Published: March 28, 2007 08:53 pm      

Arcadia’s business boom

Shopping center debuts on Route 66

ARCADIA — The town of Arcadia has an official population of 279, but business is booming in the area with the addition of new offices, tourist attractions and housing additions.

“We’re very excited about all the development that’s going on,” said Mayor Marilyn Murrell. “We’re a small community, but we’ve always wanted economic development.”

One of the bustling new areas is The Windmill Shops, a row of business buildings just east of Arcadia’s famed Round Barn. Owned, designed and built by Danny and Vi Davis, the shopping center eventually will be home to at least nine businesses. Four already are up and running.

“We’d been thinking about this for a long time,” Vi Davis said. “When Arcadia Lake went in, we started thinking about opening a business . ... There was no opportunity out here (at that time) for retail and office space.”

The Davises began construction last May, doing much of the labor themselves. Now their shopping center is home to Arcadia Tag and Title, Brice Taylor Insurance, Arcadia Travel and McNatt and Associates.

Slim’s Hair Center will open soon, and Davis said she hopes a sandwich shop will opt to move in before summer.

“The plan was to do a shopping center, and we wanted to anchor it with a business,” said Davis, who owns and operates Arcadia Tag and Title. “We asked ourselves, ‘What kind of service does everyone have to have?’ and we came up with a tag agency.”

McNatt and Associates — Phillip and Julie McNatt — were the first tenants, opening their doors in December. The two previously had an office in Edmond, but since they live just a mile east of Arcadia, they thought The Windmill Shops is the perfect location.

“It’s as convenient as can be in terms of a home base,” Phillip McNatt said. “We were really excited when they started building here.”

The couple does personal and business tax planning, with many clients on the West Coast, where they lived and worked until two years ago.

“There’s a lot of growth going on out here,” McNatt said. “I think we’ll start seeing a lot more community development like you’re seeing here now.”

The location also was convenient for Susan Archbald, owner of Arcadia Travel. She lives at nearby Lake Hiwassee and had been working out of her home for the past 10 years.

“Danny and Vi are friends of mine,” she said. “When they first asked me in 2000 if I would be interested in moving to this location, I said, ‘Absolutely not.’”

But Archbald had a change of heart by the time The Windmill Shops was under construction.

“It was either not do a good job at home or do it right,” she said. “I have a great clientele and I do a lot of work on the phone now, but I’m looking for walk-ins as we get more traffic on Highway 66.”

Brent Byrd, owner of Slim’s Hair Center, also was an acquaintance of the Davises; they met when Danny Davis had a haircut at Byrd’s other barber shop in Luther.

“They came to me and asked me if I wanted to come in,” he said, adding he’s looking forward to building a good customer base in the Arcadia area.

Brice Taylor has been in the insurance business for nine months, since he finished his service with the U.S. Army. He chose the Arcadia location for pragmatic reasons.

“Basically, for me, it’s the 8 o’clock and 5 o’clock traffic I see on 66 to Edmond and Oklahoma City,” he said. “I thought it would be a good place to capture some of that traffic.”

Taylor lives northeast of Arcadia, and opened his office two weeks ago. He said he believes more growth soon will be under way in the area.

“Hopefully Arcadia will be the hub for a lot of growth out in this direction,” he said.

Vi Davis said the new development has been welcomed by local residents.

“Everyone is ecstatic about having some of their needs supplied without having to go to town,” she said.

“We need to get some retail in here — there’s a cry for a small market out here, for one thing. And anything to do with sporting would be nice, because of the lake.”

Murrell said she’s pleased with the growth going on in her town. She said between 6,000 and 10,000 cars pass through Arcadia each day on Highway 66.

“We’re ideally located,” she said. “We have a lot of new things going on.”

Murrell mentioned Pop’s, a new restaurant and convenience store on Highway 66 scheduled to open this summer. Pop’s is owned by Aubrey McClendon, CEO and co-founder of Chesapeake Energy.

Another new business will debut in late April when Rhonda Cole opens Biker Shak next to the Round Barn. Her store will specialize in fashion accessories and biker apparel.

The city also is organizing a historical museum on the second floor of City Hall, with opening planned in three to six months.

Murrell has been mayor for nearly 20 years, and said she’s proud of her town’s progress.

“I think Arcadia will continue to grow and become the city we want it to be,” she said. “Our motto is ‘Close enough and far enough away.’ We want to maintain our rural atmosphere, but we also want to provide jobs and services for our citizens.”

Numerous new homes are being built in the surrounding area, she said.

“Many of these people have roots in Arcadia and have moved away. Now they want to come home.”