ENID — With a strong economy, double-digit growth in sales tax revenue, low unemployment and a high quality of life, Enid is attracting a lot of attention from retail developers aiming to tap into the strengths of the regional market.
As city officials and development specialists work to recruit those new businesses, they must find and market viable retail locations, a task requiring a creative and coordinated mix of filling empty store fronts, demolishing some existing buildings to make way for new construction, and developing new sites on open ground.
Which of those paths a new or expanding retail business takes depends on one factor, said Rickey Hayes, CEO of Retail Attractions and retail consultant for the city of Enid.
“Location is always key to a retail business, and what’s going to drive that decision is value,” Hayes said. “Can a retailer or a developer take an existing property, rehabilitate it and make it usable, or will he get a more efficient return on his investment by razing it and building something new? That’s what’s going to drive them more than anything — the bottom line.”
Hayes said attention from retail developers in Enid is split between “second generation” retailers looking for existing space to lease, and “national, big box stores” looking to develop new sites.
“One of the things about Enid is you’re right in the middle of the bull’s-eye for a lot of the national chains right now,” Hayes said. “At the same time, you’re not like some cities that have had a retail retreat leaving a lot of empty space ... you’re not overrun with empty space and you don’t have an oversupply.”
Demand is high for the retail space that is available, Hayes said.
“There is some second-generation retail space available, and there are retailers looking for that type of space,” Hayes said.
One of the driving factors behind demand for existing retail space in Enid is relatively low commercial lease rates compared to the strength of the market.
“One of the things that drives a lot of retail investors into certain markets is the cost of retail space,” Hayes said. “We know Enid as a very dynamic market and a strong regional economy, but others may consider it a ‘B’ market compared to Oklahoma City. Most second-generation retailers would expect to pay lower rent in Enid than they would in another market, and that’s one of the key drivers that drives retailers into second generation space, is because they can get in there cheaper than building brand new.”
Sometimes an existing building doesn’t fit the needs of prospective investors, and its best value lies in demolishing it to make room for new development.
“The Homeland building is a perfect example of that,” Hayes said, referring to the former grocery store location at Oakwood and Garriott. The store closed in 2005 and sat empty on the market until it was purchased by the city in 2011.
“The building was sitting there decaying, not doing anything,” Hayes said. “Taking that building off the market and making it available to a developer to come in and build something that generates some revenue was the right decision.”
The city sold the property in February to Hunt Properties of Dallas, which plans to demolish the Homeland building and construct a new store for a new retailer. The new tenant has not yet been publicly named.
Developing new retail space will be key to attracting large national chain stores, Hayes said. The space to build those new sites, he said, lies along the West Garriott corridor, beginning at Cleveland and moving west beyond the city’s current developed limit.
“I think we need to consider lengthening the corridor west along Garriott,” Hayes said. “That’s where the land is, and that’s the retail corridor the nationals are always going to want to be in, that synergistic area where other large retailers are doing business.”
Brent Kisling, executive director of Enid Regional Development Alliance, said developing space for large retailers along Garriott is important because the two-mile stretch from Cleveland to Garland along West Garriott accounts for 80 percent of the city’s sales tax revenue.
But, Kisling said, the city also needs to move retail development into other areas, including downtown, West Willow near Willow Plaza, and the city’s east side, particularly near East Garriott and 30th.
“Part of what we’ve been trying to do at the development alliance is to get retail developers to look at some of these other areas, but most of the large, national stores look to West Garriott,” Kisling said.
ERDA recently announced a new grant program, in partnership with the city of Enid, that will award three $5,000 grants to help place new businesses downtown.
Whether new businesses move in downtown, on West Garriott or on the east side, Kisling said developing and expanding retail opportunities is essential to Enid’s continued growth.
“Retail business helps us to collect sales tax revenue, which in turn allows us to maintain our infrastructure and to support more business growth and jobs,” Kisling said.
In addition to filling the city’s sales tax coffers, Kisling said retail business serves a crucial role in attracting new workers to the city.
“Perhaps the most important part of retail business is it is a big part of quality of life and workforce recruitment,” Kisling said. “When you have a 3.1 percent unemployment rate and job growth of five percent, we have to find ways as a community to bring people in, and having nice places to hang out and buy stuff is very important to workforce recruitment.”
Advocates for Enid’s historic downtown shopping area, centered on the courthouse square, foresee continued growth in retail opportunities downtown.
“Downtown is making great strides in attracting new businesses, but there’s always room for more,” said Lynn Smith, who is a charter member and currently sits on the board of directors for Main Street Enid.
Smith said the downtown square has the potential to once again be the heart of the city’s entertainment, dining and shopping business.
“Years ago, when we first started Main Street, the question was ‘Can a square be a heart again?’ and we know the answer today is ‘Yes, it can.’”
Smith said downtown’s future lies not in attracting large retailers, but in fostering the growth of unique, local shops and restaurants.
“We need to accept the premise that retail businesses locating downtown are more than likely going to be independent, privately owned small businesses as opposed to chain, big box stores that are looking for big shopping centers and retail outlets on the outskirts of town,” he said. “I think it’s pretty well acknowledged these days downtown businesses will tend to be specialty shops due to the nature of entrepreneurship and the owners.”
Smith said the challenge of building a retail district around independent shops is “small business owners are often undercapitalized, and an undercapitalized business takes a lot longer to get up and going and to be successful.”
“The good news,” Smith said, “is businesses are thriving, and more and more people are not only putting in businesses downtown, but more people are going downtown to do business. There’s just more and more activity downtown, and that’s the kind of thing that builds on itself.”
Smith said he expects to see more entertainment and dining establishments move downtown as Enid Renaissance Project nears completion.
“I think there will be a continued attraction of evening-type entertainment businesses,” he said. “Gaslight is doing more productions, the symphony is doing more productions, the baseball park is always busy, Leonardo’s is a huge draw ... those are the kind of things that add to downtown, and the Renaissance project will attract more and more entertainment downtown.”
Enid City Manager Eric Benson said that kind of optimism, along with the increased demand for retail space downtown, is “precisely what we anticipated and predicted when we embarked on the Renaissance plan.”
“It’s having an even greater impact than we thought,” Benson said of the Renaissance plan’s effects on investment activity downtown.
“The real benefit of any downtown investment is, when we make the downtown of Enid a destination, people will want to start to buy things there, they will want to eat out and drink there, maybe they’ll even want to stay the night there,” he said.
Benson said as investment increases, “the market will drive even more opportunities,” leading to increased property values downtown and increased sales tax revenue.
He said the rejuvenated downtown will help balance the retail draw of the West Garriott corridor.
“We’ve got the miracle mile out there on Garriott, but it’s sucked the life out of the rest of the town. We need to balance that out, and that’s what we’re doing downtown,” Benson said.
“We’ve been pursuing all of these dividends for the last four years, and it’s all part of a carefully laid strategy.”
That strategy is built on investment — investment Benson said will have good returns for the city.
“We’ve focused just on cost savings far too long,” Benson said. “Any monkey can cut costs. It takes a different management skill to produce an income stream for the city that’s not only consistent, but reliable.”
Building retail opportunities and excitement about Enid shopping, dining and entertainment is going to require more than just monetary investment.
Benson said it’s going to take all of Enid’s civic and governmental entities working together, and for the people of Enid to believe in their own community.
“We have investors and developers come here all the time, and they’re astounded by the fact that they believe in Enid more than Enid believes in itself, and that’s something that needs to change,” Benson said. “We’re trying to bring together all the entities of the Enid community to pull together with one unified force to harness our economic potential in a consolidated strategy.”
He remains optimistic the community will pull together as Enid continues to grow, and invest in its own future.
“Previously, we’ve had all these parallel efforts that didn’t really collaborate or complement each other ... now, we’re really hitting on all cylinders,” Benson said. “I think in the next two years, the Enid community will be astounded in the range and diversity of interest and the direct entry into our market by new retailers. I think people will really like what they see here in their city in the near future.”