Contractors have broken ground on Norman’s second Target, located next to the Walmart Supercenter on Classen Boulevard.
The development is part of the Armstrong Bank Consolidation Project, a 12-lot retail area east of Classen Boulevard and west of 24th Avenue. It will include an Armstrong Bank, stores and office spaces, according to a flyer from Norman’s Planning and Community Development committee.
Proposed Classen Target development map.
Preliminary work on the site is underway and building construction will begin early this year, Julie Ruffin DeWalt, marketing director and development coordinator for Sooner Investment, told the OU Daily in an email last month.
DeWalt couldn’t share tenant names, but she wrote that there is strong restaurant and retail interest in the area and Sooner Investment expects to announce tenants in late spring or early summer.
Armstrong Bank bought the 40-acre land parcel in 2020, according to the Cleveland County Assessor’s website. The parcel’s rezoning was approved by Norman City Council in December 2024.
The city’s current Target location opened in 2006 at University North Park, located on 24th Avenue, about 9 miles from the site of the new location.
Norman Mayor Stephen Tyler Holman told the OU Daily in a phone call in December that southeast Norman is considered to be the fastest-developing area of the city, including both residential and commercial projects.
Holman said he favors local businesses, which keep money spent in the community longer than large chain retailers like Target. Holman said he estimates four or five Campus Corner districts could fit on the lot of a Walmart Supercenter, which would allow for many local businesses.
“You think of all the different businesses that exist on Campus Corner, and all the different buildings and all the neat stuff that can fit in something that massive,” Holman said. “I definitely have a concern about that type of development pattern. I do favor more locally owned, small scale, neighborhood-scale type businesses.”
Holman said that though increased development in southeast Norman will likely lead to population increase and more spending, it doesn’t guarantee profit for the city.
“I think a lot of places would be like, ‘Oh, a new Target, a new Walmart, that's millions of dollars in new revenue for the city of Norman,’” he said. “That's not necessarily the case, especially when we already have a Target in our city limits that people already shop at.”
This story was edited by Natalie Armour and Macey Thaxton. Ryan Little and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
