In the leasing world, national retailers such as Sunflower Farmers Market and Marshall’s brought locations to the metro, and Chesapeake Energy Corp. leased more than 85,000 square feet in the Caliber Center, 3817 Northwest Expressway, which it turned around and purchased in December for $38.2 million as Chesapeake Land Development Co.

After a quiet 2010 in retail sales, the big news of the year was the sale of Silver Springs Pointe, 7640 Northwest Expressway, for $16 million. The next closest retail sale was Southern Hills Shopping Center, 1610 S.W. 74th St., which sold for $11.58 million. A chunk of land that formerly housed John Smicklas Chevrolet at the southwest corner of May Avenue and Northwest Expressway was purchased to make way for a retail development that, so far, includes the city’s first Dave & Buster’s, and outparcels along May Avenue bring a Whataburger and Jack in the Box.

In the industrial sector, the nearly $20 million sale of multiple properties in the AeroMeridian Distribution Center and Greenfield Business Park topped the list.

right, 50 Penn Pl.

Two apartment sales raised eyebrows as separate investors grabbed Villas at Countryside Apartments, 9501 S. Interstate 35 Service Road, for $26.75 million, and Pinehurst Apartments, 12301 N. MacArthur Blvd., for $16.7 million.

One question answered in 2011 was the buyer of Devon’s Mid America Tower, 20 N. Broadway Ave. The building sold in 2010 for $22 million, and was purchased by Ford Price with Price Edwards & Co. for an undisclosed party. The sale lit the rumor mill that a large corporation was moving or relocating to Oklahoma City. Word on the street pegged Enid-based Continental Resources as the buyer, although the company would neither confirm nor deny the sale, despite having leased space in nearby buildings. In March 2011, Continental made the announcement it had purchased Mid America, and planned to move its corporate headquarters to the tower.

Another Downtown property changed hands as the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma cemented its place in Bricktown with the purchase of the 55,892-square-foot Oklahoma Hardware Building along the Bricktown Canal for $6.5 million. The school had been leasing space in the building prior to the sale.

One surprise was the former Lincoln Plaza Hotel, which has languished for years, purchased by Richard Tanenbaum with plans for what he describes as a whole new, yet still undisclosed use for the property. The shuttered 400,000-square-foot hotel building and 27 acres sold for $2.6 million.

Photo by Shannon Cornman