EDMOND — A tough economy forced a local developer wanting to bring an independent brewery to downtown Edmond to change his plans.
Inflationary financing and construction costs caused the developer to default on his agreement with the city to start building the project on city-owned land by Jan. 1.
But the project is back on after council members recently narrowly approved a new lease for the deal, despite renewed complaints about how it was reached.
Originally, Brandon Lodge’s Lap 7 Development LLC proposed building a 4,200 square-foot single-story taproom and brewery for Prairie Artisan Ales on 4,000 feet of space occupied by a storage building on land inside of the Edmond-owned Festival Market Place, 26 W First.
The amended lease authorizes Lap 7 to build a two-story building at the same location, enabling it to bring in a second tenant to offer family-friendly entertainment to its guests.
“With only 4,000 square feet of footprint, there’s not a lot of area to spread those costs over,” Lodge told council members.
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“There is still one slab, one roof, one set of utilities I have to bring to the building, but I have got twice the area I can lease out,” he said.
Lodge, who previously identified the microbrewery as his first tenant, told council members the second will feature family-friendly entertainment similar to The Joinery Golf Club in Bricktown.
“This project already required top-of-the-market rents to make it work,” he said. “Getting a second-floor tenant to do the same thing and pay the same rents was a tall order.”
“This will be a $3 million-plus project by the time it is done,” he said.
Lodge’s lease is good for 25 years. For the first five years, the lease will be $12,750 annually. The lease will increase by 10% during each following five-year period, it states.
Process seeking proposals flawed, critics say
Lodge’s first plan was recommended to Edmond’s city council last year by Janet Yowell, executive director of Edmond’s Economic Development Authority, Stephanie Carel, executive director of the Downtown Edmond Business Association; and Jason Duncan, chairman of the Central Edmond Urban District Board, plus two city staff members.
The new lease requires Lodge to spend at least $2.3 million on the project, revises the building’s square footage to a minimum of 6,000 feet and requires construction to start no earlier than Nov. 11, 2024, and finish no later than July 31, 2025.
Attorney Lydia Lee criticized Edmond’s deal with Lodge, noting he pitched his plan to Yowell and other city officials months before the city sought formal proposals.
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While Edmond reviewed a second proposal before recommending Lodge’s, that developer was disadvantaged because he didn’t know what Lodge had pitched, she told council members.
“Many citizens in this community have expressed the opinion that this process (was) unfairly handled and there were preferences that favored Lap 7 from the get-go,” Lee said. “We have a process that, quite frankly, smacks of preferential treatment and unfair bidding.”
But Yowell told council members she shared Edmond’s intent to seek proposals from developers for the property with the Commercial Real Estate Council of Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma chapter of the Urban Land Institute long before the city’s requested deadline.
Bob Weiss, the developer who submitted the second proposal so Edmond would have more than one option to consider, agreed Edmond’s selection process was flawed, but added Lodge shouldn’t be blamed.
“Have you ever been in a situation where everyone is right? You are here tonight,” Weiss said. “This man has a good idea, and he is willing to invest his money and his time into this city, into downtown Edmond. He deserves five gold stars.”
Kentucky Daisy artist worries about the impact of Lodge’s plan
A major fixture at Edmond’s Festival Market Place is a bronze sculpture by Mary Lou Gresham titled, “Leaping into History: Kentucky Daisy.”
According to the Edmond History Museum, a reporter from the Dallas Morning News witnessed pistol-packing Nanitta Daisy leap from the front of a moving train passing through present-day Edmond on April 22, 1889, with stakes in hand to make her claim, immediately re-boarding the train before it passed her by.
The Oklahoman added details previously unreported in 1904.
The history museum confirms Nanitta R.H. Daisy was a sometimes-teacher in Guthrie, sometimes-newspaper correspondent and something of an adventurer who only stayed in Oklahoma for a few years after the Land Run of 1889.
Daisy’s exploits detailed in The Oklahoman’s article are captured in Gresham’s sculpture.
Gresham told council members she feared Lodge’s project might diminish the value her sculpture brings to Edmond’s Festival Market Place.
“It is sort of like cutting her off at the ankles,” Gresham said. “She is going to be real short as the building gets real tall beside her. I am not comfortable with that.”
What Edmond’s city staff, council members said about Lodge’s plan
Officials told the council Edmond wants to increase the use of its Festival Market Place downtown and believes Lodge’s project will keep the area busy when the farmer’s market is closed.
Council members approved the new lease 3-to-2.
Mayor Darrell Davis, who voted against the new lease, said he supported Lodge’s proposal in 2023 because he was confident the project would not impact Edmond’s farmer’s market.
But Davis worried that might not be true this time and expressed concerns the council had no specific construction plans to review this year (Lodge must submit those plans for the city’s review by Sept. 1, the new lease states).
“I’m not there right now,” Davis said.
Councilman Barry Moore joined Davis in voting against the revised deal.
“I don’t believe we should have amended the contract. I thought we should have started over and tried this process anew,” Moore said.
“To me, it isn’t black or white,” said Councilman Tom Robins, who represents downtown Edmond and voted to support the new lease along with Councilmembers Christin Mugg and Stacie Peterson.
“I think we can definitely create something in Ward 1 (through this project) downtown that both enhances, over time, our farmer’s market, but then also creates other opportunities,” Robins said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Edmond approves renegotiated deal to develop downtown brewery
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