An Oklahoma City company is continuing to market the Lahoma Courts property.
“I believe they’re working on a proposal, but they have not brought it to the city yet,” City Manager Jerald Gilbert said. “We would be excited for something to happen as soon as possible.”
Enid City Commission had agreed to give Ron Ward Investments LLC the exclusive right to market the property for 180 days, until Nov. 1, 2017.
“There is no current agreement, but the city continues to work with the developer on the project,” he said.
City officials have said the Lahoma Courts property is being marketed for retail development.
“As a community we believe that since that is one of the highest traffic count intersections in all of Northwest Oklahoma, it’s a great opportunity for us as a community to provide more shopping opportunities for local citizens and everybody in Northwest Oklahoma, and to be able to catch retail sales tax dollars for the community for decades to come,” Enid Regional Development Alliance Executive Director Brent Kisling has said.
Through an agreement with former developer Hunt Properties, the city of Enid invested approximately $3.2 million into acquiring the properties at Cleveland and Garriott, but in the spring of 2016, the agreement to sell the land to the developer fell through.
At that time, Gilbert said the city was unable to fulfill its end of the agreement with Hunt Properties.
“Hunt was unable to fulfill their end, too, I believe,” he said.
The city did not acquire two of the 23 properties it had agreed to purchase and sell to the developer, former Ward 6 City Commissioner David Vanhooser said.
In January 2016, former City Attorney Andrea Chism told the city commission the city had been unsuccessful in obtaining the remaining properties, but Hunt Properties was going to work around the two remaining buildings.
Vanhooser said Hunt Properties was “sort of OK” with working around those properties.
Story provided by: Enid News & Eagle
Written by: Jessica Miller
