Economic Development Urban Redevelopment

The Sand Springs / Keystone Corridor Redevelopment Project

This project was a local initiative to arrest the decline of an area in the central portion of downtown Sand Springs, Oklahoma by assembling land, implementing a strategy for clearance, and promoting redevelopment with new mixed retail commercial uses, and incorporating public open spaces, pedestrian and bicycle trails.

The 94.2-acre Corridor area included four distinct redevelopment areas. Through a competitive qualifications process, Cinnabar Service Company was selected to perform complete turnkey acquisition and relocation services in the initial phase constituting approximately 25.5 acres. The Phase I area is bounded on two sides by U.S. and state highways. Prior to acquisition it was a predominantly declining residential area with mixed commercial uses, churches, vacant lots and a kindergarten center. The parcel-by-parcel composition of the area included 151 individual ownerships with a mix of vacant lots, abandoned structures, residential dwellings, office and commercial buildings, one school and three churches.

In the wake of the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes, Cinnabar and the City had the additional challenge of the involvement of national organizations that were attempting to make the Corridor Project a “poster child” for protection of private property rights. This resulted in national news media representatives converging on the project area with at least one major cable news network broadcasting live from one of the churches targeted for acquisition.

Despite the notoriety and initial opposition by some landowners, Cinnabar was able to successfully negotiate all but one acquisition; leaving only one condemnation case.