The opening of a grocery store may not seem like a big deal. But it is a very big deal if the area’s previous grocery stored more than 20 years ago.
That was the situation this week when a Save-A-Lot opened in the Crystal City Shopping Center along Route 66 in Tulsa’s Red Fork neighborhood, according to the Tulsa World and other media outlets. It is the first grocery in that area since a Homeland grocery closed in the shopping center during the early 1990s.
The store’s existence was made possible through a number of resources in Tulsa used by Honor Capital, a veteran-owned company that owns and operates the business.Jim Allen, Honor Capital chief executive officer, said the group’s mission is to open grocery stores in underserved communities or “food deserts.” The company employs veterans who manage the stores, with three on the books currently, according to the company’s website.
“They chose the mission of attacking food deserts,” Allen said.
Allen thanked city officials for making the store possible.
“If the city hadn’t taken initiative, none of this would have happened,” he said.
City councilor Jeannie Cue deserves a lot of credit for this, as she kept pushing for it since being elected a few years ago. According to KTUL-TV, Cue sees it as more than a place for locals to shop:
She also hopes it will help Tulsa promote Route 66. “I see thousands coming down route 66, stopping at the Route 66 Village. We want them to stop in Tulsa and spend their money, and this allows them to do that with the development we’re starting in Crystal City.”
Developers are also working to bring a restaurant to the area.
Monticello Acquisitions of Florida bought the long-moribund shopping center in early 2013. Crystal City, which opened during the 1950s, saw 85 percent occupancy as recently as the late 1990s but soon fell to half that. At one point, I’d heard the city of Tulsa was poised to seize the shopping center as a public nuisance.
The family of longtime owner Buck Myers put the property up for auction, expecting to get at least $1 million. Monticello bought it at auction for about $435,000. Ironically, Monticello made an offer for a substantially higher amount than that months before, but the Myerses backed out of the deal.
Monticello has done a lot to resolve the long-deferred maintenance to the shopping center and has drawn new tenants, including a new drugstore last month.
(Screen capture of Save-A-Lot at Crystal City Shopping Center in Tulsa via KOTV)