"Restaurants come and go, but Around the Corner has always been about people," Bob Weiss told Edmond Life & Leisure as the downtown diner his family has owned since 2012 reached its 75th anniversary on September 1, 2026. The restaurant opened in 1951 as The Corner Restaurant and later moved to its current spot and took its current name. Seventy-five years is a long time for any restaurant to stay open. It also shows how few places in downtown Edmond draw a crowd every day of the year.
Two weeks from now, the biggest crowd downtown gets will go away for the winter. Heard on Hurd ends its season Saturday, October 17, and the corner of Broadway and Hurd won't host another one until March. A month before that last night, Edmond City Council approved two projects at either end of that same block of Hurd. Both are meant to bring in people on days with no festival. Neither is due to open soon.
The Last Third Saturday
Citizens Bank of Edmond runs Heard on Hurd, and 2026 is its 13th season. It happens on the third Saturday of every month from March through October. That comes to eight nights a year. The October 17 event runs from 6 to 10 p.m., it's free, and the Eventeny vendor listing gives 32 N. Broadway as the address.
The finale has a theme this year. The Route 66 Centennial event listing says the October Heard on Hurd will honor "the rich history and lasting impact of the Mother Road on Edmond and the surrounding community." The listing promises more than 70 local retail and food vendors, food trucks, pop-up shops and three live sets by local artists. The bank's own page gives a more cautious figure of more than 60 vendors.
The vendor numbers explain why this corner is so hard to replace. Edmond Life & Leisure counted 82 different food trucks, 36 performers and 115 retail vendors across the 2025 season. The March 21 opener this year featured YZMN, Maddox Ross, and Matt Moran & The Palominos. That variety shows up eight evenings a year. The bank's page also invites visitors to start the night at downtown's restaurants and bars before heading to the trucks.
The Corner Building With a Basement Bar in Its Plans
The three-story building at 19 N. Broadway sits on the southwest corner of Broadway and Hurd, right where the festival happens. Developer Matthew Myers told council the history of the site. Edmond's First Methodist Church once stood there, and the first classes of what became the University of Central Oklahoma met inside it. The church burned in 1928, and the Caskey Apartment House went up in 1929. It was an apartment house until the early 1970s and then sat abandoned. In 1992, Stephen Schaus and Randel Shadid bought it, rehabilitated it, and later ran their accounting and law practices there.
According to The Oklahoman's September 28 report, Myers told council the building is 75% vacant, with one floor leased as office space. The basement holds six one-person offices leased to homebuilder OklaHome. In his slide presentation he called it "an outdated and tired office space producing zero sales taxes for the city of Edmond."
His plan with Switchgrass Capital is a $5.8 million renovation and expansion to 11,000 square feet. The second and third floors would become top-tier office space. The ground floor would get a restaurant and the basement a speakeasy-style bar. Myers also developed The Lark pocket neighborhood, a short walk west of downtown.
Council approved the agreement 4-1 on September 14, with tax increment financing assistance capped at $450,000. Mayor Mark Nash cast the lone no vote. NonDoc reported that he questioned the schedule given Myers' other projects that are still in progress. Nash also raised a design point. The rendering showed light-colored brick, and he said it would clash with downtown Edmond's red brick. Myers answered that the image was "inspirational" and AI-generated, and that he would do what he could to match the brick.
Under the agreement, work must begin by December 31, 2027 and finish by December 31, 2028.
Shops Facing Hurd, One Block West
The second project sits on the northwest corner of Hurd and Santa Fe Drive. Hurd Courts is led by Eddie Coates of Canvas Architecture & Development, working with Austin Tunnel's Oklahoma City firm Building Culture. Coates has also worked on OKC's Wheeler District. Three houses stand on the site now, and council members called them uninhabitable. The Oklahoma County Assessor lists a 1,928-square-foot house at 205 W. Hurd built in 1928, an 892-square-foot house at 207 W. Hurd built in 1910, and a 626-square-foot house without an address built in 1954.
Most coverage calls it a 28-townhome project. The signed development agreement describes 28 rental townhomes and garage apartments, plus six rental live-work townhomes with small storefronts. For anyone who walks Hurd, the storefronts are the key part. Coates said the live-work homes will have 550-square-foot retail shops on the ground floor facing Hurd. He described the project as "gentle density" in an existing neighborhood. Council members were told that no retail tenants have signed on yet.
Council approved the Hurd Courts agreement 5-0. The city estimates the finished project at about $11 million and caps its assistance at $1 million. That splits into $400,000 for development financing and $600,000 for public improvements. Ward 3 council member Preston Watterson raised the city-owned park with trails just north of the site. He asked Coates to work closely with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board "to do great things for the park." Construction has to start by June 30, 2027. The agreement allows 24 months after that to finish. NonDoc put the expected completion at June 30, 2029.
The Block, Corner by Corner
| Location | What's there now | What's approved | Contract deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 N. Broadway, SW corner of Broadway and Hurd | 1929 former apartment house, mostly vacant offices | Ground-floor restaurant, basement speakeasy, office space on floors two and three | Start by Dec. 31, 2027; finish by Dec. 31, 2028 |
| NW corner of Hurd and Santa Fe | Three vacant houses dating to 1910, 1928 and 1954 | Rental townhomes plus live-work units with 550-sq-ft shops facing Hurd | Start by June 30, 2027; finish within 24 months |
| Hurd Street itself | Heard on Hurd, third Saturdays, March through October | No change reported for 2026 | Next season begins in March |
Edmond's leaders approved both projects for the same reason. The Oklahoman reported that council members mostly wanted assurance of a return in new sales tax revenue. A festival crowd eight nights a year doesn't produce that. A restaurant, a basement bar and a row of small shops open year-round could. The earliest of those deadlines is more than two years away.
What Fills the Calendar Until March
When the last food truck leaves Hurd on October 17, downtown has a short list of dates to fill the off-season.
- Urban Sketchers Route 66 Centennial Exhibit, through October 26. The Edmond History Museum is showing more than 200 regional sketches, and admission is free. If you go to the Route 66 finale on the 17th, the exhibit is still open for another week.
- Edmond International Festival, Saturday, November 7, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The free event is held at Festival Market Place, 30 W. 1st St., with cultural exhibits, performances and food.
- Deck the Downtown, Thursday, November 12, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The free event at 29 W. 1st St. is set to include the downtown tree lighting, wagon rides, live reindeer, Santa and live music.
- Edmond Turkey Trot, Thanksgiving morning, November 26, 8 a.m. It starts downtown, and proceeds go to Turning Point Ministries. As of early October, Visit Edmond still says 2026 registration details are coming soon.
Visit Edmond notes that event dates and details can change, so check before you head out.
All four events cluster around 1st Street and the downtown core. Between them, the steady draw is the one the diner has offered since 1951. In September, Around the Corner marked its anniversary with menu specials, commemorative T-shirts and coffee mugs. Breakfast and lunch there will carry downtown through the winter, as they have for 75 years. The corner where the festival happens has a later timeline. Its building could reopen with a restaurant and a bar by the end of 2028 if it meets its contract.
If you live near downtown Edmond and want to talk through what the plans at Broadway and Hurd could mean for your street, The Laws Team is happy to help. We follow these council decisions closely, and we'll walk you through them plainly. Schedule a Consultation, and let's talk it through over coffee.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
