Retail follows residential, not the other way around.

I was a commercial real estate broker in OKC for seven years and specialized in retail properties and tenants... They all go off of 1-, 3- and 5-mile demographics and right now the 1-mile in downtown is almost a zero.

I recently contacted the real estate reps for both Walgreens and CVS and both said the area was not even close to being ready to support one of their stores.

Plus, Walgreens and Wal-Mart Neighborbood Markets are already on 23rd and Classen/Penn and they feel like the serve the area well enough from those locations.


There are about 2,200 residential units planned for the downtown area over the next couple of years and once they are built and some bigger projects are announced, you might find a retailer that wants to be a 'first-mover' and beat everyone else to the punch, but even still there are plenty of vacant and under-utilized properties in and around that area, so I would expect most to be patient and let things build up.