Tapp to buy Fox Lake Plaza for $8.49M
Journal Record
by Brianna Bailey

Published: August 25th, 2010

EDMOND – Local commercial real estate company Tapp Development Corp. is in the process of acquiring the 53-acre site of the stalled Fox Lake Plaza shopping center for $8.49 million from Expressway Development.

Expressway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year and construction on the shopping center has never moved forward.

Details of the pending sale were revealed in documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Edmond-based Tapp Development has developed commercial real estate properties ranging from outlet malls to medical facilities across the United States and Canada over the past 40 years, according to the firm’s website. The real estate company has developed Walmart stores across Oklahoma.

Jim Tapp, president and chief executive of Tapp Development, confirmed the pending sale on Wednesday, but declined to comment further, citing “many contingencies in a very difficult process related to our involvement in Fox Lake.”

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved the sale on Monday and the deal is expected be finalized by mid-October, attorney Charles Wetsel told the Edmond City Council on Monday. The buyer already has financing in place for the project and plans to use the same site plan as Expressway, he said.

Wetsel could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

The Edmond City Council this week granted an extension on a site plan for the development until the sale could be finalized.

Plans for the site along Interstate 35 at 15th Street include a shopping center with several satellite pad sites for restaurants and stores along the interstate frontage road. The Edmond City Council originally approved plans for the shopping center in 2004, but construction never moved forward.

Residents in the Fox Lake area have complained to the city for years about soil erosion at the graded site and red dirt blowing onto their properties.

“I hope we can see some type of development there now and maybe some new erosion controls,” said Councilman Wayne Page.