‘New lifestyle’ developing north of Quail Springs Mall
Homes,upscale retailers, public space envisioned.
Richard Mize Real Estate Editor

Richard Mize: 475-3518, richardmize@oklahoman.com


The hay pasture due north of Quail Springs Mall — an odd neighbor for a big-city regional mall of such vintage — will blossom into a mixed-use, “open air lifestyle community” called Village at Quail Springs if Larry Owsley pulls off his ambitious plan.

Owsley has land in hand — 232 acres he paid $10 million for on Oct. 31, some of which abuts the property line of the 27-year-old mall. At the same time, he lined up $20-plus million in development credit from an Oklahoma lender.

The project, master planned by Carter Burgess, the national civil engineering firm based in Fort Worth, Texas, will go before Oklahoma City planners soon. Owsley said he will seek a planned unit development with a C-3 commercial overlay, which will give him the flexibility required to accomplish his aims.

His vision? A “Main Street” kind of thing, “bigger than Bricktown.”

‘New lifestyle’ for Oklahoma City

He wants to attract upscale retailers not now seen in Oklahoma; homes, including lofts, condominiums and brownstones; a variety of office buildings; a bandstand and amphitheater; a hospitality and conference center, and other features to help make it all a community, not just an array of different kinds of property, such as parks, plazas, trails, a green belt and a public lake.

Real estate development has been a large part of his 32 years in business, but Owsley acknowledged he’d done nothing to this scale. He is president and owner of RCL Mortgage Corp. in Oklahoma City and is working on his latest project under the name of Quail Springs Land Development LLC.

“We were fortunate to have been able to purchase this unique tract of land, located in the heart of the growth area of north Oklahoma City and surrounding communities,” he said. “We intend to create an openair environment, an upscale, urban mixed-use community that we all can be proud of. The Village at Quail Springs will attract retailers and users that are not currently located in Oklahoma. It is time to implement a ‘new lifestyle’ for the Oklahoma City area.”

Leland: ‘This is the spot’

Office growth to the east along Memorial Road and the Kilpatrick Turnpike, housing growth north and west toward Edmond and Deer Creek, and growth in retail traffic around the mall and the Memorial Road corridor in general all bode well for Village at Quail Springs, Owsley said.

Heavily preleasing retail space will get the project off to a sound start, said Carl Edwards, retail specialist and co-managing partner of Price Edwards & Co., the commercial realty firm. Speculative retail construction would be difficult, he said.

“If he can get some national tenants that can draw traffic, he can have some success,” Edwards said. Having the project front NW 150 — as Owsley plans — “would concern me,” Edwards said. However, he added, “synergisms with traffic around the mall, generally speaking, that’s a pretty good deal.”

Owsley said he has no doubts about the location, especially with NW 150, one mile north of Memorial, being widened. He plans seven entrances from NW 150.

Leland Consulting, the Portland, Ore.-based national real estate research group, “said this is it,” Owsley said, “the target point, the major traffic area of the northwest Oklahoma City area. This is the spot.”

Bumper-to-bumper

cars?

The mall area already is the spot, judging from the traffic — and traffic congestion. Owsley said he’s working on dealing with the Catch-22: Heavy traffic is good for business, but a reputation for traffic jams can keep people away from an area.

“The potential increase in traffic is always an item for evaluation,” Owsley said. “The Pennsylvania/Memorial and May/Memorial intersections are of great concern. A traffic study group is analyzing the current traffic count and projected traffic flow based on the increase that the development might create. Suggestions will then be made regarding the flow of traffic away from these two highly congested areas (to) direct a much higher flow of traffic arriving and departing from the north, east and west.”

“Our goal is to create a great people place and community, in which people can gather to eat, visit, shop, work and play in a friendly, relaxed and safe environment,” he said. “We want to be good neighbors.”