Cost Plus World Market may help Midtown Village to finally fill up

TULSA — Midtown Village has had a Best Buy and a Bed Bath & Beyond since it opened in Tulsa in 2005. And not much else.

Now, there’s a Cost Plus World Market bound for the shopping center — one of the most sought after retailers to come to Tulsa in some time. Besides two anchor tenants and an IBC Bank branch, Midtown Village is vacant. A long row of storefronts attached to Bed Bath & Beyond and a building near Best Buy sit empty. A grassy field in the middle of the shopping center will be transformed into the Cost Plus World Market.

Shoppers who spoke with The World noted how long the retail center at 5200 E Skelly Drive has sat mostly vacant.

Bob Klunder said, “It was gonna fill up when the freeway work was done. It hasn’t.”

Construction on Interstate 44 from the Arkansas River to Yale Avenue began in 2009 and finished in 2014. It involved widening the freeway, replacing several bridges and straightening a dangerous curve.

Pam Proctor said she thinks the shopping center is a viable one, especially with the contingent of Tulsans who don’t like to go south of 41st Street.

At first glance, it may appear an odd location for such a coveted retailer. The store’s line of eclectic furniture and home decor at affordable prices made it part of the TYPros’ Bring It to Tulsa list earlier this year.

Other new-to-market retailers — Trader Joe’s, Costco Wholesale and HomeGoods — chose either the booming stretch of Memorial Drive between 101st and 111th streets or the Brookside shopping district on Peoria Avenue.

But World Market is moving next to Bed Bath & Beyond.

“It makes sense that they would co-locate next to their sister company,” said Caitlin Boewe, of commercial real estate firm CBRE. Cost Plus World Market was purchased by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2012.

“I would imagine that seeing that Cost Plus is owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, they could go look at their historical sales numbers and see if those numbers were strong enough at Midtown Village,” Boewe said.

Best Buy officials said they’re happy the retailer is moving into the neighborhood. “We’re excited to welcome the first Cost Plus World Market in Tulsa to Midtown Village,” Best Buy spokesman Shane Kitzman said. “It gives customers yet another great reason to come shop on Skelly Drive.”

Boewe said the fact that Cost Plus World Market is new to the market will drive traffic to the shopping center and increase traffic to the other two anchor tenants in the plaza.

There’s considerable visibility from Interstate 44. It’s near two shopping centers, Tulsa Promenade and Southroads. And the parking lot is currently being resurfaced, perhaps in anticipation of future traffic.

However, Skelly Drive is a oneway road in front of the plaza. Boewe said that’s been the biggest negative for the shopping center. But the interstate construction included a “Texas turnaround” at Yale Avenue, which will allow westbound frontage road motorists and those exiting the interstate to avoid the traffic light and travel under the freeway in a loop to eastbound Skelly Drive.

Whether the center will completely fill up is another question. Boewe thinks it will.

“They’re a destination-based retailer new to the market. They’ve obviously done their homework, and I know they’re going to do well here,” Boewe said. “Once World Market opens, you will see the rest of that shopping area start to gain occupancy.”

Shoppers who don’t work in commercial real estate agree.

As Proctor carried some kitchen supplies to her car from Bed Bath & Beyond, she said World Market will give the center “a spurt and make other retailers think it’s a viable location.”

Judy Wilson calls it a cross between Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma and thinks it will change the shopping center: “It’s gonna make it pop.”