Recent figures released by the Oklahoma Main Street Center show that $130 million in private reinvestment has been poured into Kendall Whittier Main Street since 2010, the year it was accepted into the state program.

“It’s been a mix of very meaningful rehabs of older historic properties and pretty welcome infill development at a somewhat large scale,” said Ed Sharrer, executive director of Kendall Whittier Main Street, a nonprofit that supports revitalization of the area. “It’s been a very beneficial mix.”

In Kendall Whittier square alone, Sharrer said, 30 new businesses have opened and the occupancy rate has gone from 35 percent to 97 percent. Since 2013 in the broader Kendall Whittier area, $35 million in private funds have been invested, 41 new businesses have opened and 270 new jobs have been created.

Meredith Wyatt and her husband, Colby Craige, moved into the district about five years ago, when the area’s revitalization was just beginning. Five years later, the neighborhood offers everything she and her family needs — including a place to get her hair done — within walking distance. “You can walk to go out, to eat, or to get your hair cut, the library, the grocery store,” she said. “I think that’s really special because there is not a lot — particularly in this part of the country — there are not a lot of neighborhoods that are walkable.”

A subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Oklahoma Main Street Center is among 42 state coordinating programs around the nation. At least 2,000 Main Streets in the country are committed to historic preservation-based community rehabilitation.

Recent construction in the Kendall Whittier area includes Red Brick Capital Management’s $2 million refurbishing of a 13,000-square-foot property next to Circle Cinema. Occupying the space is the nonprofit Growing Together Tulsa, HP Engineering and Orth Contemporary, an art gallery.

Also, Heirloom Rustic Ales opened its brewery in November at 2113 E. Admiral Blvd.

Earlier in 2017, TPC Studios injected about $2.5 million into renovating space for a new headquarters in the former home of Swinney Hardware, 32 S. Lewis Ave. Swinney had operated for 74 years there until its closing in 2008.

Since January 2013, a total of 36 new businesses have opened in the Kendall Whittier service area, representing 265 jobs and approaching $20 million in private investment, Sharrer said.

Whittier Square, the commercial core of the neighborhood at East Admiral Boulevard and South Lewis Avenue, is at about 95 percent occupancy, he said. Five years ago, it was 35 percent full.

“We’re actually running into something that we haven’t seen in decades, which is more demand than supply,” Sharrer said. “I don’t see that stopping any time soon. We’ve just become a very stable place for people to open a business and be successful.” - Rhett Morgan and Kevin Canfield from the Tulsa World