The City as LandLord....

[FOTD]

You believe their propaganda?

I think a blasting company could be contacted for a different opinion...

Seriously? What about the adjoining properties?

Blast away the devil say...

Relocate the Feds to other vacancies....absorb those empty spaces.

[RecycleMichael]

There is at least 150 feet to any other structure. They are only connected by a concrete plaza. Tear it down first, then have the building fall in it's footprint.

[Red Arrow]

I've seen a bunch of buildings brought down by precision demolition on the TV.  It would be awesome to see one come down in person.

[Oil Capital]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/895-KWGS-Public-Radio-Tulsa/137239999832?ref=mf&v=wall

89.5 KWGS Public Radio Tulsa - Report on Old City Hall finds too many problems and code violations to lease or sell. Advised to implode building. It's costing Tulsans more than 1/2million$ to maintain.

The gift that keeps on giving... er, taking.    (and it's more like 3/4 million per year for all of the properties that were abandoned.)

[shadows]

There is at least 150 feet to any other structure. They are only connected by a concrete plaza. Tear it down first, then have the building fall in it's footprint.

The old city hall should be listed in the halls of fame as a monument to all the misconceptions of what was wrong with it.

Then also it should disappear from the landscape as the generations in the future will only recall how foolish the council was to exchange it for the off campus glass monstrosity, creating more debt.  If the fed's are through with PW's  they could look into the CI in that transaction before the old city hall is taken down.  Taking it down would be a good cover up.

[RecycleMichael]

Taking it down would be a good cover up.

I think your morning prunes have fermented.

[shadows]

I think your morning prunes have fermented.

Any one that would buy all those tales condemning the building would need to distill the fermented prunes or they would have to drink some of that Kick-apoo-juice.  Save money and put a flag pole on top and call it a memorial. I remember when it was in the planning stage.  That was before it was being converted to "Branson at Tulsa".   

[FOTD]

Now, leasing city hall is a MAJOR challenge.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20091002_11_A7_Thecit626217

Angela, why don't you donate some of that comish for TI work....if only you could find a tenant.

The government should stay out of real estate development...they seem to be failing away.

[cannon_fodder]

Of course it is.  If it wasn't a major challenge do you think the City would have been able to by the building at fire-sale price?  Nope.  No one else was willing to take on the financial risk.  I don't mean to beat this horse even more, but sheesh!

[Wilbur]

Why weren't our elected officials smart enough to know leasing space in that building was going to be next to impossible?  The layout is not what companies are looking for.  Most of the city employees hate the building for the same reason no body wants to rent the space...  NO PRIVACY.  The floors are totally open.

Sorry, but our Mayor and fiscal responsibility don't go together.

But, hey.... my furloughs days are great!

[sgrizzle]

Why weren't our elected officials smart enough to know leasing space in that building was going to be next to impossible?  The layout is not what companies are looking for.  Most of the city employees hate the building for the same reason no body wants to rent the space...  NO PRIVACY.  The floors are totally open.

Sorry, but our Mayor and fiscal responsibility don't go together.

But, hey.... my furloughs days are great!

Study a bit more history. The reason realtors have been saying for years that downtown had such a high vacancy rate is that it was all Class B and C space. They said tenants won't lease unless it's Class A like OTC. However, what those realtors back then and the people tied to this move didn't realize is that it's the big tech companies who wanted open floorplans and those are harder to find these days. Realtors also failed to target markets who could use smaller space like startups, non-profits, and residential.

[shadows]

Of course it is.  If it wasn't a major challenge do you think the City would have been able to by the building at fire-sale price?  Nope.  No one else was willing to take on the financial risk.  I don't mean to beat this horse even more, but sheesh!

Now the 76 million dollars in tax free bonds gave the citizens a few extra dollars to be included in tips of the transaction.  This tip money between the purchase price and the bond issue would seem to be where we can sustain the total loss in operations of the building through 2012.  With the non-voting on revenue bonds, (totaling over 100 Million dollars for building and ball park when including tax free interest is near a ½ billion dollars) we are told it is such a good deal.  There seem to be a difficulty in the average citizen understanding the restrictions on issuing the revenue bonds. 
Now we understand that the Mayor is going back to the state bureaucracies and fix the school system.  They claim they already have a shortage in funding.   

 

[TulsaSooner]

Now the 76 million dollars in tax free bonds gave the citizens a few extra dollars to be included in tips of the transaction.  This tip money between the purchase price and the bond issue would seem to be where we can sustain the total loss in operations of the building through 2012.  With the non-voting on revenue bonds, (totaling over 100 Million dollars for building and ball park when including tax free interest is near a ½ billion dollars) we are told it is such a good deal.  There seem to be a difficulty in the average citizen understanding the restrictions on issuing the revenue bonds. 
Now we understand that the Mayor is going back to the state bureaucracies and fix the school system.  They claim they already have a shortage in funding.   

The bonds to buy OneTech were not tax free bonds, they were about half and half, presumably, because about half of the space was for tax free purposes (City space) and half was to be leased (private space). 

[Wilbur]

Now the 76 million dollars in tax free bonds gave the citizens a few extra dollars to be included in tips of the transaction.  This tip money between the purchase price and the bond issue would seem to be where we can sustain the total loss in operations of the building through 2012.  With the non-voting on revenue bonds, (totaling over 100 Million dollars for building and ball park when including tax free interest is near a ½ billion dollars) we are told it is such a good deal.  There seem to be a difficulty in the average citizen understanding the restrictions on issuing the revenue bonds. 
Now we understand that the Mayor is going back to the state bureaucracies and fix the school system.  They claim they already have a shortage in funding.   

The history may very well be correct.  But the current market is what the City has to deal with.  That building was sitting there empty for a reason... nobody wants that type of space.  But our councilors did nothing to look into the feasibility of filling the space.  They took the Mayor's word, who wanted that space no matter how much it cost.

[Wrinkle]

The history may very well be correct.  But the current market is what the City has to deal with.  That building was sitting there empty for a reason... nobody wants that type of space.  But our councilors did nothing to look into the feasibility of filling the space.  They took the Mayor's word, who wanted that space no matter how much it cost.

You know what happens when Council doesn't take the Mayor's word on something, the World starts in with their "uncivilized, confrontational  Council" articles.

Every time.

But, to some degree, you're right. Council could've commission their own study, at considerably less than was paid Staubach & Co, who could've made short work of it. Virtually everyone knew from the outset this was a bad economic decision being forced upon the citizens of Tulsa, including the Mayor.