City leaders in Sand Springs broke ground this morning on two new multimillion dollar developments.
One of the projects is the Spring Lake Municipal Complex off 129th West Avenue at 46th Street. The $7.7 million project is at an old rock quarry, and Mayor Mike Burdge said it will house Sand Springs’ public works and maintenance departments.
"There's some people that own property over there. They weren't too happy about, but, you know, there's just not any place to put something like that," Burdge said. "We didn't have anything that we had that we could use for that."
Previous talks about developing a park didn’t go completely out the window. Burdge envisions a 5K running trail on the grounds at some point.
The second project is a retail development. River West is on the east side of Highway 97 just south of the expressway.
Burdge said this kind of project is what the city needs in order to attract residents, not just sales tax revenue.
"We're hooked up to over 140 miles of trails in the Tulsa area. We're 20 minutes from two lakes," Burdge said. "Sand Springs is — we just, we've just got to start showing on the outside what we have available, and this is part of that. This is a whole lot more than just retail dollars or the jobs that they bring in."
No specific stores have been announced yet, but a hotel is already under construction. The city is spending $2.5 million on street and water work for the site.
