Construction has ramped up along S. Portland Ave. near Will Rogers World Airport in recent months as work continues on the Lariat Landing development.

Lariat Landing is a dedicated 1,000-acre site located on the east side of the airport between I-44 and the airport. The aim of the development is to attract aviation and nonaviation businesses alike to that area of OKC. To accommodate the growth of Lariat Landing, the city relocated Portland Avenue in 2015, with access to sewer, water and electricity along the four miles of the rebuilt thoroughfare, which stretches from SW 54th to SW 104th streets. The city also added beautifully landscaped center medians and street lighting up and down that section of Portland.

Motorists traveling along I-44 or S. Portland have probably noticed the construction and activity occurring along Portland. The construction on two businesses has been quite evident, including Premier Breast Health Institute of Oklahoma, a state-of-the-art comprehensive breast center located directly across the street from Amazon near SW 89th and Portland, as well as the new OnCue convenience store going up at the northeast corner of Portland Ave. and SW 104th.

Scott Keith, assistant director of airports for the City of Oklahoma City, said people may think the new OnCue store is a recent addition to Lariat Landing; however, it is not. The company, he said, agreed to build in Lariat landing more than two years ago but the pandemic and subsequent economic downturn forced the company to temporarily halt construction plans.

“Even though an economic slowdown had occurred right after they agreed to build there, they indicated to us that they were completely going forward. But they first wanted to see how the stabilization of the economy went and what the habits of the consumers were going to be. Luckily, things have obviously gone forward very well, and they are now coming up out of the ground pretty rapidly,” he said.

With the location of the Amazon facilities just about a mile up the road from OnCue, Keith said the store will have access to a ready-made customer base of nearly 3,000 Amazon workers. Once completed, OnCue will be the first retail business and restaurant located in Lariat Landing.

Construction of Premier Breast Health Institute of Oklahoma can be clearly seen from either I-44 or Portland. The 26,000-square-foot facility will bring together some of the leading specialists in OKC focused on breast cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and research.

“That is going to be a very nice facility that will be calling Lariat Landing home. They are excited to be here, and we are excited to have them,” Keith said. According to company press release, the facility should be completed in the summer of 2023.

Beside the two Amazon facilities that take up a majority of the west side of Lariat Landing, other aviation-related businesses have been built along Portland adjacent to the airport in order to have access the airport’s airfield. Field Aerospace has a large hangar there now where it can perform modifications on large aircraft, and just up the road from Field Aerospace, SkyWest Airlines constructed a 135,000-square-foot-hangar where it performs maintenance work on its jets that serve as regional carriers for Delta, American, United and Alaska airlines. Fixed-based operator Atlantic Aviation also operates on the west side of Portland near those same companies in order access those same runways and taxiways. Four years ago following the completion of the Portland relocation, FedEx ground has been operating in a facility on the very north end at the intersection of Portland and SW 54th.

To help market Lariat Landing to aviation and nonaviation businesses that may be looking to relocate or expand to Oklahoma City, the airport in 2020 hired commercial real estate brokers CBRE and Price Edwards and Company. Through their efforts and a lessening of the pandemic’s effects on the market, the airport is seeing more interest from companies that see Lariat Landing as a potential landing spot, Keith said.

“I think those two things combined have been a bonus for us for activity coming our way,” Keith said. “If you look at it from a high-level perspective, we’re sitting pretty good in terms of being able to attract new businesses out there.”

This story originally ran on VeloCityOKC.com.