Living Spaces

[Pete]

California furniture giant planning OKC store

Living Spaces, with nearly 30 stores in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas, is planning its first location in Oklahoma.

The chain has selected the empty land on the southeast corner of May and Memorial, just south of Quail Springs Mall.

The Oklahoma City furniture market is dominated by local companies and the addition of Living Spaces would be the first large outside competitor.

Based in La Mirada in Southern California, the company has been in an aggressive expansion mode, having recently opened several stores in the Dallas Fort Worth area including two massive distribution centers.

The Oklahoma City location would be a massive 148,000 square showroom to include décor items for the dining room, bedroom, home office, outdoor and youth; the Magnolia line by Joanna Gaines is one of many featured brands.

Most Living Spaces locations have a kid's fun room and climbing complex and a cafe.

The stores are staffed with around 100 non-commission employees and feature prototype 'homes' that showcase lifestyles from rustic to modern; the goal is to help guests envision their own dream home.

Living Spaces promotes its products as stylish, diverse and well-priced.

[scottk]

Thanks to Pete again for this info!

It's not the Ikea that a lot of us always wanted, but I'll take it!

To put this in perspective, the old Hemisphere's furniture store on the east side of Quail Springs was around 50,000 square feet. This store will be similar in size to the nearby Lowes on Memorial.

Living Spaces: 148,200 square feet
Mathis Brothers on Reno: approximately 246,000 square feet - I'm not sure how much of this is showroom vs warehouse/delivery staging
Bob Mills on Reno: approximately 120,000 square feet

As much as I appreciate the location on the north side of OKC, I wish this was going someplace else (Chisholm Creek or even along Highland Park) to prevent another giant store right off a main road. If someone with a crystal ball could look into the future to let us know if JCPenny is slated to close at QSM given their current status, just tell Living Spaces to just wait and take on that space.

[Pete]

Living Spaces were hugely popular in California.

Very different than Mathis Brothers or the other local places. The employees are non-commission and are more like design consultants than salespeople. The place feels a lot like a West Elm but on a huge scale.

[soonerguru]

This is awesome news. Looks like a cool store.

[okcoolcoolcool]

Thanks to Pete again for this info!

It's not the Ikea that a lot of us always wanted, but I'll take it!

To put this in perspective, the old Hemisphere's furniture store on the east side of Quail Springs was around 50,000 square feet. This store will be similar in size to the nearby Lowes on Memorial.

Living Spaces: 148,200 square feet
Mathis Brothers on Reno: approximately 246,000 square feet - I'm not sure how much of this is showroom vs warehouse/delivery staging
Bob Mills on Reno: approximately 120,000 square feet

As much as I appreciate the location on the north side of OKC, I wish this was going someplace else (Chisholm Creek or even along Highland Park) to prevent another giant store right off a main road. If someone with a crystal ball could look into the future to let us know if JCPenny is slated to close at QSM given their current status, just tell Living Spaces to just wait and take on that space.

Ya, as much as I hate it, it seems like north OKC is really taking on the Dallas city plan. Put whatever, wherever, as quickly as possible. It presents wonderful growth, but creates gross developments and horrible traffic flow.

[BoulderSooner]

Ya, as much as I hate it, it seems like north OKC is really taking on the Dallas city plan. Put whatever, wherever, as quickly as possible. It presents wonderful growth, but creates gross developments and horrible traffic flow.

letting people who own property do what they want with it ..... what a crazy concept ..

[Plutonic Panda]

Ya, as much as I hate it, it seems like north OKC is really taking on the Dallas city plan. Put whatever, wherever, as quickly as possible. It presents wonderful growth, but creates gross developments and horrible traffic flow.

The Dallas city plan has beautiful landscaped freeways, large 6 lane divided roads with turning lanes, sidewalks, and doesn’t allow businesses to place curb cuts every 50 feet. Where can you find that in NW OKC?

[stlokc]

I've been watching this corner for my entire adult life. As development has literally circled it in every direction, it has remained a huge mystery to me why it has stayed vacant. It represents, in my view, literally the most perfect location across the entire turnpike stretch. For those worrying about the traffic, I would ask them what they would have expected to eventually take this corner. It was never going to be a city park or large homesites on acre plots.

[Plutonic Panda]

I’m not terribly excited for the constant covering of the creeks.

[Dustin]

Finally something is going in on that corner!

[Pete]

The way the store is positioned, it looks like there will be more commercial development along Memorial.

[progressiveboy]

I bought a sofa at Living Spaces and I am real pleased with it! It is part of the Magnolia collection and was priced very good! I do like their furniture and price point! It should be successful in OKC! The sales person was very knowledgeable and the quality is good!

[tyeomans]

I went to Living Spaces in Dallas this weekend, and it's definitely a very nice store with lots of options. It's nice going in to look at furniture and not have a leech watch your every move. Very excited for this to be coming to OKC especially since I'll be only 5 minutes away!

[mgharfeh]

Speaking of memorial.. what’s the point of the miles of ugly falling apart chain link fence? Is it to protect the turnpike from trash?

I think it’s the single most ugly part of the most busy corridor of our city. Can’t something else be done here??

[jn1780]

Speaking of memorial.. what’s the point of the miles of ugly falling apart chain link fence? Is it to protect the turnpike from trash?

I think it’s the single most ugly part of the most busy corridor of our city. Can’t something else be done here??

I think the point is to keep pedestrians off the interstate. Obviously it doesn't do a good job if its falling apart.

[Plutonic Panda]

I think the point is to keep pedestrians off the interstate. Obviously it doesn't do a good job if its falling apart.

It doesn’t even work that well anyways. Not sure if it’s me but I’ve noticed a huge uptick of people just randomly walking along freeways in OKC. I think even OHP is getting burned out about doing anything about it.

[Bowser214]

I agree it looks cheap! There's an area of high end homes, new business and restaurants then there's the chain link fencing. Don't get me started on the narrow crossovers! Here's what the look like on Central Expressway in Dallas. Copy this OKC!

[mgharfeh]

Maps5^^

[Pete]

Kilpatrick Turnpike is funded and maintained by the OK Turnpike Authority.

[Plutonic Panda]

I agree it looks cheap! There's an area of high end homes, new business and restaurants then there's the chain link fencing. Don't get me started on the narrow crossovers! Here's what the look like on Central Expressway in Dallas. Copy this OKC!

I strongly suspect eventually OKDOT will have to do this widen I-35 from I-40 to I-240. Eventually, sooner rather than later, OKDOT will have to widen it and adding only a single lane wouldn’t be very prudent. It will need 2 or even 3 more lanes each way. ROW is pretty constricted so some pretty innovative designs will be needed.

It will be a billion plus dollar project alone so it won’t happen unless a major funding change happens at the state level.

[Bowser214]

It would be great if the just made the crossover bridges wider and safer more visible there along the area of the Oklahoma Heart Hospital corridor. I guess that's an OKC not ODOT cost?

[Dob Hooligan]

I've been watching this corner for my entire adult life. As development has literally circled it in every direction, it has remained a huge mystery to me why it has stayed vacant. It represents, in my view, literally the most perfect location across the entire turnpike stretch. For those worrying about the traffic, I would ask them what they would have expected to eventually take this corner. It was never going to be a city park or large homesites on acre plots.

Here is the legend as it was explained to me many years ago, and I hope someone will correct it if I am wrong---shopping cart inventor and civic leader Sylvan Goldman was also a smart and long term investor. His team were aware of the plan for the outer loop of Oklahoma City over 50 years ago and bought property accordingly. They partnered with Blanton Properties to handle the property sale with the intent of selling when the price was strong and fit the growth of the city. Not wholesale dumping on the market. This is why the red and white Blanton Properties signs have stood along the Memorial Road corridor from roughly Western to the west for over 40 years.

I apologize for posting this 3 weeks after your original query.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^^^^
I don't have any specific info to support OR to dispute this, and it seems reasonable. That said, pretty sure that generally speaking the development dead zones along the northern edge of that portion of incorporated OKC had more to do with white flight than anything else. The city was reliably creeping in that direction in the post-war era, but several court rulings moved OKC in the direction of forced busing throughout the 1960s and culminated in a 1972 order that required individual schools to more closely represent the minority student population in the district.

White parents responded in droves by moving to places with largely white school populations, for instance Edmond, which in many cases is literally across the street.

After that you saw large scale suburban housing development shift north and west. While we all think of commercial retail as being drawn to street frontage, what REALLY draws it (especially national credit retail) is proximity to rooftops AND the demographics of said rooftops. In this case the broad swaths of undeveloped land on the outer edge of the City limits was a hindrance and land along that stretch became much more difficult to develop for an extended period. Nowadays we think of Memorial and also the Kilpatrick Turnpike as having massive traffic count, and while it is largely true it certainly wasn't the case when the turnpike opened around '89-'90 (they used to literally make jokes on the radio giving shout-outs to the single individual driving on the turnpike) and that overall low traffic count persisted for quite a few years.

[Pete]

Living Spaces files building plans

As we were first to report in February, California furniture giant Living Spaces is planning a store in far north Oklahoma City.

Earlier this week, the company filed their building permit application for a 138,000 square foot, $20 million store on the southeast corner of May and Memorial.

Their plans reveal the intention to construct four custom-built houses inside the store to showcase different lifestyles to include Modern, Farmhouse, Spanish and Rustic. The Oklahoma City location will be one of the first in the chain with this feature and the first location in the state for Living Spaces.

There will also be a play area for children.

Living Spaces will hire approximately 100 non-commission employees and has a robust Internet site where a large number of items can be ordered directly.

Design consultants will help families as they shop including celebrity collections like Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, and items described as 'timeless and sophisticated' by Nate Berkus and Jeremiah Brent.

Long popular in the Western U.S., Living Spaces promotes itself as a purveyor of stylish, diverse, and well-priced furniture and home décor.

[MagzOK]

Speaking of memorial.. what’s the point of the miles of ugly falling apart chain link fence? Is it to protect the turnpike from trash?

I think it’s the single most ugly part of the most busy corridor of our city. Can’t something else be done here??

It's actually an old attempt to keep animals from entering and obstructing traffic.