Enid City Commission has unanimously approved a $2.8 million incentive package for an Academy Sports and Outdoors store slated to open next year. Approval came at Tuesday’s commission meeting. “I just want to thank everybody at the city of Enid, the city council and everybody, for taking the time and working this out with us. We’re excited to help bring Academy Sports and Outdoors to Enid, Oklahoma, and they’re excited about it,” said Jeff Pape, GBT Realty Corp. managing director of the shopping center division. “We’re going to dive in with our team right away and figure out a schedule and get Academy opened next year.”
The Academy Sports and Outdoors store will be constructed on the old Walmart store property across from Oakwood Mall, behind the new Zales store, he said. Atwoods has been using the former Walmart store building as a distribution center. Pape said the project is about a $20 million investment in the community. “We’re excited to invest in the community, bring some jobs and, like I said, bring Academy Sports and Outdoors. They’re excited to be coming to Enid,” he said.
Enid Regional Development Alliance Executive Director Brent Kisling said the incentive package is money that will go to GBT Realty Corp. upon receipt of its certificate of occupancy. “It’s a performance-based incentive where they’ve got to deliver before the funds are expended,” Kisling said. Pape said the incentive will be funded through the sales tax the site will generate. “It’s not coming out of the general budget. It will be something paid back by the sales tax generated by Academy Sports and the other retail that will go there. And, at this point, we don’t have any other names we can say, but there will be additional retail added to the site,” Pape said.
The former Walmart building will be demolished, Kisling said. Total square footage of the new construction is up in the air, but will be somewhere around 100,000 square feet, Pape said. “It just depends on the mix of tenants that we end up getting to come along with Academy,” he said. The store will be opened before the 2016 holiday season, Pape said.
