Katy, Texas-based Academy Sports & Outdoors plans to relocate Edmond

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Oct 27, 2003 by Matt Maile

Sporting goods and apparel retailer Academy Sports & Outdoors is making plans to relocate its Edmond store and expand both space and employment.

David Gochman, president and CEO of the Katy, Texas-based retailer, said his firm has signed a 10-year lease agreement to occupy the former Kmart store at 2501 S. Broadway in Edmond. The company will move to the larger location in February and vacate the store it occupies at 324 Bryant Ave. in the Bryant Square shopping center in Edmond.

We're going to move to a new location on the Broadway Extension that was formerly a Kmart, Gochman told The Journal Record. We needed more space.

One of the nation's largest sporting goods retailers, Academy Sports & Outdoors has more than 5,000 employees at 65 stores in eight Southeast states. The company sells outdoor equipment and apparel in addition to hunting, camping and exercise equipment and boating products.

The company has been expanding its presence in the Oklahoma City metro, most recently by opening a new store near Interstate 240 and S. Walker Avenue in Oklahoma City. In all, the retailer has three locations in the metro, including a store on the Northwest Expressway in north Oklahoma City.

Gochman said the Academy store in Edmond has generated strong business since it opened in 1994. Due to continued customer demand, the company has decided to relocate within Edmond to a larger building.

With the move, the retailer will increase its store size from about 50,000 square feet to about 73,000 square feet. The company also will add about 10 employees, lifting the total number in Edmond to 80, he said.

Academy plans to spend about $1.5 million to renovate the former Kmart and relocate the Edmond store, Gochman said.

What the Edmond customer was telling us is we love your store; we want you to stay in Edmond, Gochman said. Since we opened (the Edmond store) in 1994, the response has been great. We've been very happy.

Over the 10 years that Academy has been located in Edmond, Gochman said demographics had changed. The area of Bryant Square where the existing store was located had transformed from a neighborhood shopping center to a regional shopping center, prompting more demands on Academy to have a larger store, he said.

Gochman said with the retailer's current Edmond store lease about to expire, his firm determined that it could relocate to a larger store location on the Broadway Extension without giving up the key retail traffic it already had.

A demographic study conducted in 2002 of the new Academy location showed there were 61,059 people, or 22,046 households, within three miles of the proposed store location. Those households had an average household income of $70,149 and a median household income of $56,741.

Gochman said that following the relocation and expansion of its Edmond store, the company has no immediate plans to open additional sites in the metro.

Nationally, the retailer plans to open about 10 stores in the next year, contributing to an anticipated sales gain in the 15 percent range, he said. About half of the new stores will be in markets where Academy already has a presence. The other half will be in new markets, he said.

It's not fast growth, but its steady growth, said Gochman during a telephone interview from his Texas office.

In Edmond, Gochman said the new store location will let Academy display more goods and provide more space for customers to shop. The store will be similar in size to one Academy opened last year along I- 240 in south Oklahoma City.

It will be more 'shopable,' he said of the new store location.

The company has signed a lease with New York-based real estate investment trust Kimco Realty Corp., which owns the 103,027-square- foot Broadway Plaza shopping center and the site of the former Kmart location in Edmond. Gochman said the lease term is 10 years.

The growth of Academy's presence in the Oklahoma City metro occurred even as another competitor is preparing to enter the Oklahoma City market.

Springfield, Mo.-based Bass Pro Shops is scheduled to open a new store in Oklahoma City in Bricktown in space leased to the retailer by the city.

Gochman was a critic of the city of Oklahoma City's deal to bring Bass Pro Shops to the Bricktown area. Gochman said a favorable lease arrangement between the city and Bass Pro Shops was not fair to businesses such as his, which receive no similar city support.

It's demoralizing that the city of Oklahoma City helps a competitor, he said. It's a little galling.

As for Academy, Gochman said his firm competes well with Bass Pro. The two companies are direct competitors in at least three other markets, he said. The arrival of Bass Pro, he said, will not have an effect on Academy's plans for the Oklahoma City metro.

We're in Oklahoma City for the long haul, he said.