A new study recommends the city encourage denser development as part of a plan to help revive Tulsa’s slumping retail markets.
The city has about 51 "commercial nodes" in a typical grid layout.
"There’s a commercial node pretty much on every major intersection one mile apart from each other, which gets to be a challenge when you have a lower-density population as you do here. Can you really support that much commercial space?" said Michael Stumpf, whose firm, Place Dynamics, did the Vision Tulsa–funded retail market study.
After looking at 13 of those nodes, Stumpf said the city would be wise to help make more mixed-use, walkable retail destinations that foster new businesses. That could mean changes in zoning, the creation of revolving loan funds and other moves from city hall.
The study will also be used when the city begins spending $3.6 million in Vision Tulsa funds allocated for commercial revitalization.
In some ways, the study found Tulsa is not so different from other U.S. cities. Online sales are taking a big bite out of area retail sales: Tulsans spend an estimated $458.5 million online, the equivalent of about three and a half Walmart super centers a year.
Stumpf said e-commerce is creating a lot of brick-and-mortar vacancies, and not just in retail.
"Businesses that used to occupy storefronts, like your travel agents and your insurance agents, realtors, even — a lot of that is moving online," Stumpf said.
Household spending locally has also dipped, and the study notes while retail sales climbed from $7.15 billion in 1998 to $10.45 billion in 2017, 2017 sales adjusted for inflation were $6.96 billion.
The city has a lot of vacant commercial properties, especially on its outer edges. Tulsa’s weakest retail category is grocery stores.
"Nationally, 64 percent of the market for food — 'food for consumption at home' is what the Census Bureau calls it — is at grocery stores, but in this market, we’re only seeing about 46 percent," Stumpf said.
The City of Tulsa commissioned the study in March 2018. Stumpf said few cities are developing comprehensive retail strategies like Tulsa is doing.
