Urban Renewal may use eminent domain to acquire former eastside Oklahoma City Buy For Less property

The Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority is preparing to use eminent domain for the first time in more than 20 years. The organization plans to acquire a controversial property in northeast Oklahoma City that was once eyed for redevelopment as a shopping center anchored by an Uptown Grocery. 

Hank and Susan Binkowski bought the property at the corner at NE 23 and Martin Luther King Avenue for $500,000 in 2014 when it was home to one of their Buy For Less stores. The 52-year-old grocery was small by modern standards, and the building and surrounding shopping center were run down, and not improved in years if not decades. 

More:Unmet promises, when Uptown Grocery, shopping center promised for NE 23 and MLK

The Binkowskis joined with then Ward 7 Councilman John Pettis in announcing a deal to build a new, 50,000-square-foot Uptown Grocery and adjoining shopping center that would include a Career Tech branch, healthcare tenant, restaurants and retail. They also bought surrounding land, expanding their holding on the corner to 22 acres with the future possibility of adding housing to the development. 

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The city created a tax increment financing district to assist on the $30 million King's Crossing development, bringing the total potential public participation to at least $8.5 million. 

The Binkowskis, however, came back saying the city’s offer was about $10 million short of their final request. The couple then downgraded the brand from Buy For Less to Smart Saver, infuriating then Ward 7 Councilman John Pettis. They then closed the store in 2019, tore it down, and then sold the chain in late 2020. 

More:Owners of Buy For Less defend closing of eastside store

“There is a lot of concrete and parking lots left,” said Urban Renewal Director Cathy O’Connor. “And on the green space, there was a lot of debris dumped there.” 

Susan Binkowski did not comment on the action when contacted by The Oklahoman.

The city is preparing to invest millions at the intersection at NE 23 and Martin Luther King with upcoming projects including a statue of legendary author Ralph Ellison in front of his namesake library, creation of a Clara Luper center and renovation of the historic NAACP youth center.

Russell Perry, publisher of The Black Chronicle, a major property owner on NE 23 and an Urban Renewal board member, cautioned eminent domain is an unhappy memory for those who saw eastside neighborhoods uprooted in the 1970s. 

“Our first effort is always to try to negotiate a purchase for property we don’t own,” O’Connor said, noting the authority hasn’t used eminent domain in more than 20 years. 

MAPS 4 includes funding for acquisition on the corner as part of efforts to beautify and revive the busiest commercial corridor in the city’s predominantly African American east side. 

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“Some of it may be used for public open space,” O’Connor said, “and some of it may be private development needed in the area.” 

O’Connor said the property meets the legal standards for eminent domain, including not just blight and abandonment, but also the authority owning adjacent parcels. Leslie Batchelor, attorney for the authority, said those two standards will be used to ensure they keep options open for future use. 

“Our right to use eminent domain is sensitive and we have to be careful,” Batchelor said. “We don’t know for sure with these parcels where the public use will be or if there will be private use. For now, we are relying on the two criteria that we own property on this block and it is needed for assemblage and that it is blighted and abandoned. And it is abandoned. And it does really present a risk of spread of blight.” 

Staff writer Steve Lackmeyer is a reporter, columnist and author who started at The Oklahoman in 1990. He covers downtown Oklahoma City, related urban development and economics for The Oklahoman. Contact him at slackmeyer@oklahoman.com. Please support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.