The fact that it's seasonal is part of why I don't think it's a very sustainable district--it's not just seasonal, it's truly only thriving on weekends. In any development or redevelopment like that, if it's to be successful over the very long term, there HAS to be a substantial mixture of uses and users over the period of a day and week. That means it can't just be retail and entertainment--it has to include substantial residential, office and service components, as well. 'Substantial' is the key word. Without a good mix of those things, any development is only going to thrive on the weekends... and most businesses (services, entertainment, offices, retail, restaurants, etc.) cannot survive on a weekend tidal wave alone.
The problem with that is that nobody is willing to do anything. For some reason we just can't get the same level of potential infill projects that Tulsa is getting right now. I think the main reason is all of the change in downtown that has everything up in the air and making people less willing to invest in projects until they see how the dozen or so gamechangers currently in progress will pan out. Other reasons..OCURA isn't making the big push for infill that the TDA is, and we lack the incentives to push for infill that Tulsa has. We all know exactly what Bricktown needs, a huge long laundry list..how to get it is a different problem that we're all trying to figure out. We've made a lot of expensive mistakes there (Bass Pro, blocking Bricktown Village). It's worth noting though that Bricktown is getting a lot more active during the daytime, not just evenings.
Anyway--what's the latest word on SandRidge, Spartan?
No gnus. Last week, their attorney's comment that "SandRidge may need to reconsider if downtown is appropriate" for their HQ blew up in the media, newspaper, and TV news. I think they regret that their attorney said that in a heated moment and they've been no comment ever since. Waiting for them to come out with some statement dealing with that.. but they are looking very bad right now.