Construction is officially underway on Norman’s second Target store, with contractors breaking ground on the project next to the Walmart Supercenter along Classen Boulevard.
The new store is part of the Armstrong Bank Consolidation Project, a planned 12-lot retail development located east of Classen Boulevard and west of 24th Avenue. According to information shared through Norman’s Planning and Community Development committee, the project will include an Armstrong Bank building along with a mix of retail, office and commercial space.
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Sooner Investment — the group working on the development — confirmed that early site activity is already in progress, and vertical construction is expected to begin soon.
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.
While the tenant list has not yet been released, DeWalt said there is growing interest in the area as southeast Norman continues to attract new business activity.
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.
Property records show Armstrong Bank purchased the 40-acre parcel in 2020, and the Norman City Council approved rezoning for the site in December 2024 — clearing the way for the larger development footprint.
Norman already has one Target location, which opened in 2006 at University North Park about nine miles away from the site of the upcoming store.
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Norman Mayor Stephen Tyler Holman previously described southeast Norman as a fast-developing region with both residential and commercial expansion underway — though he also expressed caution about the long-term impacts of large chain-driven development.
“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 added that even major retail construction doesn’t always translate into major financial gain for the city, particularly when the community already has an existing store in place.
“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.”
As work continues at the site, more details are expected later this year regarding additional commercial tenants and the broader timeline for the retail district’s completion.
Originally reported by Abby Young, Senior Reporter in OU Daily.
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