A decade ago national retailers regarded Owasso as a small market with not much to offer. However, since 2002 the suburb has grown into one of the strongest retail trade areas in the Tulsa metropolitan area, featuring some of the nation’s top retailers such as Target, Kohl’s, Best Buy, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart.
Not only has this growth transformed Owasso in recent years, but according to Rickey Hayes, president of Retail Attractions who served as the city’s economic director for seven years, the way Owasso city officials partnered with retailers and developers to bring about such a wave of new construction to what was once a small agricultural community serves as an example to the rest of the nation.
“I think Owasso was a prime example of how a growing suburban market can learn to market itself and demonstrate how they can become a major player in the retail market,” he said.
In an attempt to lure developers and retailers to Owasso, Hayes said city officials put themselves in the minds of retailers and learned how they look at market areas.
“We wanted to make it easy for investment in the retail market to occur,” Hayes said. “Our message to retailers was the health of our city was strong, our community was growing, the community was well-educated, and that there was a great deal of disposable income here.”
Owasso went a step further by partnering with developers to make deals financially more attractive. Hayes explained how the city worked diligently to improve infrastructure and aid developers in acquiring land parcels for their properties. As a result, Owasso created an environment Hayes described as a “win-win” for both the city and developers with a streamlined process of developing retail properties in the city.
Mendy Parish, a senior associate with CB Richard Ellis/Oklahoma, said Owasso city officials did an incredible job of letting retailers know of their existence and informing them of the value the market had to offer them.
“Owasso did it right when they focused on retail and told their story of how they are a retail destination,” she said.
Furthermore, Parish said Owasso had impeccable timing by initiating its push to attract retail developments at a time when retailers were expanding aggressively and financing was much easier to secure.
Because of the success Owasso has obtained in positioning itself as a retail destination in the Tulsa metro area, Hayes said Owasso has become a model that other suburban cities are trying to emulate. Hayes mentioned Glenpool and Coweta as prime examples in northeast Oklahoma of suburbs successfully replicating Owasso’s recipe for retail success.
“Owasso is the smallest city in the country that has such large number of national retailers like Target, Best Buy, Walgreens, Lowe’s and the plethora of national restaurants,” said Hayes.
However, Owasso’s strong retail market has not proven totally immune to the downturn the national retail market has experienced. As with all major submarkets in the Tulsa metro area, Parish said Owasso has experienced an increase in vacancy over the past year.
“It will take a little time to backfill that vacant space, but that is the case all over the Tulsa market,” added Parish. “Fortunately for Owasso, it is still a market that retailers want to be in.”
Hayes also said retailers are currently being much more selective in where they open new stores. Because of tightening credit and declining sales on a national level, Hayes said retailers are seeking more “bang for the buck” when it comes to site selection not just in Owasso, but all throughout the Tulsa metro area.
“It is much harder to get a deal done now because retailers and restaurants that are still active are being very selective in where they choose their sites, and there are a lot of competing markets as well,” explained Hayes.
New projects have not completely come to halt as a result of the downturn. Edmond-based Tapp Development remains quite active in the Owasso market and is in the process of renovating a former Albertson’s building into a multi-tenant shopping center Parish said would open up some great options for retailers in an underserved area of the city.
Once the retail market begins to recover, Hayes said he expects Owasso will be able to bounce back quickly.
“The market is cyclical and it will come back. We just have to be patient,” he explained. “I think when the market comes back, there will be a flood of activity because of the demand.”
According to Parish, the synergy created by the new retail development has resulted in the growth of other commercial property types in the city such as office.
“With the slowdown we have seen in the retail market, city leaders have taken the next step and are now focusing on their office development,” Parish said.
Owasso has also experienced a steady amount of new apartment development over the past 10 years as well. Darla Knight of Commercial Realty Resources Co.’s Tulsa branch offices said the highly rated Owasso school system that attracted so much single-family housing development and subsequent retail construction has also played a driving factor behind the city’s apartment growth.
“Because of its abundance of land, Owasso proved to be an affordable market for apartment developers,” said Knight. “There is more opportunity in Owasso because so much of midtown Tulsa is landlocked.”
Knight also explained that because Owasso’s apartment market does boast more affordable rents for newer apartment properties than other sectors of Tulsa, it has proven quite a draw for residents.
One non-retail commercial project Hayes expects to benefit Owasso is the new Tulsa Community College and Tulsa Tech Center joint campus that will be built on 116th Street. He said he expects the campus to help extend Owasso’s retail market from 76th Street to 116th Street and create new opportunities for retailers in the market.
“We are already seeing a little retail synergy in that area,” he explained. “With this campus, I think we will see another push for retailers.”