Re: $50 Million Retail Center
Grow west: Despite GBT plans, Yukon sticks with Frisco Road retail developmentOriginally Posted by Plutonic Panda
By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record November 17, 2014
YUKON – GBT Realty Corp. announced last week plans to build a 450,000-square-foot retail center at Interstate 40 and Czech Hall Road in Oklahoma City. Despite the proximity, the city of Yukon has not changed its plans to build a 750,000-square-foot retail center at Interstate 40 and Frisco Road.
“It’s the right thing to do,” said Grayson Bottom, Yukon city manager. “We’ve gone way too far to back off now.”
The city’s work on the area helped spur the Oklahoma Department of Transportation into changing its eight-year plan, which will now include creating an eastbound and westbound Frisco Road exit. The interchange is in the city’s tax increment finance district, which would fund the city’s portion of the construction costs. The total estimated construction bill is $16 million, with the city funding $5.6 million. The city will also fund the engineering and environmental studies, as well as any utility line relocations.
For the retail site’s development, the city is working with Louisiana-based Prairie West Properties LLC. The site is west of Canadian Valley Hospital. Yukon Economic Development Authority Executive Director Larry Mitchell said the city has recently acquired the right of way to start developing the road to the retail site.
While it’s not uncommon to have retail centers close to each other, the west Oklahoma City-Yukon area will have a combined 1.2 million square feet in new retail space. Price Edwards & Co. Senior Vice President of Retail Jim Parrack said he thinks the area can support that much new development.
“The outlet mall and the Westgate Marketplace have proven that the area was under-retailed for a long period of time,” he said. “Also, the area draws significantly from western Oklahoma. Western Oklahoma is doing really well. There’s more money and more people out there that come back to Oklahoma City. I think if they’re done right, they’ll be successful. There’s still a pretty good number of retailers that ask about that area of town.”
Parrack spoke recently about the lack of Class A retail space in Oklahoma City. He said he thinks the two new centers will aid retailers that want to be in west Oklahoma City, but he doesn’t expect companies to settle for those spaces rather than the market they really want.
“I don’t think people will go over there that can’t find a place in Moore,” he said. “For people that want to be in west, northwest Oklahoma, I think the new centers will attract those folks.”
The Frisco Road exit will also lead to a 250-acre sports complex at Frisco Road and U.S. 66. The complex could have facilities for softball, baseball and soccer.
“Yukon didn’t have the facilities to accommodate the growing interest in those sports,” Mitchell said. “They were undersized. We didn’t have enough room for parking. There were teams going to other communities for tournaments, but that wasn’t the motivation.”
Mitchell said with the school district’s football field, the bar was set high for athletic facilities. Now, the city is trying to provide equal-quality venues and has partnered with a consortium of five companies to complete the plan. Those companies will help with financing, master planning, and the project’s development and construction.
“We will control what we can control,” Bottom said.
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