A Downtown Grocery
Rumors have been circulating at www.okctalk.com that Homeland is looking at closing its store at NW 18 and Classen and building a new, modern downtown store. This is more than rumor – sources tell me it’s true.
Homeland has been ramping up of late, improving its stores and buying up all but one of the former Albertsons stores that were briefly owned by Williams Discount Foods.
Imagine the possibility of Homeland building a flagship store in the heart of Oklahoma City – one that could serve Heritage Hills, Mesta Park and all the historic neighborhoods circling downtown, as well as downtown’s own growing residential population.
For Homeland, a new downtown store would be great hit publicity wise. Open a store at NW 178 and May Avenue and it will do well, but won’t be a big news story. Open a unique store downtown and expect it to be covered by local print, tv and radio news before and during construction and then after it opens.
Homeland knows from the old store it has now at NW 18 and Classen that a grocery can operate downtown or near downtown. And Byron Gambulous, owner os Byron’s Liquor, can provide some great stats on retail patterns overall.
So, I ask you the readers: where should a downtown grocery locate, and what would you do with the old Homeland at NW 18 and Classen?
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Comments
If they’re going to build a new store (which seems wise), North Broadway, near the Mercedes dealership, seems like a good, central location. Plenty of land around there just waiting to be developed, and it’s a high-traffic area.
I’m the one that started the rumor over there, but I’ll comment further.
I’d like to see it more in the “middle of downtown or MidTown” and less towards Broadway, etc. My fear is that it won’t be much different than the Classen location if it’s built on Broadway. Broadway needs to become more dense, and I’m willing to bet if built there, it would have tons of surface parking and not be that much different, just newer. I’m willing to gamble that Homeland can support a store downtown AND it’s Classen store. I guarantee the poorer crowd and crowd west of the current store, will simply move to the Belle Isle WalMart for their shopping and save money. Some of the Mesta/Heritage Hills crowd will go elsewhere like WalMart Neighborhood market for convenience. Homeland needs to remodel their existing store and open a slightly smaller or similar size boutique store downtown. I’m thinking the old Banta building on NW 8th and Walker would be excellent and provide enough parking while still being very urban in nature. Also the building on 10th where Pat’s Bar used to be would be another excellent location with plenty of space and help tie AutoAlley to MidTown and create some much needed foot traffic over there. I’d prefer to see a remodel of existing structure or a new 2-3 story structure (could lease out some space) with an urban style. Plenty of organic foods and specialty items please!
This would be incredible- I’ve always hoped that the long awaited downtown grocer would be a local grocery chain like Homeland. If they build new I would really hope they partner with a residential developer or something to put some lofts upstairs or even office space. It could even be a two-story retail building like the Super Cao Nguyen market. Probably should be smaller than the average Homeland (more efficiently used space) and definitely should have less parking than the average Homeland, but they can do it. As for location I would tend to lean toward the area between Midtown and the CBD and I would strongly suggest a new DT residential bus route open until 10 or 11 at night that would have a stop at the grocery store.
I think it should be a little off the beaten path (as in not on 10th or Broadway) to spur some development.
Locations: an area just east of Broadway on 6th street; across from Sara Sara Cupcakes and the Iguana Grill (I know there is currently a junk yard there); the NW corner of 9th and Robinson is an open lot and last, where the guy tore down the half-way houses and the nursing home. Just my thoughts.
As for the Homeland on Classen, I think it should be renovated. Not sure what it should be renovated into, but I don’t think it should remain a grocery store (unless Reasor’s is coming to town.)
4th and Broadway with underground parking, a small surface lot on the side, and office or residential above.
Like Whole Foods’ flagship in Downtown Austin.
One is an old building designed and built for grocery shoppers of the 1960s. The new building would be designed and built for shoppers of tomorrow.
I would be so excited if all the sudden HEB decided to come to Oklahoma and open a Central Market in Midtown/Downtown area, but I’m pretty excited to see what Homeland could do. I definitely think that Midtown would be a great place with the new stuff coming in it would be perfect to boost some activity. Downtown would be good too, which may happen as well in the future if things go the way I think they’re going.
Sure, but if you’re building new, why not make it more central to Deep Deuce, Bricktown, Midtown, and future C2S?
I think Broadway — somewhere between 10th and 15th — would work best because it would be basically equidistant between several hubs: MidTown, Downtown, DeepDeuce/Bricktown, Heritage Hills/Mesta, and the Capital/OUHSC area.
Not all of these are residential areas, of course, but the benefit would be that it is a high-traffic road that would capture both folks who want to shop near home, and people who could swing by after work on their way home from working Downtown, at St. Anthony’s, the OUHSC, the Capital, etc. Even people who live in, say, Edmond, but work downtown could stop by to pick something up and then hop on the Broadway extension at 10th or 23rd on their way home.
Something more unique and upscale — closer to a Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, or Central Market — would really be best, in that instance, both because the people who live nearby would want that, and because it would be worth stopping at for people who live elsewhere. Having prepared dishes, or nicer foods that would not be available at a local grocery in North OKC or Edmond would make it a destination worth a detour.
There is a beautiful building sittng empty on the east side of 4th and Walker Ave. It would be the perfect location, as it’s in the downtown area but very close to the heritage hills\mesta park area.
It should go in the parking lot in front of the Coca-Cola Events Center, with underground parking, dedicated pedicabs to take downtown customers back to their homes, front Reno with a streetside deli and cafe, front Joe Carter with a liquor and wine store, front California with receiving and video rentals and other retail, and housing/condos on top.
John “Radar”, can’t use the old Mercy Hospital Site, they are “building” Overholser Green there (http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-area-talk/11656-shocker-overholser-green-project-completely-changed.html).
To the HEB posters, there has been tons of contact with HEB, again HEB has made it clear they have no desire to locate out of Texas at this time, ain’t gonna happen.
Whole Foods, probably will happen, but be in suburban OKC or Norman first. The Classen Homeland carries a decent selection of natural and organic and gourmet goods, and those in the know have made it clear that they would need to carry a lot more to make a downtown/Midtown location successful.
Homeland needs to prove that they’ve bought into the overall downtown “vision” in the form of designs or discussion from them on how they would like to approach the design before I start thinking this is a very good idea.
Keith, what I’m hearing is extremely encouraging when it comes to vision from Homeland for this potential project.
I would propose one of the empty buildings downtown between Hudson and Walker on Main Street, make it multilevel, and have hanging signage. This way it has easy access to the residence of the Park Harvey, Montgomery, Regency Tower, the Arts District, as well as all other other communities that would drive, plus there is a parking garage near by so as to eliminate the need for excess surface parking. Another bonus is that it is near, 1) The Character Institute, which has a lot of long term visitors who might want to shop. 2) Established successful retail (Eden Salon, and the Italian Eatery (name escapes me))
If we’re talking “boutique”, then I like Seth’s location suggestion as that is the audience you’ll need to be most accessible to for success. However, I think we’d need a second boutique east of Broadway for that residential base as well. In the case of boutiques, we’d need to keep the current Homeland around, though a renovation would be nice. As a 2-4 times per week shopper at that location because it’s a 7 minute walk/1 minute drive away, it would be a drag for it to go. I must say that in addition to my visits I drive by it at least 4 times a day and it does always seem busy. From the business perspective why would Homeland sacrifice losing that customer base? I know a former 10-year manager of a Homeland that tells me stories all the time about how much they’d do to keep customers because they had done the math and knew how much it cost to pull in a new customer and to re-acquire former customers once lost. Closing this store seems contrary to that philosophy if it still exists.
If we’re not talking a boutique, I like a location in any of the lots in the vicinity of Brown’s Bakery (sounds similar to Steve’s suggestion). As the Brown’s location was once a grocery store, we know that location works for that purpose. Also that area is close enough to some of the neighborhoods served by the current Homeland that those customers might stay. And considering the future residential concepts for that area that are floating around, a grocery there might help increase the pace of current or future developments via some influence on pre-sales.
That’s great, Steve. Thanks for replying.
I guess I’m surprised to hear this from Homeland as a market catering to urban dwellers is kind of outside their little niche of the grocery world. However, it doesn’t look like anyone else is stepping up to the plate so it could be a smart gamble for them. Compared with any other decent-sized American town, the grocery options in OKC are incredibly lacking – truly an untapped specialty market. Bring it!
It would be foolish for Homeland to close the 18th&Classen location. They would lose all of their business to the Walmart Neighborhood store since there is better pricing (esp. for pet food). I have lived near that store for close to 30 yrs. I frequent it 2 to 3 times a week. The store is doing a good job improving the product categories and is clean.The reason I go to the store is becase it is small and the lines are very quick and the people are nice, helpful and accessible. I know people moving into the newly renovated properties in Midtown and they are going to the Homeland without any gripes. I would like them to improve the facade and install landscaping.
Just another thought on the downtown grocery store. What about the SE corner of 3rd and Walnut? There is that church next door, but all of the other surrounding areas are residential. It would be walking distance for Deep Deuce, Brownstones, Maywood Lofts, The Leslie and close enough for Block 42 as well. According to the OKCA, it is owned by the City of OKC.
Sage, a cafe with gourmet market is opening on the corner of 2nd and Central, in deep deuce. Their articles say they will have organics and specialty groceries
I agree that there needs to be something done with the Classen Homeland. I am from South Dakota, and have relatives that live in OKC. One of those relatives is a contractor there in OKC. Anyways, I have been in that location of Homeland, and thought it either needed to be renovated or move to a new location closer to downtown OKC, especially to cater to the organic/natural food crowd. If I had to choose another grocery chain to move into the Classen Homeland, it would be Hy-Vee. They are really popular up here in South Dakota, and when my relatives from Oklahoma come up here, they always have to stop at a Hy-Vee, because of the huge selection of food and the cleanliness of the stores.
First off, the assumption is that they would build a new buiding vs. remodeling. I’m not sure that any existing building would work right for a larger market. That being the assumption, there are huge swaths of vancant in DT OKC. Such as the land to the north of 10th around Hudson and Harvey. Broadway also has some vacant places, especially toward the CBD. Also generally anywhere between the CBD and the St. Anthony’s.