week. The church paid $1.5 million to Fred Mazaheri's Midland Capital LLC.



.....

Oh man...Talk about 1 stop shopping....So....Many....Jokes....So....Little... Time...


*pop*

[wheeler]

With all the new stores on 29th I think the traffic data is probably outdated. What about a waterpark? I think it would make a lot of money and lots of families would benefit.

[bombermwc]

Except the one at Regional's pool sort of shows that a water park in MWC isn't exactlly a money making affair. People want a place like White Water, not the "Reno Slip and Slide"....always hated that name. I'm not sure OKC would be able to support two park, nor would they choose to since WW is so much larger than that site....and so well established. It would have to outdo WW by a mile for people outside of the east side to use it.

I think we're better focussing on normal commercial/residential.

[jc74]

How about tearing it down and making an outdoor style mall like they have in Dallas.

Or better yet how about a new movie theater? It's strange that there isn't a theater in the Mid/Del area.

[mranderson]

How about tearing it down and making an outdoor style mall like they have in Dallas.

Or better yet how about a new movie theater? It's strange that there isn't a theater in the Mid/Del area.

Why does everything have to be "like they have in Dallas?" Why not be creative. Or there are a lot of other cities that have things we could copy.

Too many Dallasite want to be's here.

Now. What would I do? I have proposed this before. Keep it a mall, however, have shops that cater to military and make it a base mall. A mall BX.

[jc74]

Well perhaps Mranderson...BECAUSE it works!! If OKC wants to compete and attract major companies to this area they need to mirror what succesfull growing cities have done.

Oh by the way since your all about criticizing people's opinons your "creative" idea for the mall sounds a lot like the Old Paris Flea Market. I bet you were a supporter for saving the old strip mall outside Tinker?

[mranderson]

Well perhaps Mranderson...BECAUSE it works!! If OKC wants to compete and attract major companies to this area they need to mirror what succesfull growing cities have done.

Oh by the way since your all about criticizing people's opinons your "creative" idea for the mall sounds a lot like the Old Paris Flea Market. I bet you were a supporter for saving the old strip mall outside Tinker?

You might THINK it works, however, just because those people down south like it does not mean it is good for us. There are numerous cities we could be emulating.

My idea is not "Old Paris Flea Market." That market is not strictly for military nor is it BX. It is a very rundown building with junk dealers.

And on criticizing others opinions? No. I try to educate people based on what I have learned over my decades of political eduacation and other experience. These people are entitled to OPINION.

BTW. This topic is about Heritage Park Mall, not my 52 years on earth, most of which has been in Oklahoma City.

[soonerfaithful]

How about tearing it down and making an outdoor style mall like they have in Dallas.

Or better yet how about a new movie theater? It's strange that there isn't a theater in the Mid/Del area.

I like the idea of a theater. I can remember waiting to see Return of the Jedi the first week it came out. The line wrapped all the way around by Sears.
Then they built the theater at Crossroads and that pretty much doomed the one inside Heritage.

[bombermwc]

Wow...stupidity.
Anyway......

[mcbee04]

I worked at Sears for a little over a year and just changed jobs at the end of May. Sears doesn't care if the rest of the mall is there, as someone previously mentioned. They own that building, the rest of the mall was built on to them. Our store manager gave us a long speech one night about how we had just spent lots of money installing a new air conditioning system and various other repairs as reasons why we wouldn't be closing. Then 2 weeks later she quit, along with the managers of two of the other area Sears (Quail Springs and Norman, I believe). I'm not sure what's going on.
As for the website, it's definitely not current. Most of the stores it lists are no longer there. A-Z is closing as well.

[soonerfaithful]

I worked at Sears for a little over a year and just changed jobs at the end of May. Sears doesn't care if the rest of the mall is there, as someone previously mentioned. They own that building, the rest of the mall was built on to them.

It wasn't until the old Sears at 15th and Midwest Blvd. burned and needed a new building that the mall was built.
I was driving by the mall last night and thought about how sad it looked. Not many cars and the cars that were there I figured were probably employees cars.