A redevelopment plan in downtown Tulsa shouldn't need a grocery store, said the city councilor who oversees the district.
Speaking with KWGS, Vanessa Hall-Harper, District 1, said she doesn't see a grocery store as necessary to redevelop a parking lot between 2nd and 3rd Streets across Cincinnati Avenue from the Performing Arts Center.
"I don’t necessarily think a grocery store needs to be there," Hall-Harper said, "absolutely, I don’t. I don’t think in Tulsa that we have proved that a downtown grocery store would work."
The Tulsa World reported in September that a plan to build a 13-story mixed-use residential tower was rejected by PAC trustees. The World reported that, according to Mayor G.T. Bynum, Indiana-based Flaherty & Collins Properties could not secure a grocery store to partner for the project. The supermarket shouldn't be necessary, Bynum said, as housing should be the city's top priority.
Hall-Harper echoed the mayor's sentiments about housing, adding that homes for working people should be prioritized.
"Where we are suffering as a city, and really as a nation, is affordable workforce housing," Hall-Harper said, "I'm not talking about just people who are on state assistance—or government assistance right now, I'm talking about people who work everyday."
Hall-Harper also wanted clarification on the requirements for the new development.
"I don't know who made that a requirement," she said, "my understanding, from what I've been told, is that the city of Tulsa—and I don't know who was in that role—but it was a city of Tulsa requirement that a grocery store would go in there."
The current parking lot is managed by SP Plus Corporation, which operates several lots downtown.
