The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Anybody know what is going on at the north end of Fontana? They have taken down quite a bit of it. I found the demo permit, but haven't seen anybody talking about what will go in next. I'm really shooting for something truly mixed use, but I'm also prepared for it to be a fried chicken drive through or something awful.

https://twitter.com/mikesimonsphoto/status/1677421840686350338

Is that the old movie theater that's being demolished?

New Jim Norton Chevrolet dealership site.

With all the retail vacancies all over town, I still think that a new construction outlet mall in Jenks is insane. This would have worked with a little updating, same with Promenade. Why do "outlets" always have to be synonymous with suburbs?

Jenks is booming and the area the outlet is going into is becoming very popular and crowded. A lot of suburbanites don't want to go up into the city or to random spots to shop. I guess it comes down to psychology.

Fontana is/was a dump. It has all the hallmarks of bad urban design. Parking focused, ugly buildings, bad layout, lots of walkways that aren't easy to navigate, pedestrians as an afterthought despite it being built as an outdoor mall, no programming or attractions to bring people in, etc. How fitting that it gets knocked down for car sales.

Not sure what the outlet mall will be like - looks like a glorified strip mall to me, but at least it has high visibility.

Fontana had a decent run from 1973 until about 1982, but the biggest problem was that it never fully developed. They had all the buildings built, buta good portion of it never had any tenants. Other than the movie theater by 1985 the only original tenants were Uncle Bentley's and Sound Warehouse which was next to the theater, and by 1995 I think Uncle Bentley's and the theater were the only original ones left.

Bedford Camera out at Woodland Hills was Camera Gallery when it first opened in Fontana in 1973 or 1974.

I'm willing to bet that there are still some parts that have never had anything in them. The tenants that were there all faced the parking areas.

I take it this will replace the old Swinson Chevy site they're at now.

Thompson Construction shared that it was to be the site of the new dealership. Haven't found any pictures or plans, but I'm not very excited to drive past yet more cars and treeless landscape through here.

So waht is planned for the old T-Town Chevrolet site at 31st & Memorial? 

$10.00 says it gets leveled and divided up. I doubt any dealer that's been in that location has ever used all the square footage there since the late 80's when Swinson still carried commercial heavy duty Chevy and GMC trucks.

IIRC Swinson was also kind of a regional depot for Chevy/Buick/Olds/Pontiac. They would buy the full line parts from GM and then sell them to dealers in the smaller towns in the area shipping the parts on Mistletoe Express. They would also sell to local dealers as well. When Riverside Chevy (originally Bill White) opened up on the west side, their association with Hudiburg in OKC got them the full line depot location.