Cost Plus World Market shows interest in Oklahoma City market

The Oklahoman's Brianna Bailey chatted with readers Thursday morning about Oklahoma City retail and other business stories. You can join Brianna's Q&A's on NewsOK.com on the second Thursday of every month at 10 a.m. Below is an edited portion of the chat. 

Q: Will Cost Plus World Market open a store soon in Oklahoma City? 

A: Cost Plus World Market is opening a store in Tulsa and definitely has an interest in OKC. I know that they were looking seriously at opening a store at Bryant Square in Edmond, but the shopping center owners and Cost Plus won't tell me if that deal is still on or not.

Cost Plus-Costco. I wonder if the rumors that Bryant Square was getting a Costco stemmed from the similarities between the names.

Q: Do you think we will lose the Macy's in Penn Square Mall? Macy's just announced more store closings.

A: Macy's announced Thursday that it would close 100 more stores in 2017, but did not disclose the locations. It's definitely a possibility that Penn Square Mall could lose its Macy's, but one of the two in Tulsa seems to me a more likely target for closure. The Penn Square Mall location is the last Oklahoma City metro Macy's, so I would think that would play out in its
favor.

Q: I was wondering if you had any information on updates to the Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads. I remember years ago hearing that there were plans for a lot of different additions and changes to the old mall (like a rodeo area I believe?). I haven't heard much about it recently and I was wondering since it is such an important area both culturally and economically.

A: Plaza Mayor is in need of an anchor tenant. When they first announced plans to rebrand Crossroads Mall as Plaza Mayor, I believe a Supermercado was part of those plans and they had also hoped to attract some larger chains that have Hispanic shoppers as a target demographic. I haven't seen it happen yet, even though there has been a pretty big boom in Hispanic retail in Oklahoma City over the past few years.

And yes, a rodeo arena is part of the plans for Plaza Mayor, but I haven't seen that they have the financing for this. Plaza Mayor has also not spent a whole lot of money on tenant improvements to date. I am cheering for them, as we all should be. It's one of the boldest, most innovative retail projects that Oklahoma City has ever seen. It will take time to re-tenant the mall, and I know the people there are working hard to make that happen, but they are up against some pretty big challenges.

Q: Do you know when exactly the new Texas de Brazil will open in Penn Square Mall? Their website just says "2016"; that's kind of vague.

A: Texas de Brazil is going to open mid-August, but I don't have an exact date yet. Restaurants are at the mercy of the health department when it comes to an opening date, so that's probably why we don't know exactly yet.

Q: Was Costco looking at Quail Springs Mall or not?

A: I think they were definitely looking, but probably not ready to talk about it yet. Retailers are pretty secretive about where they are looking to open a store, for competitive reasons.

Q: I went to the opening of Fuzzy's at Tract 30 in Chisholm Creek. The vibe was great and I feel the potential for it to be a great destination for north OKC. Aside from the Yokozuna, what's the next tenant you believe will really help the development?

A: There are some pad restaurant sites that are going to get developed, as well as a phase II of Tract 30 that Medallion Group plans to build once the first building is leased up. I've heard one of the pad sites will be a gourmet burger concept that will be new to market. That's all I know at this point. At the west end of the Chisholm Creek development, Medallion has plans for some more big-box type retail that they say will include some exciting new-to-market tenants that they have been working on for quite some time. It will be interesting to see what goes in there.