The golden era of department stores, boutiques, theaters and shops lighting up Main Street are long gone and unlikely to ever return, but a new report shows retail is on the rebound in downtown Oklahoma City.
The positive outlook follows several years of smaller retailers clustering in Midtown and Automobile Alley while larger chains, including Walmart and CVS, abandoned negotiations that would have added stores in the downtown business district.
The report by Allison Bailey, an urban retail specialist with Price Edwards, delves into the greater downtown area and addresses which areas are thriving and why other retail efforts are falling short, and looks at how to build on existing shopping corridors that were once nonexistent.
“I'm really optimistic,” Bailey said. “We had some really hard years for retail. That we have the occupancy and tenant mix we have downtown is a feat. As a user, customer and real estate professional, I feel there is a lot we can add.”
The survey covers 1,650,000 square feet of ground floor space, including over 300 storefronts, between NW 13, Reno Avenue, Interstate 235 and Classen Boulevard.
At the end of 2022, occupancy for the space stood at 87%. Bailey’s report, however, shows how some space is attracting a mix of retail while other storefronts never seem to fill up.
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Bailey’s expertise in the topic dates back a dozen years to when she introduced holiday pop-up shops and helped launch Better Block, a volunteer approach to showing how different dormant areas of downtown could be adapted into retail corridors.
“It's hard for me to remember how it was,” Bailey said. “We’re in a good place. There were significantly fewer small spaces. A lot of my clients and those who own property downtown have right sized their spaces. So that allows us to have a lot more retaildowntown.”
The report shows Midtown and Automobile Alley have some of the most diverse retail offerings that have transformed the districts into shopping destinations. Automobile Alley, a corridor along Broadway between NW 4 and NW 13, is home to more than a dozen shops that sell housewares, clothing, shoes, gifts, bicycles, home décor, books and recreational goods.
Midtown, meanwhile, is home to more than 18 shops with offerings that include multiple clothing options, cosmetics, stationery and cards, plants, office furniture, a pharmacy, a bookstore, a bar supply business, a florist and a bridal boutique.
Bricktown has fewer retailers, the report notes, but is home to downtown’s largest retailer, Bass Pro Shops, a couple of smaller gift shops, and the largest cluster of entertainment offerings with several live music venues, Harkins Theaters, Revolutions bowling and entertainment, Brickopolis miniature golf and arcade, and the Jim Thorpe Museum and American Banjo Museum.
“Bricktown still plays an important role in the volume of retail in downtown, especially in food and beverage,” Bailey said. “Outside of two large retailers, Harkins and Bass Pro, which dominate the square footage, almost all other tenants are either food and beverage or entertainment with a food and beverage component.”
Large stretches of empty storefronts in Bricktown can be found along the Bricktown Canal and on the ground floor of the Steelyard Apartments on the east end of Bricktown.
In comparison, the ground floor of The Edge Apartments in Midtown is home to Commonplace Books and Sincerely Coffee Roasters and until recently, a corner grocery and Korean restaurant. Another Midtown complex, Lift, at NW 10 and Shartel, has retail space similar to The Edge, but that space has largely stayed empty.
Midtown, however, may just be the answer to how to bring back retail throughout downtown.
Is creating store clusters downtown Oklahoma City's best shot for retail?
A pharmacy and grocery are listed at the top of the retail dream list since the MAPS-inspired revival began 30 years ago. Two small grocery stores came and went in Midtown and Deep Deuce. The Medicine Cabinet, which opened in 1990 at First National Center, relocated to a more visible spot at Leadership Square.
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The store closed last year. Even though it faced Park Avenue, it stood alone with no other retail around it other than a couple of restaurants. The opening of Midtown Drug may test Bailey’s theory that creating store clustersis the best shot at reviving downtown retail.
Dr. Phong Hoang previously operated a pharmacy in Edmond before briefly leaving the business to help take care of his terminally ill mother.
An acquaintance suggested the pharmacist reopen a store in Midtown, and the spot chosen by Hoang, The Boulevard, had other ground floor tenants that included a sneaker shop and a bridal boutique with the corner spot anchored by the breakfast and lunch restaurant Neighborhood Jam.
The independent pharmacy is open six days a week and offers compounding services, an array of hygienic products, first aid itemsand over-the-counter medicines, as well as drinks and snacks. Hoang hopes to soon add an arcade game.
“It’s a modern pharmacy, but with a retro atmosphere,” Hoang said. “Compared to the previous pharmacy I owned, this one has done extremely well and better than expected. This is the best location I’ve ever had.”
The Boulevard, 525 NW 11, is built across from the Plaza Court, a historic shopping center filled with shops and restaurants, and is also along the Oklahoma City Streetcar line through Midtown.
Much of the retail emergence in Midtown over the past 20 years can be credited to Midtown Rennaissance, a development group led by Bob Howard, Mickey Clagg and Chris Fleming. When Fleming started with Howard and Clagg, Midtown was still struggling to recover from decades of decline that started in the 1970s.
“It had the beginnings of some restaurants,” Fleming said. “Shopping wise, there was no place to buy things.”
The group had the advantage of having acquired dozens of properties, including much of the area around the Plaza Court building.
“We reworked the Walker side of Plaza Court, which was the back side of the building, and created retail space,” Fleming said. “And by owning both sides of Walker, we created a pretty neat stretch. We really made an effort to cluster retail where the traffic benefits everyone.”
Midtown Renaissance also embraced restoring older buildings into a mix of retail on the ground floor with either apartments or offices above. At Make Ready Market, 220 NW 13, smaller retailers and start-ups were provided 14 micro-storefronts, a concept that thrived even during the pandemic.
The existing Make Ready consists of old, nondescript buildings converted into storefronts. The latest addition is a new two-story building that will add 14 more micro-storefronts topped with 10 apartments.
Fleming said he looks for tenants that complement each other.
“We try to be very intentional with our tenant mix throughout the district,” Fleming said. “Though there are multiple women’s clothing stores, they all have a different flavor, they offer different styles. We try not to add shops that directly compete with existing tenants.”
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Will a grocery store ever come to downtown Oklahoma City?
Bailey’s report notes that downtown could use more convenience stores or bodega-style shops. A grocery store has long topped the demand list among downtown residents and workers. Smaller corner grocery stores were attempted in Deep Deuce and Midtown, but ultimately were not able to draw enough business to survive.
Urban Agrarian, which has smaller stores at Farmers Market and in Edmond, is still set to open a full grocery with a rooftop greenhouse at Nova, a planned mix of apartments, brewery, shops and restaurants along Automobile Alley. Developer Brandon Lodge is hoping to start construction later this year.
Larger chains have looked at downtown, including Walmart, CVS and Uptown Grocery.
Andy Burnett was one of multiple developers approached by Walmart representatives several years ago.
“I met with them in Las Vegas at the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) conference,” Burnett said. “They wanted to look at a couple of sites, one in Bricktown, one in Midtown. They were trying to figure it out. They asked me for a meeting. At that time, we were doing the Steelyard. We talked about doing one at Century Center. We looked at a bunch of different options.”
A deal never followed. Uptown Grocery and CVS also looked at opening stores at Century Center. Burnett said the CVS deal fell apart when the proposal was submitted to the company’s corporate committee.
“You just never know why these deals die,” Burnett said. “You just never have any clarity. The parking they think they have to have, you can never provide enough.”
Burnett and Fleming say they are unsure if a large grocery operator like Walmart will ever come to downtown Oklahoma City.
“If you look at where the market was then versus where it is today, now you have an app where you can order groceriesto your front porch,” Burnett said. “The need isn’t as significant for a downtown grocery. Now it comes to you.”
Bailey said downtown retail opportunities will continue to grow as downtown’s population increases with ongoing construction of apartments and homes.
We’re quite a bit away for the number (of residents) for a traditional grocery,” Bailey said. “But it’s an achievable number. We’re just not there yet. I’m really optimistic. We had some really hard years for retail. That we have the occupancy and tenant mix we have downtown is a feat. I feel there is a lot we can add.”
