The middle of 2018 has brought on another round of big-box retailer closings to the Oklahoma market. The recent closure of Sears, Kmart, Gordman’s, Toys R Us and Babies R Us is bringing a number of 40,000 SF or larger spaces to the retail market. Fortunately for the Oklahoma market, some retailers have shown interest in backfilling these locations.
Many of them are prominently located throughout the OKC Metro and Tulsa. Some of the typical players for these spaces include Hobby Lobby, Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Maxx, Half Priced Books and a number of similar bargain retail brands. Entertainment users are also flocking to our market to backfill these spaces such as Altitude Trampoline, Urban Aire, and Breakaway.
The costs to retrofit some of these properties will prove to be difficult if landlords have to split the space. Finding one end user for these types of boxes is ideal for landlords but is not always going to be the case. Overall, the activity being generated on these large boxes is very positive for an overall retail market that is showing signs of growth based on sales tax records over the past few months.
