Located on Second Street between Greenwood and Elgin avenues, Santa Fe Square Apartments is banking on mixed-use residential areas to be the driving force in getting more foot traffic downtown.
Santa Fe features nearly 200 apartments and a public plaza featuring local restaurants, Insomnia Cookies and a soon-to-be Starbucks. It opened in April 2025 as a collaboration between American Residential Group, Industrial Developers of Oklahoma and Fishless Desert.
The plaza in the Blue Dome District was specifically designed to mimic a European style of eating. It currently houses Forno Sonto, an Italian restaurant with outdoor seating, and Maestro, an agave-style cocktail bar.
“I’ll tell you, the motivation for me is I crave metropolitan areas that are very pedestrian-centric, walkable,” said Aaron Post, who owns Maestro alongside established downtown bars St. Vitus and Valkyrie. “I crave this idea that you can actually (do things) in the neighborhood you live in,”
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown Tulsa lost almost half of its employee foot traffic. Today, it sees about 20 to 30% less employees than it did in 2019, according to Emily Scott, interim president of Downtown Tulsa Partnership.
Despite the decrease in foot traffic, Scott said more people are choosing to live downtown. That’s created new opportunities to attract more businesses.
Deanna Schaefer, real estate manager for Santa Fe Plaza, said part of the plan is to utilize the space as a community events center. The plaza has hosted a part of Tulsa Tough, the Firecracker 5K and Downtown Tulsa Partnership’s midweek farmers market.
Tony Duhon and his wife Jessica, owners of Alchemy Gardens, were among the vendors at a mid-July market. In an area that doesn’t yet have a grocery store, Duhon is providing residents with easy access to produce through his urban microfarm.
“A lot of people that are our customers live around here, and so they’ll stop by on Wednesdays and grab some stuff for dinner,” he said. “One guy, he comes by and he gets two or three of these shishito peppers every week. Another guy comes by (and) gets mushrooms every week.”
The blueprint for successfully turning a mixed-use development into a vibrant business attraction may already exist across town.
The NOMA apartments opened in 2024 at the intersection of 11th and Lewis near Mother Road Market on Route 66. It also features its own public plaza, more than 250 apartments and six retail businesses.
“We really push for a lot of local things versus franchises. So you’ll probably never see any commercial tenants here that will be some sort of franchise situation,” Heather Shipman, NOMA’s community manager, said. “We want it to be mom-and-pop, local type things here.”
Since opening, NOMA has turned the area from an empty plot of land to a vibrant, walkable area for tenants and visitors, Shipman said.
As for Santa Fe, more businesses are on the horizon. Schaefer told The Eagle there’s three to four retail spaces available — and “they’re filling up fast.”
Unlike NOMA, it will feature some national chains. However, the opening date for the downtown Starbucks has yet to be announced.
Ismael Lele is a Report for America corps member and writes about business in Tulsa for The Oklahoma Eagle. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting this link.
