By John Dobberstein, Editor
When the revitalization plans for New Orleans Square were put into place 2 years ago, a special “overlay district” was approved to help guide design and development for the area.
The $4.4 million reconstruction and beautification of the intersection is completed and occupancy rates for the storefronts is now more than 90%. Crunch Fitness opened in the former Reasor’s grocery store with a $6 million facility and Handmade took over the old El Chico’s building. The Cypress Place shopping center and Home Church have anchored the northwest quadrant of the intersection.
The New Orleans Square Block Party during summer also surprisingly turned into a major hit, drawing tens of thousands more patrons to the district.
But redevelopment of the vast parking lots into viable retail hasn’t occurred, with the city’s former community development director admitting publicly 18 months ago that the overlay district’s strict guidelines and odd lot shape and sizes were preventing some developers from moving forward. Construction costs and high interest rates may also be a factor.
The overlay district is intended to foster new residential and mixed-use development with more predictable results and a higher-quality public realm by prescribing the physical form of buildings and addressing the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks.
But with development heating up in south Broken Arrow, the city plans to revive some version of the New Orleans Square Advisory Committee to decide what’s next. The re-formed committee will consist of 5 city council appointments, two from City Manager Michael Spurgeon, 1 from the Broken Arrow Planning Commission and potentially others.
The committee would be tasked with reviewing the overlay district and deciding what changes are needed, if any, and potentially discuss improvement projects that could be part of the next general obligation bond package. The street reconstruction project was part of the $210 million bond package approved in 2018 by voters.
Since the last committee disbanded after the overlay district was approved, other projects have emerged that could provide competition for retail investment. The proposed $71.5 million Sunset Amphitheater would be built a few miles to the southeast of New Orleans Square, and the Aspen Ridge development at Elm Place and 121st Street is also taking off with a new Reasor’s grocery store and big retailers are also reportedly eyeing property near the Warren Theater.
The city also recently approved a TIF district for the Adams Creek shopping area in the Hillside shopping area.
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