Tulsa City Councilors appears poised to give the go-ahead for roughly $1.4 million in Community Development Block Grant funds to help build a new shopping center called the Shoppes on Peoria in North Tulsa, near the intersection of Pine and Peoria.

Tulsa City Councilor G.T. Bynum said he does have some qualms about devoting public money to a project with no matching private funds, but he said taxpayers will see a return on their investment in the form of increased sales tax revenues.

"Markets surveys show there's a significant population around this shopping center that have the capability of buying things," Bynum said.

But he said that buying power is going elsewhere, including suburbs like Owasso and Catoosa.

The Shoppes on Peoria will be owned by the Tulsa Economic Development Corporation and officials say that rental profits will go back to the block grant program, potentially to be used on other projects in Tulsa.

They say that Tulsa will eventually get all of its investment back, unless the shopping center failed completely.

They say Tulsa could also recoup its money by selling the center at some point to a private investor.