It’s open road for Route 66 Landing
Medical center will anchor new mixed-use development
Landing Gilbert Medical Center opened the road for Route 66 Landing.
For 16 years, developer Ken McGee bided his time with land he bought on the northeast corner of NW 39 Expressway and Kilpatrick Turnpike back when the turnpike extension was new.
The 60-acre parcel, on a sliver of Oklahoma City smack between Yukon and Bethany, was not ripe for development.
A decade passed. Then another four years.
Then, in 2016, OnCue Express, the growing gas and convenience store chain based in Stillwater, went under contract for a spot across the street — the first commercial development at the turnpike exit.
In Yukon, McGee Commercial Real Estate went to work. In Bethany, Gilbert Medical Center was swayed.
Now, the OnCue is under construction, and Gilbert Medical Center is underway with a two-story, 44,000-square-foot medical clinic in McGee's new mixed-use development.
Route 66 Landing, with an anchor, is racing out of
the ground hard by the still relatively new turnpike extension and the old Mother Road, now State Highway 66, known as NW 39 Expressway in this part of Oklahoma City.
The numbers are right, Marketing Director Chad Arnold said, with 900 people daily coming through the clinic, and a daily traffic count of 65,000 — 40,000 on the turnpike and 25,000 on NW 39.
Extended patience
McGee, 60, bought the 60 acres — now augmented with another 28 acres — in 2002.
It was “just as a futuristic investment,” he said. “The turnpike (extension) had just been finished, and we were believing that this would be a great long-term future development.”
The future touched down two years ago at Route 66 Landing. “We knew they (OnCue) were going in there. They’re obviously a big player in town,” McGee said. “So I decided with all the growth in east Yukon, with the discussion (of the next turnpike extension) going into Mustang and Tuttle, that it would be an exciting development and it was time to start the process.”
The project has frontage along the turnpike north to NW 50, and along NW 39 east to Morgan Road — for a retail strip center planned on the hard corner, other retail and restaurant pads, the big medical office building and six smaller office buildings.
McGee will relocate his own offices from 432 S Mustang Road in Yukon.
Doctors ordered
McGee said he was thrilled to get Route 66 Landing started with Gilbert Medical Center, at 7530 NW 23 in Bethany since the late 1970s, as an anchor.
Gilbert Medical CEO Daniel Mask said the move to a new building nearly twice as big will allow the physician-owned center to expand. It will have nine physicians, full lab and X-ray, urgent care, a wellness clinic, optometry, pharmacy, and durable medical equipment.
Select Physical Therapy will also be in the medical building, built by Clark Construction Inc. in Oklahoma City and designed by Moore architect Ron Costigan. “We feel that we can continue to serve our current patients while allowing us the opportunity to grow into the greater Oklahoma City market,” Mask said.
The architectural style throughout the development will be “contemporary but with an earthy feel,” Arnold said.
Other retail specialists said the timing seems right for Route 66 Landing.
“Ken McGee has been diligent over a long period of time and hasn’t given up and he is muscling his way to a project,” said Mark Inman, broker and senior vice president with CBRE. “Ken has had other opportunities
here that he has turned down.”
OnCue is “a real boost for the intersection,” Inman said, “a retail anchor and major traffic generator. They boost traffic counts at the intersection, commerce, the opportunity for cross shopping, and general development synergy.”
Growth in the area “has been under the radar,” said Jim Parrack, senior vice president with Price Edwards & Co., with “significant single-family home construction” but limited commercial development. But he said housing density “is reaching a critical mass” and people are discovering how accessible the area is.
“Route 66 Landing is a good example. This site is literally five minutes to Quail Springs Mall and 10 minutes to the airport, not to mention the proximity to Bethany, Yukon and Mustang and Lake Overholser.”
Not that the project is without competition.
“Development on Garth Brooks (Boulevard, in Yukon) and east on I-40 has taken some smoke off of the site,” said Jim Rose, vice president with Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort. “It still would be good for some bigger national retailers, some small tenant service type retail and freestanding restaurants.
“Most of what has been developed on the Kilpatrick from Council (Road) west has been either housing or industrial so this development would stand out.”
Standing out on Route 66 would be more than par for the old course.
TRANSACTIONS
ADEPT Commercial Real Estate reports these commercial real estate transactions:
• OKC Tenth Street LLC paid $1,325,000 to 10th Street Warehouses Inc. for a 14,000-square-foot building at 23 NW 10. Andrew Hwang with ADEPT handled the transaction.
• 417 Dean A McGee LLC paid $1,225,000 to Judith C. Hays Descendants Trust for a 28,000-square-foot building at 417 Dean A. McGee Ave. Hwang and Zach Martin with ADEPT represented the buyer. Malek Masaad with Emersons Commercial Real Estate represented the seller.
• OKC Tenth Street, LLC leased 12,628 square feet of retail space from ANS Inc. at 11 NW 10. Hwang handled the transaction.
• Chaos LLC leased 1,950 square feet of industrial space from Corsair Caughron LLC at 1322 NW 6. Ian DutyDean with ADEPT handled the transaction.
• Messer Electric LLC leased 7,528 square feet of industrial space from High Industrial LLC at 3609 S High Ave., No.
4. Hwang and Martin handled the transaction.
• Modern Coatings leased 9,600 square feet of industrial space from High Industrial LLC at 3609 S High Ave., No. 5. Hwang and Martin with ADEPT handled the transaction.
• Palmer Construction Services LLC leased 2,600 square feet of industrial space from High Industrial LLC at 3609 S High Ave., No. 6. Hwang and Martin handled the transaction.
• PCA Coatings leased 6,440 square feet of industrial space from High Industrial LLC at 3609 S High Ave., No.
7. Hwang and Martin handled the transaction.
• Gold Fang Faller LLC leased 3,070 square feet of retail space from 327 Dean A McGee, LLC at 404 N Hudson Ave. Duty-Dean represented the tenant. Patrick Finley with Finley Realty LLC represented the landlord.
Coldwell Banker Commercial Hocker & Associates reports these transactions:
• Custom Wood Fibers & Cedar Mulch LLC paid $2.5 million to JSK LLC for a 68,800-square-foot industrial building at 616 N MacArthur Blvd. Kale Thompson handled the transaction.
• Violet Unicorn LLC paid $2 million to Westlow LLC for a 19,952-square-foot office building at 607-611 N Western Ave. Jack James handled the transaction.