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Wal-Mart plan sinks
Tulsa World
By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
Published:
11/9/2007 1:41 AM
Last Modified: 11/9/2007 1:41 AM
A downtown project is derailed by the decision to reduce the number of supercenters being built.
An urban-designed Wal-Mart Supercenter proposed for the eastern part of downtown has been scrapped, killing a proposal to redevelop the East Village, officials said Thursday.
News that Wal-Mart will not build a supercenter downtown -- or anywhere in Tulsa -- shocked developers who were planning it as an anchor tenant for a proposed mixed-use redevelopment project.
John Williams, one of the principal developers of the East Village area, said Thursday that he was notified Monday night of Wal-Mart's decision.
He said his partner, Tom Seay of Arkansas, told him, " 'You're not going to believe what happened. Our deal, it looks like it's dead.'
"I was truly shocked. I've been working on this for 18 months," Williams said.
Seay said he doesn't know what will happen now with the property that has been secured. He said he has several hundred thousand dollars invested in the project.
Tulsa is one of many cities across the nation hit by Wal-Mart's move to reduce the number of new supercenters it constructs nationwide, said Angela Stoner, Wal-Mart's senior manager of public affairs.
"This is no reflection on the confidence Wal-Mart has in our friends in the development team of the East Village, the mayor, the City Council, neighbors or others involved in this project," Stoner said Thursday.
"This is the execution of a national growth strategy plan -- a corporate decision," she said.
The plan is specific only to new supercenters, she said, and none is planned for Tulsa.
Although Wal-Mart had announced its reduction plan in June, it had also approved the construction of the proposed supercenter for the East Village, which resulted in the developers announcing the project in August.
Stoner said an Oct. 23 meeting to review the strategy plan led to the corporate decision affecting Tulsa, which was announced this week to developers and city officials.
Stoner said it is too early to know what the next step for Wal-Mart will be in Tulsa.
"What is great about Wal-Mart is that we're always looking for new opportunities," she said. "Our focus is on better serving our customers and providing community support."
Williams and Seay have purchase options on about 15 acres of land in east downtown owned by Bill White, owner of a former car dealership, and the Nordam Group, an aerospace component manufacturer.
The property sits between Frankfort Avenue and U.S. 75 between Fourth and Sixth streets.
Jay Helm, president of American Residential Group of Tulsa, also announced in August that his firm would join the Williams and Seay project to construct 150 high-quality apartments.
"Obviously this news has caught us all by surprise," Helm said. "It's business and they have to do what they have to do, but it's frustrating."
Helm said the developers were ready to move on the project and the city was about ready to go.
"Now it's over. It's too bad for Tulsa," he said.
Seay said he and Williams had built a great relationship with the city and had anticipated approval of tax-increment financing needed to move the project.
"Wal-Mart's decision was totally independent of us and the city," he said. "Anyone that works in corporate life has been through decisions similar to this, and they know these things happen."
Seay said it is now "just a matter of figuring out how to make the best of what is a difficult situation and I'm not sure how to do that, but I'm working on it."
Economic Development Director Don Himelfarb said the city has spoken to all of the principals "and we are actively engaged in trying to make something happen on the east side of downtown."
Himelfarb would not say whether the East Village area would again be considered as a possible future home for the Tulsa Drillers.
In the summer of 2006, Global Development of Washington, D.C., proposed transforming 34 acres, which included the parcels now under option with Seay and Williams, into a mixed-use development that would include a new minor-league baseball stadium to house the Drillers.
Global had issues with some of the land purchases, allowing Williams to come in and negotiate sale contracts on land Global had planned for the stadium.
P.J. Lassek 581-8382
pj.lassek@tulsaworld.com
By P.J. LASSEK World Staff Writer
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The Oracle
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 3:56:59 AM)
Contact Target.There could possibly be a huge customer base downtown.
Report Comment
Ron T. howell
, Bixby (11/9/2007 5:17:34 AM)
The City of Tulsa needs to focus on getting more Hotels,Restraunts, & up scale stores Downtown so no walmart is a blessing. If the BOK center is going to be successful you need hotels and dinning. Get a big Reasors Market.
Report Comment
Stacy Richardson
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 5:27:00 AM)
Does anybody know how to come to grips with sizes smaller than "humongous"? We don't need even a big Reasor's or Target downtown. What is eventually needed: smaller grocery stores -- no larger than the size of the old Safeway/Homeland at 11th & Denver -- in each of the downtown areas with sufficient residential development. That means a grocery store in the Brady District, another on the west side of downtown, and, in due course, one on the east side of downtown. The goal should be for downtown residents to be able to walk to the grocery store.
Report Comment
*****
, (11/9/2007 6:03:59 AM)
i guess the arena is all that is going to be there. I wont. Dont like that part of town and unless they move a huge country and western dance hall downtown i wont go near that part of the eeewwwwww city
Report Comment
joe below
, (11/9/2007 6:04:52 AM)
Smart Walmart. If tulsans don't want to invest in their city, why should Walmart?
Report Comment
AM
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 6:10:48 AM)
I bet Roscoe Turner is writing up his speech now. It's racisim and Jessie Jackson and Al Sparpton are on their way to Tulsa!
Report Comment
Ignatz
, Broken Bow (11/9/2007 6:30:45 AM)
Let's see...this whole big deal, with all these so-called shakers and movers in Tulsa.. was dependent on mega corporate Wal-Mart keeping its word. God, you'd think those financial geniuses would have had better sense than that.
Report Comment
Alden
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 6:40:17 AM)
Is the John Williams of Williams Center, etc., the person the article refers to? Unless WalMart was going to give triple food stamps and obtain a license to sell lots of Gallo the thing was going to fizzle. Sorry, Oracle, there is no base, and odds not good there will be in the future.
Report Comment
Susan
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 6:47:49 AM)
I agree with The Oracle. We need a Super Target.
I live in Midtown and I would shop there!
I lived in Edmond for a while and was spoiled by their Super Target, but I won't take 169 and to to YOUR PART OF TOWN, AM, to shop at one!
Report Comment
Susan
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 6:48:50 AM)
I agree with The Oracle. We need a Super Target.
I live in Midtown and I would shop there!
I lived in Edmond for a while and was spoiled by their Super Target, but I won't take 169 and to to YOUR PART OF TOWN, AM, to shop at one!
Hummmm . . . wonder if Walmart would still be building if the River Project had passed.
Report Comment
Snobby
, Owasso (11/9/2007 7:02:42 AM)
NO VOTERS!!!! Reap what you have sewn!!!! Wallow in your misery, your day of reckoning is here!!! LOL
Report Comment
Alden
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 7:03:10 AM)
Susan. Please. You would shop there, therefore it is viable. I know riding your bicycle with the goofy helmet to a Target would be tough. Maybe you would need to drive your Volvo beyond the borders of Midtown.
Report Comment
Anthony Bhal
, tulsa (11/9/2007 7:10:08 AM)
No Big Loss. Actually a good thing. The neighborhood market in brookside is dirty and in the behind the store is so nasty that it draws rats. If this is their plan then good thing for tulsa they pulled it.
Report Comment
Wheels
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 7:21:51 AM)
#11....implosion in progress.
Report Comment
E T
, tulsa (11/9/2007 7:30:54 AM)
I don't like target. It is an over priced kmart. nobody goes downtown so why would walmart want to locate in an area that has a lot of crime.
Report Comment
Andron
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 7:50:20 AM)
The Wal-Mart idea was a bad plan. We need something like hotels, eating establishments - or a Target. I am not a Wal-Mart fan -- I don't go to Wal-Mart so this doesn't bother me except for the fact that we do need a great infill project in this part of downtown. I just got back from Wichita and they have some great fun projects going on that don't include Wal-Mart. Maybe someone should go up there and get some ideas.
Report Comment
David
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 7:52:20 AM)
Another hit for development in Tulsa.
Report Comment
Joy Mayes
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 7:57:25 AM)
This is a result of 1804.
Report Comment
To all the Morons
, (11/9/2007 8:06:10 AM)
#11 and #14 - Are you kidding me? This has nothing to do with the No votes! What a bunch of morons!!! Let's also blame the Octoberfest tent collapse on the No vote. Idiots!
Report Comment
Statistics?
, (11/9/2007 8:06:35 AM)
#15, please show me the statistics that show downtown is more dangerous than any other part of town?? I guarantee you there is less crime there than on the so called miracle mile of 71st street.
Report Comment
Sean
, (11/9/2007 8:08:09 AM)
How about a Target...I know I prefer shopping there over a WALMART.....there are some really great urban integration projects they have done...
mbharch. com /portfolio/retail/targetrb/targetrb.htm
Report Comment
Darrel S.
, Tulsa (11/9/2007 8:08:50 AM)
See, they (city & county leadership) told us what would happen if we didn't approve the river tax. They said downtown would look like a ghost town. Oh! Oh! Wait a minute, it already does......... :-((
Report Comment
Snobby
, Owasso (11/9/2007 8:09:17 AM)
From this day forward, NO VOTERS will be known as "banjo heads" and their theme music will be dueling banjos. So everytime there is a setback to Tulsa development due to the NO VOTERS, eh er banjo heads decisions, we will here crickets and banjos playing in the background. And for those who have seen the movie "Deliverence"; well you know what comes next...
Report Comment
soothsayer
, (11/9/2007 8:11:27 AM)
Who cares about Wal Mart????
Queen Kathy is still gushing that she can see Celine Dion in concert!
Report Comment
shane
, tulsa (11/9/2007 8:14:18 AM)
funny how even some people take this opportunity to take pot shots at city leaders. pathetic.
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