Panda Express coming to Mustang

By Jacob Sturm

News@mustangpaper.com

Fast food enthusiasts in Mustang are about to get an additional option to crave.

Panda Express is coming to the new Mustang Marketplace development just east of the
Mustang Wal-Mart on State Highway 152. According to a recent city manager’s report, the City
of Mustang received the civil plans for the project. Those plans lay out an expected size for the
building (1350 square feet) and indicated the development will include a drive-through and
plenty of space for parking.

Currently, the restaurant chain has nearby locations in Yukon (1521 Garth Brooks Blvd) and at
500 S MacArthur Blvd in Oklahoma City.

A commercial final plat has also been approved for Mustang Marketplace. The development
contains five lots on 20.47 acres. Contractors have been clearing land, with infrastructure
improvements set to get going soon.

Mustang city planner Ryan Conner said the Mustang Marketplace plat will have to be finished
and filed before the lots would become official. That would make them officially able to be sold
and developed.

“Even though they are trying to get ahead of the building plan and civil review process, they still
upon any condition of approval would have to have ownership of the lot before a permit could
be released,” Conner said. “With the Mustang Marketplace still developing their infrastructure,
the water, the sewer and some of the private access driveway agreements they have in place, it
still could be a little bit before construction would start on that.”

Conner said the plan is to have four frontage lots (shown on the preliminary and final plats that
went to the City Council and was approved), even though the technical filings cannot happen
until the infrastructure is in place.

A fifth lot is involved in Mustang Marketplace, but it is in the rear of the development. Conner
said Panda Express is looking at the westernmost frontage lot.

Conner said Panda Express has staked its claim in the lot. This is still the first stage of the
commercial development.

“They’ve definitely contracted with their engineering firm to develop all of these plans,” Conner
said. “So, while I can say there’s no guarantees necessarily (that Panda Express comes), I think it
would be strange for a company to work up all of these plans and costly engineering documents
if they weren’t pretty confident they were going to be coming.”

There is a civil review process the developments have to go through before construction can
start. Conner said the city looks at what the company has submitted as far as building plans
themselves, as well as the engineering for storm water runoff for site grating and for the
connection with planned utilities.

“That whole process itself goes within our department for building inspection, as well as with
our fire marshal and a third-party fire review process,” Conner said. “So, all of those stages of
just making sure everything fits the international building code, the international fire code and
electrical codes and all of that would come into play in terms of that review process.”

Mustang’s Planning Commission met Feb. 14 and conducted a public hearing to make zoning
modifications to the Planned Unit Development called the Borneman Addition (a development
that includes the entirety of Mustang Marketplace) which could bring larger intensity
developments to the larger lot behind the frontage lots in Mustang Marketplace.

There is not a clear timeframe for the development yet. Once the infrastructure for Mustang
Marketplace is completed, along with the fact that Panda Express already has submitted civil
plans to the city, the process of getting started on the project could come soon afterward.

Conner said the city was told the Panda Express type structures do get built pretty quickly as
long as they have the dedication and the permits up front.