Route 66 in Tulsa helped begat the Mother Road Market.
The Mother Road Market helped begat the forthcoming North of Market development, a $60 million project that mixes retail, apartments, restaurants and a neighborhood gathering space.
That’s the essence behind the announcement and the groundbreaking Wednesday for the project at 2219 E. 11th St. (aka Route 66) that will open sometime in 2023.
Chris Ellison, the developer of North of Market, told the Tulsa World his wife was the inspiration for the project:
Elizabeth Frame Ellison is president and CEO of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, the nonprofit that helped revitalize Route 66 by creating Mother Road Market (2018) and the Shops at Mother Road Market (2020).
“She had this idea that Route 66 was this low-hanging fruit, that it was a fantastic opportunity for the city to co-brand with,” Chris, CEO of NOMA developer ITULSA, LLC, said by phone. “That got her excited. She’s in a position with the foundation where they were really looking to capitalize on some civic ideas and she ran with that.” […]
“My run on it is that there needs to be balance and there needs to be diversification in terms of building a district. So, you need both nonprofit and for-profit to operate in the same space…This development was born out of the need for more residential density.”
The newspaper reported North of Market will contain 256 apartments with co-working spaces, a fitness center, a rooftop clubhouse with a dining room and lounge, a hotel-style lobby, a shaded dog park and indoor dog wash, a pool with grills, green-space courtyards and 391 parking spaces.
The mayor participated in Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Ellison two years ago announced he wanted to have a Route 66 museum amid a mixed-use development near Mother Road Market, but the museum idea apparently didn’t get off the ground.
The City of Tulsa a few weeks ago issued a request for proposals for a Route 66 interpretive center near the Arkansas River and Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza.
Mother Road Market, which recently marked its third anniversary and takes several inspirations from Route 66, serves as a food hall and small restaurant and business incubator inside the former Scrivner-Stevens Co. grocery building that dates to 1939. Mother Road Market also hosts community events, cooking classes, children’s activities and featured Kitchen 66 Takeover Cafe chefs.
(Screen-capture from Tulsa World video of an artist’s rendering of the North of Market development in Tulsa)