The Applebee's that closed on State Highway 152 in April 2025 is coming back as four tenant spaces. Three of them already have names: 7 Brew, Mo' Bettahs and Wingstop. The split shows how Mustang's main commercial road is growing this year. New businesses are mostly moving into buildings that already stand on the corridor. On the road itself, the city is upgrading the signals and leaving the lane count alone.
That pattern shows up at almost every address in the city's latest business update. It also explains why the biggest road project on the city's books sits a couple of miles south, on SW 89th Street.
Four Tenants in One Former Restaurant
Applebee's Grill and Bar had been in Mustang since 2013, next door to IHOP and Zaxby's. It closed April 28, 2025, and a sign on the door announced it. Melissa Helsel, the City of Mustang's Community Development Director, told Central Oklahoma Weeklies then that the property hadn't changed hands and that nobody had applied for a business license to put a new restaurant there. The space would sit empty for now.
Sixteen months later, the City Manager's Report dated August 28, 2026 showed a different plan for 1020 E. State Highway 152. The city has issued a permit to rebuild the structure as four separate tenant spaces. Three of them have finish-out permits:
- 7 Brew, the drive-thru coffee chain, has its footings poured and plumbing rough-in done
- Mo' Bettahs, the Hawaiian-style restaurant, has a finish-out permit
- Wingstop has a finish-out permit
The report doesn't name the fourth tenant, and it gives no opening dates for the other three. August 28 is still the latest report in the city's archive. Of the three, 7 Brew is furthest along based on the August report. For everyone driving past, all three are under construction.
A building that used to hold one sit-down restaurant will soon hold a coffee drive-thru, two quick-service food counters and one more tenant. The pad is the same and so is the curb cut. It will just generate a lot more trips in and out each day.
The Rest of the Corridor Is Doing the Same Math
The Applebee's conversion is the most visible project, but the rest of the August 28 report follows the same pattern. Here's where things stood at each address on that date:
| Address | What's happening | Status as of August 28, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1020 E. SH-152 | Former Applebee's rebuilt as four tenant spaces | 7 Brew footings poured; Mo' Bettahs and Wingstop permitted |
| 1433 E. SH-152 | Chrome Pony Bar in the former Silver Stallion building | Open |
| 1108 E. SH-152 | Vision Source adding office space to the back of its building | Final occupancy inspection pending |
| 331 N. Mustang Rd. | Existing 2,193 sq ft building remodeled into a Dunkin | Final inspections pending |
| 600 E. SH-152 | Reign Athletics, new 11,972 sq ft building south of Chicken Express and Freddy's | Paving not started; building finals pending |
| 215 N. Sara Rd. | Ashton Gray retail center, 8,023 sq ft | Interior work and sewer line still to finish |
Four of those six projects reuse or add onto a building that already existed. Chrome Pony Bar opened as a neighborhood bar in the Silver Stallion's old space. The Dunkin is a remodel of a standing building on Mustang Road. Vision Source is adding office space onto its existing building.
Reign Athletics is the clear exception. It's a nearly 12,000-square-foot new building going up behind two restaurants that are already open. Even that lot sits between businesses already operating on SH-152, so it fills a gap in the corridor without pushing it farther out.
Some new business is landing off the highway. Lane Creative Co. has applied for a business license for a T-shirt and screen-printing studio at 228 N. Chisholm Trail Way. On S. Symes Lane, Smitty's Garage has a permit for a 6,000-square-foot auto shop at 501. Bronco Towing's 3,000-square-foot building at 508 has been framed. Those are service and trade businesses. The coffee, food and retail are going onto 152.
These Brands Already Have Stores Nearby
Mustang won't be the first metro location for the two brands moving into the old Applebee's that you may know least. Mo' Bettahs' official Oklahoma locator lists stores in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Midwest City, Moore, Norman, Shawnee and Yukon. 7 Brew's Oklahoma locator lists four stands in Oklahoma City, two in Edmond, three in Norman and one in Yukon. Neither locator shows a Mustang store yet.
That's the local news in this conversion. Both chains have already put stores in the communities around Mustang, Yukon included. For anyone in Mustang, the nearest Mo' Bettahs plate or 7 Brew drink is about to move from another city's main road onto their own. For the brands, Mustang fills a gap between locations they already run.
The City Is Upgrading the Signals on SH-152
More businesses on the same stretch of highway mean more left turns, more drive-thru lines spilling toward the road and more stops at every light between Mustang Road and the east side of town. The city's main answer for SH-152 is a signal upgrade. No lane additions are planned.
City staff applied for and won a grant from the ACOG 2026 Air Quality Grant Program. The grant pays $560,000, which is 80% of the project's cost, so the full project comes to roughly $700,000. The money replaces the controllers, conflict-monitoring equipment and vehicle-detection equipment at every intersection along SH-152. The city says the upgraded system will let the signals communicate and coordinate along the whole corridor. It projects a 20% to 30% cut in congestion delay on SH-152 once the work is done.
As of August 28, staff were still choosing the new signal system. Equipment replacement was expected to begin in fall 2026. The city's report archive still lists August 28 as its most recent report, so the city hasn't issued an update on the signal project in that series. Fall started last week, so the timing is close. Until the city announces a contractor, treat the start date as a target.
The widening work is happening farther south. The SW 89th Street expansion covers all of SW 89th between Mustang Road and State Highway 4. It also covers the southern stretch of Mustang Road from the railroad tracks down to SW 89th, plus a piece of SW 89th just east of SH-4. Voters approved it as part of the sales tax extension on August 23, 2016. The project is now in utility relocation, and several utilities need engineering and coordinated moves. The city expects that phase alone to take 18 to 24 months.
Put the two projects side by side and you can see the plan. SW 89th, where subdivisions like the 61-lot Riverwood Addition duplex development are going in, gets the new pavement. SH-152, where the commercial buildings are already in place, gets better-coordinated signals.
Two Walking Connections Come Next
Two projects in the pipeline would connect parts of the corridor on foot. The Mustang Trails Project will build a walking trail from SH-152, on the west side of Fire Station #1, to the existing trails in the southwest corner of Wild Horse Park. It came out of the 2017 Imagine Mustang Comprehensive Plan. Mustang Multimodal Phase 1 will build protected sidewalks between Mustang Public Schools facilities inside city limits and the Town Center.
ODOT is handling bidding and construction administration for both. Both were scheduled for September bid openings, with construction expected to begin in early 2027. With construction set for early 2027, neither project is expected to break ground this fall.
Fall Dates for Your Commute
Here's what's scheduled near the corridor over the next several weeks:
- October 3, 10, 17 and 24: Fall Curbside Clean-Up runs on Saturdays. Your date depends on your regular trash day, and items need to be at the curb by 7 a.m. Tuesday customers go October 3, Thursday customers October 10, Friday customers October 17 and Monday customers October 24.
- October 9: Flick N Treat brings a free outdoor screening of Hocus Pocus to the Mustang Town Center front lawn at 1201 N. Mustang Road. Food trucks and activities start at 6 p.m., and the movie starts at 7.
- October 14: Resurfacing starts on Clear Springs Road from SW 89th Street to SH-152. The city postponed the work earlier because of manpower and equipment limits, then moved it to Fall Break to keep it away from school traffic. If you use Clear Springs to reach 152, plan another route that week.
- Fall 2026: The SH-152 signal equipment replacement is expected to start, pending the city's choice of a system.
The August report gave no opening dates for 7 Brew, Mo' Bettahs or Wingstop. The next City Manager's Report should show how far the old Applebee's has come, and it may name the fourth tenant.
Want to know what a busier, better-timed SH-152 could mean for a home or a commercial property near the corridor? Whether you're weighing a sale, a lease or a purchase near these projects, Gabe Ellingsen and the AIM team follow these permits closely. Contact us, and we'll go through it with you.
