An Academy Sports and Outdoors store is expected to bring in $15 million to $20 million per year in sales, after it opens in Enid next year. The city of Enid will receive 3.5 percent in sales tax revenue off of the sales, said Brent Kisling, Enid Regional Development Alliance executive director. “That does not include other retailers that might be at the site, which could make that number go even higher,” he said.
Plans for the store, to be located on the former Walmart store property behind the new Zales store, were announced during an Enid City Commission meeting Nov. 17. Atwoods, which currently owns the property and uses it for a distribution center, is selling it for an undisclosed amount, Kisling said. A $2.85 million performance-based incentive — approved by the city commission on Nov. 17 — will change hands when the certificate of occupancy is provided to the developer, GBT Realty Corporation, who will lease the property to Academy Sports and Outdoors, he said. “Before the incentive is ever paid, they will have demolished the old Walmart building, they will have redone the site, they will have rebuilt the new facility for Academy. Basically the inventory would be in place, Academy Sports and Outdoors would be ready to open in Enid,” Kisling said.
Jeff Pape, GBT Realty Corporation managing director of the shopping center division, has said the incentive will be funded through the sales tax generated by the site. “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,” Pape said Nov. 17. There is a claw-back feature in place, which requires the developer to maintain annual sales of at least $10 million for the first five years, Kisling said. “If they fall below that $10 million level, then the developer will reimburse the city of Enid the difference in sales tax revenues on what they would have paid, if they had reached the benchmark of $10 million,” he said. The $10 million can be generated by the entire development, Kisling said. “Academy is the anchor store,” he said. The other tenants have not yet been announced, Kisling said. Pape said the new construction will be somewhere around 100,000 square feet. “It just depends on the mix of tenants that we end up getting to come along with Academy,” he said.
Story by: Jessica Miller of Enid News & Eagle
