× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

Midtown Village has had a Best Buy and a Bed Bath & Beyond since it opened in 2005. And not much else.

Now, there’s a Cost Plus World Market bound for the shopping center — one of the most sought-after retailers to come to Tulsa in some time.

Besides two anchor tenants and an IBC Bank branch, Midtown Village is vacant. A long row of storefronts attached to Bed Bath & Beyond and a building near Best Buy sit empty. A grassy field in the middle of the shopping center will be transformed into the Cost Plus World Market.

Shoppers who spoke with the World noted how long the retail center at 5200 E. Skelly Drive has sat mostly vacant.

Bob Klunder said, “It was gonna fill up when the freeway work was done. It hasn’t.”

Construction on Interstate 44 from the Arkansas River to Yale Avenue began in 2009 and finished in 2014. It involved widening the freeway, replacing several bridges and straightening a dangerous curve.

Pam Proctor said she thinks the shopping center is a viable one, especially with the contingent of Tulsans who don’t like to go south of 41st Street.