Development will include new Deer Creek elementary school
The Grove? It doesn't yet amount to even a few saplings.
But the solid-square-mile project — homes, retail, office buildings — could be as prominent as a solitary stand of prairie post oak, in time.
Right now, it's mostly red dirt. This week, pipe remained stacked, with streets cut but unpaved. Framers worked on a lone house.
The site, southeast of NW 192 and Portland Avenue, is on the northwest frontier of Oklahoma City — three miles west of Edmond, five miles east of Piedmont, in the Deer Creek school district. A new Deer Creek elementary school on site is on the drawing boards.
A hay farm lies north. Horse farms lie east. Oklahoma City leaps from the south. Edmond bounds from the east.
In time, though, The Grove will be inside the loop — the new outer loop of the metro area — and should be well-established before the last of the new roadwork is done, said Mark Beffort of Grubb & Ellis-Levy Beffort, which handles the marketing for Caliber Development Co.
Lake Hefner Parkway, which becomes Portland north — also State Highway 74 — will be widened between the Kilpatrick Turnpike and Covell Road, and Covell will be widened from Portland east to Interstate 35, Beffort said.
"The Grove, in my opinion, presents the best opportunity for large-scale development in Oklahoma City,” he said of the project, on land bought in one 640-acre piece. It's a long-term project — perhaps 15 years.
The commercial property, 200 acres, is "primed for grocers, major retailers and specialty lifestyle centers plus a multitude of convenience and service offerings,” Grubb & Ellis says in a flyer.
"Currently, this trade area is one of the strongest submarkets in the Oklahoma City metro. ... The demand for space will increase dramatically as planned construction of residential units is completed,” the firm says.
And how, said Ashley Christofferson-Cunningham, president of Oklahoma City's Brass Brick Homes.
Brass Brick and Turner & Son Homes of Edmond are buying lots and building houses. Brass Brick is building the first house.
Christofferson-Cunningham said the new elementary school will be a big selling point for home buyers.
"The little guys don't have to get on the bus,” she said.
The Grove, she said, will be somewhat similar to the big "tried and true and proven” Lone Oak addition, where Brass Brick has been building for several years, at NW 164 and Meridian. Lone Oak also developed with a Deer Creek elementary school.
The Grove's Phase I --- Bloom's Terrace --- will have 120 homes ranging from 1,400 to 2,000 square feet; The Orchards will have homes ranging from 1,800 to 2,600 square feet; Farmington will have homes ranging from 2,400 to 3,600 square feet, Christofferson-Cunningham said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Development will include new Deer Creek elementary school
