Restore OKC and Homeland are working together to prevent the closure of the Homeland grocery store at NE 36th and Lincoln and the return of a severe deficit in food accessibility for the community in that area.
Last week, Homeland announced that four stores across the state would close and several more would consolidate or be marketed for sale as part of a plan to address financial pressures the company is facing.
The store at NE 36th Street and Lincoln Boulevard, which opened in 2021, was not originally part of the list released to The Oklahoman. In the last week, however, questions about the future of the store arose as news of the closures spread.
“This didn’t evolve over the last few days. This has been happening over the last few months, and for us, we care deeply about the east side and are concerned about food accessibility,” said Christin King, vice president of brand, digital and communications for HAC, Inc. “And at the same time as we make these difficult choices to stabilize our business, we did not want to have to make a choice between continuing to operate at a loss or protecting our ability to serve several other small rural towns that also depend on us to be their only local grocery store.”
King said that was due to ongoing conversations between Homeland and Restore OKC.
Restore OKC — an asset-based nonprofit focused on improving health, education, housing, employment and more through community development — stepped in and began conversations to expand its public-private partnership with HAC, Inc., the parent company of Homeland.
“We could not announce it last week because there were a few details and agreements to work out, but that’s why we were able to put [the store] on a marketed for sale list versus a closure list,” King said. “We do plan to cover the operating costs to continue operating at loss and cover the rent until Restore OKC gets the funding that they need to take this on.”
People look at public wall art by artist Carlos Barboza outside the Homeland store at NE 36th and Lincoln on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021. Alonzo Adams for The Oklahoman.
The new arrangement works to bring the location at 625 NE 36th St., the only large grocer in the city’s predominantly Black northeast side, under the existing agreement between Restore OKC and HAC, Inc. The two organizations have worked together for five years in a partnership on the Market at Eastpoint at 1708 NE 23rd St.
In addition to preserving food access, the store’s closure would also spell further economic problems for the area, according to Caylee Dodson, founder of Restore OKC.
“Our community is a living ecosystem,” Dodson said. “That store is a 10-plus-million-dollar annual economic engine in a TIFF district. It cannot fail or it compromises tax base for other initiatives that are happening in this corridor. It compromises tax base that supports our elementary schools, the roads, the infrastructure pieces. This is not a one-off grocery store closure. It would be an economic nail in a coffin. We would go backwards in time.”
More: Homeland to close, consolidate several Oklahoma stores: ‘We can turn this thing around’
What will happen to the Homeland at NE 36th Street and N. Lincoln Avenue?
The details of the arrangement include a period of exclusivity to allow Restore OKC time to fundraise with the intention of eventually taking over operations in the same format as their Market at Eastpoint.
Under that model, Homeland takes care of some of the operational logistics like reconciliation, inventory and point of sales, while Restore OKC runs the store as one of its social enterprise businesses. These businesses provide employment opportunities to youth and adults at varying stages that provide a combination of job training, life skills and wraparound support on a case-by-case basis.
Sabra Hughes shops at Market at Eastpoint in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, Nov., 5, 2025.
“We want to dream with the community again, just like we did at East Point. What do we want this to look like? And then what is it really financially going to take to be able to deliver that?” Dodson said.
“We want to see health access, food access, job training, expansion. So we want to be able to see all of those things re-imagined in this space to see it be really a community powerhouse, not just a grocery store. Certainly a grocery store and a great one. Not taking anything away from what we fought so hard to have in this community in the first place, but also re-imagine it to really be what it can.”
Partnerships, Dodson said, will play a pivotal role in every aspect of the store’s future moving forward, just as they do in everything Restore OKC takes on. Whether that’s working alongside the wellness center next door or finding other community partners to come alongside the organization’s mission in serving residents to improve outcomes and “rebuild a circular economy in northeast Oklahoma City.”
“I think those kinds of opportunities just start to get braided together to do something really intentional and incredible really easily,” she said. “How do we re-engage this back to the community and see all of those contracts and partnerships and things come back online?”
Brian Sherfield shops at Market at Eastpoint in Oklahoma City, Wednesday, Nov., 5, 2025.
Dodson, who also lives on the northeast side about five minutes from the store, said the importance of its survival cannot be underestimated.
“This is one of the biggest and largest privately and publicly invested in new developments that’s happened in our community and if it fails in the first five years, that sets the whole community backwards in terms of the ability to attract or see new development happening in our community,” Dodson said. “It just can’t happen. It just can’t happen.”
For that reason, Dodson said the coming months are critical and will require the support of the entire community to realize the full scope of the project.
The exact fundraising amounts needed are unclear at this time, but Dodson said Homeland has given Restore OKC access to all of its historical financial data to better equip the nonprofit with the knowledge to make the best choices possible as it moves forward.
Caylee Dodson speaks during a tour of RestoreOKC, Wednesday, March 25, 2026.
“What we are committed to is ensuring we raise enough funds that this cannot fail in the next three to five years,” Dodson said. “We want to know the good, the bad, the ugly, and they’re willing to give it to us so we are ready with an operating reserve to lose some money while we get it turned back around.”
She likened the backing Restore OKC will need to the way author Brené Brown describes organizations needing to have a sort of “tush push,” of their own.
Yes, like the football play.
“When you’re at the end zone where you just need everybody to push behind to make it happen,” Dodson said. “That is realistically where we’re at. It’s — wonderfully, beautifully — we have this period of exclusivity to figure out a solution and we’re going to need everybody to push with everything they got behind us to make it happen for the community.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Homeland store closure avoided in nonprofit Restore OKC partnership
