NE OKC celebrates grocery store groundbreakings

Northeast Oklahoma City had two celebratory groundbreakings last week: the full-service Homeland grocery store at NE 36th Street and N. Lincoln Boulevard and The Market at EastPoint near Martin Luther King Avenue and NE 23rd Street. Both are significant developments that will provide much needed fresh, healthy food choices and both involved complex negotiations to acquire the land and find the right mix of investors, partners and operators.

The Homeland on Lincoln will open in about a year and will offer organic fruits and vegetables, freshly baked breads, a custom butcher shop, fresh, ready-to-eat deli foods, wine and beer by the glass and a drive-thru pharmacy. The store will have indoor and outdoor seating near the grab-and-go prepared food. The outdoor seating will be near service outlets for food trucks, creating an open space for gatherings.

The groundbreaking attracted about 200 guests: residents from surrounding neighborhoods, area businesses, elected officials and those involved in the design, construction and financing of the project. The Alliance for Economic Development helped acquire the land, swapping land with the Commissioners of the Land Office and negotiating with OG&E, which allowed us to purchase a small but critical corner. The Alliance is serving as co-developer with Endeavor Corp, an organization we sought out because of their experience developing distressed areas. We secured over $10 million in new market tax credits from U.S. Bank and Heartland Renaissance Fund, $3.5 million in tax increment financing and a social impact loan from Metafund’s new Impact Accelerator. We helped Homeland find private financing and investors passionate about northeast OKC development.