Developing a new legacy
Monte Turrentine, owner of the local drycleaning chain Legacy Cleaners, has plans to develop the area at NW 49 and Western Avenue into upscale condominiums and shops.
Monte Turrentine, owner of the local dry-cleaning chain Legacy Cleaners, has plans to develop the area at NW 49 and Western Avenue into upscale condominiums and shops.
Turrentine purchased the brick strip center at 4917 N Western in 2001 to house his dry-cleaning operation.
He has rebuffed numerous offers from developers over the years to purchase his property, and he’s purchased five homes on the block surrounding his business for the Legacy on Western development.
Turrentine said he believes the project would be the first significant development along Western in years and would be a boon to other area businesses.
“We envision this as a place where people can park, visit the shops and then walk down the street to visit the other businesses in the area,” Turrentine said.
Designs for the development include a number of midcentury modern inspired condominiums and brick storefronts.
The design is mixeduse, inspired by what Turrentine says he has seen in cities like Dallas and Seattle.
Turrentine also plans to keep a drop-off and pickup site for Legacy Cleaners as part of the development and move his dry-cleaning plant elsewhere.
Heath Hornbeek, project manager for Smith Design Co. who is behind the designs for Legacy on Western, said he took inspiration for the design from the mostly mid20th century commercial buildings along Western.
“I did not want it to look like something that had been newly built, but for it to look like the rest of Western and feel like it had been there for the last 70 years,” Hornbeek said.
The development includes about 24,000 square feet of retail space and 19 condominiums, including several that will be live-work style units, perfect for artists and attorneys and other professionals who want to work out of their homes, Turrentine said.
The plans for the development went to the Oklahoma City Council three times before approval, in part because of the objections of Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid.
Shadid said he likes Turrentine’s development plans, but believes the dry cleaner has ulterior motives.
“Really, he’s not going to start work on it for years,” Shadid said. “He hasn’t gone to the bank yet to see if he can get this financed, he hasn’t approached other investors. He’d have to move his dry-cleaning plant, but he hasn’t secured another site for that.”
According to Shadid, Turrentine uses one of the homes that he has purchased on the block as an office and demolished another for a gravel parking lot, both of which are city code violations. However, according to Shadid, the city stops issuing citations for these code violations if there are plans to redevelop an area.
“The city started writing him tickets about a year ago and after the city wrote the tickets, the applicant came to the city and started talking about this design,” Shadid said. “I personally love that residential on top of commercial — that’s fantastic. I loved that. But I think they knew that we loved that as kind of a carrot.”
After several hearings, the city eventually approved Turrentine’s plans with the caveat that he would have to come before the city again in three years if the development is not yet underway.
Turrentine said he fully intends to move forward with the project and hopes to start construction in 18 to 36 months.
The development does include additional parking for the area, which will benefit the district overall, Turrentine said.
He also has been in discussions with potential investors for the project, he said.
“Those discussions are happening now,” he said.