Midwest City
How fast can Midwest City go from outdated to outstanding?
Posted: Friday, April 30, 2004
Durocher's OKCBusiness NewsWire
City in the middle
By Lori Bottoms writers@okcbusiness.com
Once the shopping hub of eastern Oklahoma county and the community center for thousands who lived or worked at Tinker Air Force Base, Midwest City had fallen into worn and haggard disrepair over the past 30 years.
Now, with a front-door facelift, a multimedia public relations campaign and an aggressive business development attitude, Midwest City is poised to reclaim its former status...and more.
The city's economic forecast is stronger than ever. Officials say the city's planned redevelopment of the 29th Street corridor is the reason.
“This is the front door to Midwest City,” said David Burnett, director of economic development for the Midwest City Chamber of Commerce. “And people were getting the wrong idea of what we are all about.”
The city had no choice, really, but to buy the property in the old shopping district and level it, said Russell Smith, redevelopment coordinator for the city.
“The original district was built in the Forties and was just terribly obsolete. We'd known that since the Sixties or Seventies but couldn't do anything about it,” Smith said. “It had become a string of pawn shops and check cashing places. Even if we could get private investors to refurbish, it couldn't physically be done. There was not enough space.”
Midwest City began acquiring properties along the corridor - plus 250 residential properties - in 2000. Sooner Investments, Inc. leased the site and is planning to develop a 90-acre mixed use retail, office, restaurant and commercial town center on the site.
Midwest City spent about $21 million of its own funds to acquire and raze the site, but it is already seeing its investment pay off.
The proposed development is expected to create more than 500 jobs between 2004 and 2006.
But that's nothing compared to the development boom the project has inspired.
“It's had a huge effect,” Smith said. “Commercial and residential developers are springing up all over Midwest City.”
Midwest City also made a significant investment in creating a “hospitality district,” at Sooner Road and I-40, and in the past three years has seen four new hotels and the Reed Center to host conventions; a Sheraton Hotel, owned by the city, broke ground in early April. When the Sheraton opens, Burnett said, the city will have added 500 hotel rooms since May 1999.
Industry in Midwest City is growing, too. Tinker Business Industrial Park plans an expansion and a $500 million Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Technology Center should break ground soon. A new business park for Tinker and GM contractors also is planned.
But Midwest City's biggest boom may lie in residential development.
“Four or five years ago, there were hardly any residential developers coming on line,” Smith said. “Now, they're everywhere.”
City planners estimate that between 500 and 600 new homes will be built each year in Midwest City for the “foreseeable future,” Burnett said. An estimated 30 to 40 percent of those homes will be valued at $200,000 or more. Much of the development is expected to happen east of Douglas Boulevard.
“People don't just buy a home, they buy a way of life,” Burnett said. “We want people to understand that Midwest City is real life at its best.”
Helping prospective residents - and the retail and commercial developments that would serve them - realize Midwest City's potential has proven to be a challenge all its own.
Burnett's philosophy: Nothing succeeds like success.
The city has focused on motivating potential businesses by convincing both investors and the people who have influence over financiers to come to town and see what is going on in the area.
One of their first steps was to put together a package that listed all of the ongoing projects around town. On the Chamber's Web site, Burnett listed business resources, special incentive and business assistance information and demographic data that is routinely updated. A multimedia campaign called “East Is In” beckoned investors to take another look at the little city.
“The next step we took was a familiarization tour, which was a VIP tour with the title ‘Come experience the new Midwest City,'” Burnett said. “We started by getting local businesses involved. Rose State College held a breakfast, a local bank held a mid-tour break and the Midwest Regional Medical Center furnished a luncheon. We invited key leaders, legislators, government officials, Chamber of Commerce officials and other people we want to know about our assets. We took them in plush tour buses and gave them a three hour narrated tour about everything that is new to Midwest City.”
The small-town approach to red carpet treatment worked, Burnett said. The Chamber is working on its fifth tour.
The strategy made underused areas a sign of opportunity instead of a sign of slow growth.
“Businesses looking to invest realize the property value is lower priced but has the potential of growing with the city,” Burnett said.
Burnett said Midwest City is only beginning to grow. The city has only begun to scratch the surface” of potential within the city's enterprise zones, federal programs and state tax incentives.
“I'm excited about Midwest City,” said Burnett. “I wake up every day and discover new things going on around town. There has never been a better day to be a Midwest Citian than today.”
With additional reporting by Melissa Beggs
Originally Posted by Sooner&RiceGrad
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