Spring Creek Village Update

[Patrick]

Luke had asked awhile back for an update on development at the Spring Creek Village retail development, an upscale shoppig development on tne northwest corner of 15th St. and Bryant in Edmond. Well, I happened to go by there yesterday. So far dirt is being turned and the site prepared, but no foundatinos have been layed yet. The development will front 15th Street and stretch for a good distance west of Bryant. Mark Inman with CBRE Oklahoma is leasing the property. I'll try to contact him to see if there are any solid leases yet. I did speak with Jim Clark, owner of BC Clark, recently. He told me that the recent story in the Oklahoman stating that the development would include a 4th BC Clark store was absolutely false. BC Clark has no plans on expanding to Edmond. Also, other stores mentioned (Saks 5th Avenue) aren't even in the running. Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn might be possibilities, but it isn't like they'd be anything new to the OKC metro market. Also, the owner of Balliets said he plans on staying at 50 Penn Place for now!

From the looks of things, it doesn't appear that this development will be completed for some time. Possibly as late as summer 2005 or later, depending on how quickly development proceeds.

[Midtowner]

They'll fill the spaces without question. Just look at the Spring Creek across the street.

I do wish they could have preserved that old sheep barn that used to be there. That was a pretty building.

[metro]

Well, as far as the Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn, I don't know how accurate that may be. I work for the Williams-Sonoma Inc. Care Center and so far nothing has been announced. I have the 2005 new store calendar and it is not listed. I will keep you guys updated if anything changes.

[Patrick]

I wouldn't be surprised if Pottery Barn or Williams-Sonoma weren't locating at Spring Creek Village. Seems like every other store mentioned in that original Oklahoma article has turned out to be false. I'm not sure where the writer of that article got his info. from. Maybe wishful thinking on the owner's part. The article even mentioned a Saks 5th Avenue locating in that shopping center. Unfortunately, I just can't see that. I'm not trying to be pessimistic or anything, but just being realistic. Bob Landdec, Simon Property manager of Penn Square said they've spoken with Saks many times, and Saks has always told them the OKC metro market would not support as Saks. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

We already have a Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn at Penn Square that do pretty well.

Hey where is the Williams-Sonoma care center located? Are they hiring?

[Luke]

I'd bet that a Sak's or Macy's would do splendidly in OKC. Just give us a chance.

[Midtowner]

I was surprised to not see one of them (or Nordstrums) try to fill the empty space at Penn Square Mall.

I'm just not sure that we have a physical location besides Penn Square that could support a place like one of those.

[metro]

Williams-Sonoma Inc is on NW 85th Terrace. Just behind the wal-mart on nw expressway and council. Its in the in between the Sprint and Hartford call centers

[Patrick]

So that's where Hartford call center is.....my fiancee is applied for a job at AOl today, and plans on applying at the Hartford later in the week!

Do you know if the Williams-Sonoma care center is currently hiring?

---------
Midtowner...I agree with you...I think if we had a shot at all of attracting an upscale store like Saks, Penn Square was probably our only shot. I have a good relationship with the mall manager at Penn Square, and I will tell you, he fought long and hard to get an upscale store to locate in the old Wards space. He lobbied everyone from Saks to Macy's to Neimann Marcus to Bloomingdales to Nordstroms, etc. Unfortunately, he found out that even with Edmond and Nichols Hills the market statistics didn't add up for the companies. He tried to crunch the numbers every which way.

Seems like if anyone could've done it, Penn Square could've......Penn Square is the highest profit-making mall in the state....even ahead of the state's largest mall, Woodland Hill's in Tulsa!

I'm with Luke...I wish they would've at least given us a chance.

By the way, sales at the specialty stores at Penn Square are up 20% over last year. That's not bad considering national indications show an extremely slow retail forecast for the remainder of the holiday season.

[okcpulse]

Hey , I work at that Wal-Mart. My cousin's husband worked at The Hartford. Nice company from what I hear.

Anyhow, if Saks Fifth Avenue can function in a shrinking city that lost thousands of jobs, like Tulsa, then the store can function in Oklahoma City. I think they are blowing us off. Wild Oats did that as well. I contacted Wild Oats Natural Market on several occasions to find out if the store would be opening an Oklahoma City location, and they blew me off. I think we get snubbed by certain companies.

[Luke]

If any of you listen to the Sports Animal, they sometimes have this guy call in (it's all a set up) but it's this supposedly wealthy guy with a snooty British accent named Nichols Gaillardia. Haha. Maybe we could call the corporate headquarters of the different upscale stores with a British accent and snootily request that they look at OKC a little harder.

[Patrick]

LOL! Anyone offering voice lessons in British dialect?

[metro]

No, Williams-Sonoma is not currently hiring. They only hire during Aug-Nov, (peak season). Everyone starts as a temp and depending on estimated demand, a certain amount of people are kept in regards to there performance.

[Patrick]

Thanks for letting me know metro. Next time I'm in that area, I'll have to go by there and at least see what the place looks like. I didn't realize we had a Williams-Sonoma call center back there.

[metro]

We also own the building across the street. Across from Sprint to the south is the American Cancer Society's call center. Its a huge office park, mainly built to attract large call centers.

[floater]

Hey metro, I was one of the original casual sales agents at that Williams-Sonoma facility. Do they still place no time limit on your calls? I remember chatting for 40 minutes with a customer without any talk of products -- just "casual" coversation

Another cool thing was talk of celebrities who called in. My trainer said she once took a call from Tom Cruise. I had two brushes with some fame: a representative of author Judith Krantz (that was the name on the screen) who hung up when I froze; and almost-First Lady Kitty Dukakis, who reneged on a Metropolitan desk set.

[Luke]

Gosh, makes me wonder with all these call centers in OKC and the types of people who call in, imagine how many Okies talk to celebrities! Haha. I wonder if we have more call centers here than in other places.