Crossroads Mall

[Jesseda]

ever since its been plaza Mayor you haven't seen it on the news for crime like it was when it was crossroads mall, it seemed like almost every week something happened there when it was crossroads, so at least the crime has been reduced and last time I was their it had more customer traffic then when it did back 10 years ago in the early 2000s. I don't think it will ever be a grand mall but at least it is something better than what it was 10 years ago

[Tundra]

Has it ever been mentioned , that this would make for an excellent site for a major league stadium or NFL stadium? Think of the potential.....

[Thomas Vu]

I can imagine stupid traffic on 35/240 exit. Thank goodness I'm not on that part of town.

[baralheia]

The Crossroads Mall site would make a great location for a major sports stadium, I agree. The only downside is that the hotels, movie theatre, and other businesses surrounding the mall would very likely be displaced elsewhere. If a stadium was built here, the exits feeding into this area from I-35 and I-240 would certainly be reconfigured to handle the additional traffic. The actual I-35/I-240 interchange will soon begin reconstruction, which will alleviate many issues there, as well.

[Uptowner]

I was handed some tickets to a wrestling match a couple weeks ago. Turns out it was inside crossroads mall. About 3 doors down from where I dropped quarters in an 80's arcade named "tilt." If was across from what used to be "garfields"....bizarre nostalgia all around. Since I was from a generation that just got dropped off at the mall on weekends with no money and no shopping list. It was like looking through time travel goggles.

[Brett]

While it is nice to dream of a future sports stadium, realistically the site of the former Crossroads Mall would be ideal as a transportation terminal for an over-the-road shipping company.

[hoya]

While it is nice to dream of a future sports stadium, realistically the site of the former Crossroads Mall would be ideal as a transportation terminal for an over-the-road shipping company.

Screw that. At the intersection of two major interstates, the city has a very real interest in making sure there is something important there.

[stile99]

Screw that. At the intersection of two major interstates, the city has a very real interest in making sure there is something important there.

I like reading the discussions on this board of what might be done with available properties. The key word, however, being 'available'. Crossroads/Plaza Mayor is neither available nor up for sale. Dreaming about a stadium there, or a bus/train station there, or a rocket launch pad there, or whatever else we feel like dreaming up, is just idle dreaming. If you wanted a stadium/transport terminal/shipping terminal/launch pad/whatever there, you should have bought the land. You didn't, and the people who did have plans for it. I'm really against using eminent domain just because some people would rather have 'something else' there, and please keep in mind that that is exactly what is being discussed, eminent domain. The literal definition, in fact. Discussing, for example, the Gold Dome, is fine. It's not being used, so discussing what we would like to see there is a valid discussion. But if somebody buys it and puts a grocery store in there (one of the discussions I've seen), the discussions regarding putting a bank in there need to end until such time as Gold Dome Grocers goes out of business and the land/building is available.

[baralheia]

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with dreaming up an ideal plan for an area. Of course, if the property isn't available, it's not available; not only that, but there would need to be political will at City Hall to press for eminent domain for a property that is still producing economic benefit and I don't think it's there for this property. But there's no reason whatsoever to shut people down for dreaming up ideas for what could be a higher and better use for a property if/when it does become available.

What's wrong with saying, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if..."?

[stile99]

There is absolutely nothing at all wrong with playing What If?. The point where I think it crossed the line was the comment that the city should make sure there is something important there. It's privately-owned property, the only thing the city should do with it is keep their hands off.

[baralheia]

I absolutely do think it's within the city's best interest to ensure that there is something of significance here! In my mind, it's no different than the City acquiring land for the convention center or the C2S park. That said, the City should only exercise it's full power here if private industry is unable to keep the area economically viable; for instance, if the ownership group decided to abandon the mall and was unable to find a new owner within a reasonable amount of time. I think that's generally the mindset of City Hall anyway.

[stile99]

I absolutely do think it's within the city's best interest to ensure that there is something of significance here! In my mind, it's no different than the City acquiring land for the convention center or the C2S park.

And my point, which I still believe, is that this is the literal definition of eminent domain.

[baralheia]

Well, yes, of course that's the definition of eminent domain. But I had no argument over the definition - merely that this is an important parcel that the city should have some sort of influence over, should the existing commercial development there completely fail, and that dreaming about what could be here is far from counterproductive.

[SoonerDustin]

Has it ever been mentioned , that this would make for an excellent site for a major league stadium or NFL stadium? Think of the potential.....

You would have a nice view of the landfill from that stadium...

[warreng88]

Former Montgomery Ward site sold for charter school
By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record February 9, 2017

OKLAHOMA CITY – A Maryland-based development company has taken stake in an area mall.

Charter Schools Development Corp. purchased the former Montgomery Ward space at Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads. It will be the home of Santa Fe South High School.

The former Montgomery Ward store site has 157,041 square feet.

The ninth- to 12-grade students will have class on the first floor. The second floor is being leased to KIPP South, which will start with fourth grade and add up to eighth grade. The Knowledge Is Power Program already has a middle school in northeast Oklahoma City.

Santa Fe Superintendent Chris Brewster said the new space will allow him to add 300 high school students. The high school’s classes are now held at the former Shields Heights Elementary School on SE 38th Street.

“It still has some bathrooms that were not upgraded since 1908,” he said of the school’s current building.

Raptor Properties sold the former Montgomery Ward to CSDC for $1.86 million. Principal John Wooley II said the company owns most of the mall, with Hudiburg owning the former Macy’s site. Wooley said Raptor is still interested in turning the mall into a community center with restaurant and entertainment venues.

“If we come across an opportunity that we think can benefit the mall and result in a sale, we’d be interested,” he said.

Bryan Buchanan said he might want to buy the old J.C. Penney space, but he wants to test his events there first. Since October, he’s been holding antique shows there monthly. He’s hosting a gun show and an antique show this weekend.

He’s subleasing the space to other shows such as the Just Between Friends consignment sale.

“It’s been going well,” he said. “Everyone loves it better than the fairgrounds.”

He said there are some updates that would have to be made to the J.C. Penney space. But it could be a worthy investment with other show operators calling him often.

“I’ve got like 30 people that are on the fence about moving over here,” he said.

Santa Fe South Schools Inc. will likely become the owner of the former Montgomery Ward space after the new market tax credits end in seven years. CSDC received $10 million in new market tax credits from New Markets Redevelopment, another $6.6 million from an upper-tier leverage loan from Clearinghouse CDFI, $3.3 million in NMTC equity investment from U.S.

Bancorp Community Development Corp., a $1 million sponsor loan, a $500,000 donation from the Inasmuch Foundation and a $500,000 donation from the Walton Family Foundation.

Brewster said $7 million will be spent on renovating the space for the high school. The space will have 45 classrooms, which include science labs, art studios, music rooms and a cafeteria with a commercial kitchen. The sale came with about 10 acres of land, so a gymnasium could be built on the property, Brewster said.

“We’d like to see the expansion of more school choice options in the area,” he said. “We want to keep parts of the mall alive as well.”

Classes will start at the mall in fall 2017. With the high school students moving, the old high school becomes the next elementary school.

“We’re looking for great teachers,” he said. “We’re expanding exponentially.”

[Nugyar]

He’s subleasing the space to other shows such as the Just Between Friends consignment sale.

Since when? The JBF sale has been at the fairgrounds for years - and the one in April is scheduled there also.

[OKC2017]

crossroads mall makes for a very interesting case study. i don't really buy into the re-purposing/re-branding concept of plaza mayor. although i think
it does offer tremendous potential to bring it back to life but with a different business plan, redevelopment strategy. for example, that enormous patch
of parking pavement is begging for some greenery. how about the parking is reduced significantly to say, maybe 40% of what it is now and the rest of
the space re-purposed for quality designed landscaping. you can also insert mixed-used, mid sized buildings of 3-5 stories along the new green spaces.
some of the spaces already in the original mall building can be demolished to downsize the overall foot print of the building and make way for other venues
such a great, green, outdoor performance lawn, restaurant exterior patios and farmers market. there is plenty of potential but of course it would demand
an insane amount of money to invest in redevelopment and also a huge risk factor that may ultimately make it an unviable business pursuit. maybe if it
comes from a grounds roots movement...

[shawnw]

Shepard Mall is long "dead" but still very much "alive". The same can well happen with Crossroads/Plaza Mayor.

[OKC2017]

you are right. and i think it is a good thing to make the most of shepperd mall using it as institutional space, especially because it is encrusted in a high density
area with plenty of commercial activity and car traffic. I think the case of crossroads is significantly different because of size, proportions and overall human scale.
i don't know if you have ever been around the crossroads perimeter parking area lately but it feels extremely deserted because the building and parking lot are
so big. it is just personal speculation but i see it difficult for crossroads to transition smoothly into another form of function without considerable intervention;
mostly downsizing and landscaping.

[shawnw]

I'm very familiar with the Crossroads grounds and that does make sense. I've thought in the past they should build an inner ring of retail to correspond to the outer ring and also take up some of that cavernous parking...

[OKC2017]

I'm very familiar with the Crossroads grounds and that does make sense. I've thought in the past they should build an inner ring of retail to correspond to the outer ring and also take up some of that cavernous parking...

yes, that's more or less the point i'm trying to make. i mean, think of an outdoor life style center for example, where you have that inner ring of retail like you mentioned, but with plenty of green spaces, small tree lined sidewalks, mixed car-bike boulevard and street front shops along those sidewalks, bars, restaurants with outdoor patios, and maybe even a hostal. everything at human, pedestrian scale. the old mall building downsized and re-purposed and some town houses on another end of the outer ring. oh, and i forgot to mention street side parking to compensate the taking up of all that ugly parking space around the building.

[KayneMo]

I Googled "mall redevelopment" and found this concept rendering for Highland Mall in Austin. I would love to see something like this for Plaza Mayor, developing the parking lots into mixed-use buildings and such.

[tfvc.org]

This used to be a big mall around the same size as Crossroads. They just razed the mall and turned it into a big strip center. I personally like malls better, I am the kind of person that wants to park once, walk inside, do my shopping and go out, instead of going in and out of different stores, driving to the next one, but then again as a teen I lived inside a mall.

[traxx]

I really think having the mall razed and redevelop the area is the best idea. Although turning it into a strip mall like the example above wouldn't be any better as it's still a building surrounded by a lot of tarmac. Also, malls aren't as big of a deal to teens as they were back in the '80s and '90s. To teens today, it's more a place to go and buy something and then leave. My teens certainly have no desire to hang out at the mall and neither do their friends.

[jn1780]

I really think having the mall razed and redevelop the area is the best idea. Although turning it into a strip mall like the example above wouldn't be any better as it's still a building surrounded by a lot of tarmac. Also, malls aren't as big of a deal to teens as they were back in the '80s and '90s. To teens today, it's more a place to go and buy something and then leave. My teens certainly have no desire to hang out at the mall and neither do their friends.

Yeah, it was something teens did before they had cellphones.