Jenks trustees and city council clear way for food hall near Oklahoma Aquarium with shared-parking leases

A shared-parking and economic-development package for a proposed food hall north of the Oklahoma Aquarium advanced Tuesday after trustees of the Jenks Aquarium Authority and the Jenks City Council approved related agreements and a restrictive planned-unit development.

The trustees voted to approve the shared-parking lease and the aquarium-campus architectural agreement on the authority’s consent agenda. The city council later approved the shared-parking economic-development agreement and the related planned-unit development ordinance after staff described the leases and concept plans.

Staff described the project as a food hall with indoor and outdoor dining and accessory entertainment uses that is intended to “draw visitors to the aquarium and support the continued development of the city's riverfront as a dining and entertainment destination,” citing language from an earlier economic-development resolution. Marce, a city staff member who presented the documents to the authority, told trustees the group would need to finalize a lease for parking across Aquarium Place and an option for a triangular parcel for future parking if demand requires it.

Why it matters: the project ties development goals for the aquarium campus to new private investment and parking arrangements that cross public and foundation-owned properties. The city and the Oklahoma Aquarium Foundation (OAF) have signed or are prepared to sign a series of documents — an amended economic-development agreement, two parking leases and a private-covenants acknowledgment — that together allow the food-hall developer to proceed toward a building permit while protecting employee parking for the aquarium.

Details of the deal and approvals

Marce told the authority and council the primary off-site parking would occupy land across the street from the food-hall site, and that additional parking could be built later on a “triangular piece” partly owned by the city and partly by the aquarium foundation. She described the parking plan as conceptual and cautioned that the final space count will depend on engineering, the tow of the levee, power-line setbacks and Corps of Engineers easements.

The agreements require protected employee parking for the aquarium via a gated access and fence along the sidewalk at the aquarium campus. The authority and the foundation also signed an acknowledgement permitting some changes to private-plat covenants related to architectural style.

Developer Robert Butler, who identified his address for the record, said leases are in place and the team expects to submit a building permit application in the coming weeks. “It's been a long four years, but we are here,” Butler said.

Votes and next steps

- Jenks Aquarium Authority (trustees): motion to approve the shared-parking and economic-development package — Abel: yes; Morris: yes; Blackburn: yes; Vice Chair Brown: yes. Motion passed. - City Council: motion to approve the shared-parking economic-development agreement (item 7) and the planned-unit development (item 8) — Emmons: yes; Abel: yes; Vice Mayor Brown: yes. Motions passed. The council struck the emergency clause related to a separate item because the supermajority threshold was not met.

The authority’s staff noted one last approval for a lease requires a supermajority of trustees and will be scheduled for a special JAA meeting on Sept. 30 if needed; staff said many signatures were already in hand and the remaining signatories were present at the meeting.

Background and context

The project traces to a 2021 council resolution that encouraged development “complimentary to the aquarium” to increase sales tax, jobs and riverfront dining and entertainment. Staff emphasized the PUD is limited to food uses and accessory entertainment and includes design restrictions and use limits.

Trustees and council members who spoke praised the project as a riverfront economic stimulus and thanked the aquarium foundation and developer for their work negotiating parking and covenant language.

What remains: final engineering and coordination with PSO and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the off-site parking layout and easements, plus the final lease signatures and any supermajority vote the authority must hold for the last lease item.