One-stop shopping: Mexican Consulate to open in Plaza Mayor By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record August 1, 2014 0 OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma-based Mexican citizens who need to renew federal paperwork have to make a six-hour drive to the Mexican Consulate office in Little Rock, Arkansas. The 12-hour round-trip venture doesn’t include the time spent in the office’s waiting line. For those who can’t make the trip, representatives from the Mexican Consulate office come every three months to Oklahoma City and set up a temporary office. Mexican citizens can renew their passports and their “matricula consular” (Mexico identification), as well as complete other Mexico federal documents. “Whenever they announce the consulate will be (in Oklahoma City), the phone rings off the hook here,” said David Castillo, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Soon, people will be able to conduct their official business in Oklahoma City two weeks a month. The consulate has considered an office in Oklahoma City for more than a year. Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads Manager Kristi Cole said that in the last four months, the discussions regarding an Oklahoma City office became more serious. On Tuesday, the consulate will open a 2,700-square-foot mobile office at the mall, 7000 Crossroads Blvd. The government will occupy the former Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Substation, as well as the community room. She said the consulate has worked with Hispanic retail developer Jose Legaspi previously, which is why it was interested in a Plaza Mayor-based office. Legaspi is overseeing the plaza’s development into a Hispanic retail and cultural center. “They know that (Legaspi’s centers) work,” Cole said. “This is an untapped market. The need in the community is so large. They didn’t have any other choice but to set up some kind of residency to serve the people.” She said approximately 100 families make the drive to Little Rock each week. The Plaza Mayor office will have six employees who will be in Oklahoma City for two weeks each month. Those employees will then spend one week at a temporary office in Tulsa, and the fourth week in Springdale, Arkansas. According to demographics collected by the chamber, Oklahoma has more Mexico-born Hispanics than Arkansas and Kansas. The consulate has an office in Kansas City as well. The Plaza Mayor office will serve 130 people per day and could see as many as 2,000 people per month. Robert Ruiz, mall marketing director, said the office will help increase the center’s weekday traffic. The mall attracts a lot of weekend customers with events and Hispanic holiday celebrations. “Anything that increases weekday traffic and increases traffic overall will attract new tenants,” Ruiz said. “We have new tenants opening every week. This just adds to the momentum.” The mall is more than 40-percent occupied based on square footage, and more than 50 percent occupied based on retail spaces, Ruiz said. He said the consulate already has a presence in the community, as it helps with various festivals. Its most prominent participation is at Fiesta Patrias. At the festival, a government official performs the El Grito, a re-enactment of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s 1810 speech in which he encouraged the crowd to fight for Mexico’s independence. journalrecord/files/2014/08/mf-plaza-mayor-bbf-1-web-300x165.jpg
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 05:27:51 +0000
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