The City of Tulsa is looking to help revitalize boarded-up stores in the heart of town with financial incentives.
Officials want to expand eligibility for a program offering up to $2 million over 10 years so it can be used not just for public improvements like new roads and sewer lines, but also for redevelopment costs. City Economic Development Specialist Spencer Mitchell said if they do that and ease geographic restrictions, it could help get developers interested in properties like the old Sears at 21st Street and Yale Avenue.
"A store or a building with that large of a footprint most likely is going to have to be white-boxed into multiple spaces for it ever to be retenable. White-boxing is expensive. It requires a lot of different moving pieces to make sure that electrical and plumbing can be reconfigured," Mitchell said.
While the incentives have drawn retailers like Costco since the city began offering them in 2013, they’ve typically encouraged new developments on the edges of the city.
City Councilor Lori Decter Wright said those changes would help in her district, which includes much of 71st Street.
"We are a major retail corridor, and we are suffering with big-box vacancies, and then that leads to strip malls becoming vacant and small businesses suffering," Decter Wright said.
Another change to the incentive program could potentially help address food deserts. Officials plan to drop a requirement businesses hit $20 million in annual sales by their third year.
"So, that sounds great on the face, but if you want to use this policy in a USDA food desert for a grocery store — grocery stores on average make $325,000 a week. That’s roughly $17.5 million a year," Mitchell said. "So, effectively, adding USDA food deserts to this does not make sense."
Communities in north and west Tulsa have struggled to attract a full grocery store.
