After receiving a letter questioning a potential REI development on the river, city councilors question Tulsa’s economic development officer about the deal.
Economic Development Officer Clay Bird said despite a legal challenge, the process has been carried out correctly. He said a district meeting before the deal had the developer and city officials in attendance, but only about a dozen citizens.
"I will say, there was one person that was in opposition with it," Bird said. "This was very much, too, right in the midst and probably the height of the whole Simon Properties issue."
Bird said selling the land at 71st Street and Riverside Parkway is the best thing to do with it.
"It's a briar patch. And then you move further south, and you've got playground equipment that's very tired," Bird said. "So, if this property is sold, we've got $600,000 going into public infrastructure improvements, and anything over and above that, the developer's on the hook to pick up the cost of."
Tulsa Public Facilities Authority, the land owner, faces a legal challenge over the sale. While TPFA acts independently of the city, a city attorney is representing it.
Bird wants the legal challenge to the deal to be wrapped up soon.
"I have talked to the developer. They do have — they've got a secondary site in mind, because they really like that market," Bird said.
Unlike the Tulsa Development Authority, TPFA owns land and may sell it without council approval.
