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On Monday, the Bartlesville City Council approved a recommendation to allocate $203,830 to go towards a new shopping center at the old Kmart facility.

Foraker Company is receiving the funds from the Economic Development Fund to redevelop the building, which is located at the corner of Highway 75 and Frank Phillips Boulevard. Jeremy Foraker – the President of Foraker Company – said he is happy to see the project moving forward. He said he approached the City of Bartlesville about the project.

There has been no love lost for the property, even if it took 8-years to acquire it. Foraker (pictured) said Kmart limped along in Bartlesville as stores continued to close nationwide. Eventually, the Kmart closed and left the market. Seeing then that the development group was selling the property after all those years of contact and upkeep with it, the Foraker Company moved in to make a purchase.

Foraker said there is a lot of work to do to bring buildings like the old Kmart facility back to code, and breathe life into them again. He said he reached out to the Bartlesville Development Authority President, David Wood, to put a package together to try and help bring incentives to the project and bring new tenants to the redeveloped space.

Foraker Company is looking at redeveloping the old Kmart facility to open the door for 5 stores that are anticipated to go into the area. So far, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, Burkes Outlet, Tuesday Morning and a Dollar Tree expansion are anticipated to go into the redeveloped space.

As for the stores themselves, Ollie's Bargain Outlet is an American chain of discount retail stores founded in 1982 with 330 locations in 23 states. They deal in merchandise obtained from various retailers, suppliers or manufacturers throughout the country, whether in the form of closeouts, bankruptcy sales or other similar means of buying the stock at below wholesale costs.

Burkes Outlet is a privately held company. Florida-based Beall's Inc. is the parent company of Burkes. The company was formed in 1915 and the corporation now operates over 500 retail stores. Customers at Burkes can find brand name apparel and accessories for the entire family at up to 70-percent off other stores' prices. Most Burkes stores carry shoes, home furnishings, gifts and toys.

As for Tuesday Morning, it is an American discount off-price retailer specializing in domestic and international, designer and name-brand closeout merchandise. The company has 700-plus stores across the U.S and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

And finally, there is Dollar Tree. This is an expansion of the Highway 75 store. This is located near Truity Credit Union and across the highway from ALDI. You can see an illustartion of what might become of the old Kmart facility below.

Foraker said they will work on the redevelopment process as soon as possible. There is no set date as to when they will begin, but he said it will be soon. For more on Foraker Company, click here.