Study for the mall
Midwest City leaders are footing the bill for the fresh study of the potential long-troubled and almost-left-for-dead Heritage Park Mall.
MIDWEST CITY — Heritage Park Mall’s tombstone has been up at DeadMalls. com for 10 years, but city leaders are banking on its death being at least somewhat exaggerated.
What they’re looking for is a defibrillator to shock its nearly 40-year-old heart back into action. That’s ancient in mall years, thanks to the evolution of consumer tastes and preferences over the decades, especially, perhaps, internet retail sales.
But the body isn’t cold. A Sears store is still open on one end and a Life.Church branch is open on the other, each on its own parcel owned separately from the main mall.
So maybe the long-troubled mall has a prayer after all.
A fresh look at the 300,000 square feet of vacant space could tell. A market study commissioned by the Midwest City Memorial Hospital Board of Granters with a matching grant from the city will collect data to fashion a possible future at 6801 E Reno Ave.
Deadline for study
Thursday is the deadline for firms to submit proposals for the $55,000 study and redevelopment plan, which will be conducted with the blessing, but not direct involvement, of mall owner Ahmad Bahreini.
The hope is for a proposal with three alternatives “based on solid market research and analysis” that will be “something that we really can, in combination with the owner, move forward on a project,” City Manager Guy Henson said.
It’s not that Midwest City is wanting for shoppers, according to realty firm Price Edwards & Co., which took the mall off the rolls of retail property it tracks in 2010.
“We are still seeing retail demand in Midwest City with the success of Midwest City Town Center and the current Academy/Hobby Lobby development, not to mention Town & Country Plaza adjacent to the mall site,” said Jim Parrack, retail specialist and senior vice president at realty firm Price Edwards & Co. “The study being done by the city could further highlight the development potential of the mall site.”
Henson said city and community leaders took the unusual step of funding a public study of the potential for a privately held property to bridge gaps revealed by previous attempts to rejuvenate the mall.
“The biggest challenge has been that the redevelopment of this kind of real estate requires a significant effort on the part of the end user as well as the current owner. And I think that’s been the biggest challenge: trying to get both parties together to come up with a deal that works for both entities,” Henson said.
Robert Coleman, Midwest City economic development director, put it more directly.
“City leaders fear that Heritage Park Mall will continue to deteriorate without a comprehensive plan to redevelop the site. The property owners claim to have limited capital resources for restoration or remodeling and they have been reluctant to do anything more than make minimal repairs,” Coleman said.
Henson said officials have not ruled out treating the mall, on the northwest corner of E Reno Avenue and Air Depot Boulevard, as blighted and involving the Urban Renewal Authority in redevelopment.
The owner is all for the study, which could benefit his interests with or without continued direct involvement by the city or economic development officials. Others could benefit, too, since the study will be in the public record.
“Hopefully, if all of us work together, we can occupy the mall. I really do think the mall will be occupied — maybe not as a mall, but as a strip center and offices,” Bahreini said. “After the study, we’ll know what businesses might be profitable.”
Meanwhile, Bahreini said he continues to try to market space for lease himself, no matter what weather-beaten commercial realty signs remain on the property. He said no broker has ever dedicated the effort necessary to market the mall in the mostly post-mall era.
He said news of the study, approved earlier this summer, sparked a flurry from potential tenants, but “as I always say, nothing is actually done until there actually is a contract.”