kendall whittier/lweis/6th/demolition

[tulsascoot]

over the past couple of years, all of the crummy apts west of lewis and south of 4th have been leveled. this is great development as they have done nothing but draw criminals to the area, but who is doing this. Is it TU? the city? I am just curious. I live the other side of Lewis and am happy to see the crack dens go

[carltonplace]

over the past couple of years, all of the crummy apts west of lewis and south of 4th have been leveled. this is great development as they have done nothing but draw criminals to the area, but who is doing this. Is it TU? the city? I am just curious. I live the other side of Lewis and am happy to see the crack dens go

George Kaiser.

[jacobi]

So what is the plan for this area?  Kaiser usually has such good plans.

[carltonplace]

Here is a link to a previous discussion:

http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=16207.0

SWSX
Posts: 2748

   
        Kendall-Whittier
« on: September 09, 2010, 09:28:08 am » Quote 

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I saw in the TW yesterday that the Kaiser Foundation is helping the city buy properties in the area in between Lewis and Atlanta, 5th Pl. and 4th St. by Kendall-Whittier Elementary.  There are several rundown apartment complexes there currently, along with a few vacant lots.  I believe the intent is to sell the land to developers and build new homes.  Hopefully this expands south to the neighborhood directly west of TU.  I can see that area being similar to Renaissance if some of the apartments and blight are removed.  I have a few friends in their mid-late 20's that have bought homes in this area and it seems to be revitalizing.  A streetscape along 6th could do wonders as well.  Your thoughts?



http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=334&articleid=20100907_11_A11_TheGeo886076&archive=yes

[tulsascoot]

I appreciate the response. I've lived in the area for 12 years (on the other side of Lewis, which has always been nicer), and that little patch of land has been full of derelict apartments and derelict people. Just yesterday they demolished more of those horrible soviet style brick apartments across from KW school. I'm pleased to see it all gone. I think it will help my property value, as well as take some bad elements out.

I am also pleased with everything that Kaiser does for this city. With the insane amount of wealth he has gathered from the city (at least by being based in this city) it's great to see it being shared with the community.

[tulsascoot]

Bumping this for more info. There is a lot of work being done and earth moving over behind People's State Bank. Anyone know what this is going to be? It is a big site.

[godboko71]

Bumping this for more info. There is a lot of work being done and earth moving over behind People's State Bank. Anyone know what this is going to be? It is a big site.

No idea what is is, hopping for park space since the school is right there, Would be a good site for green space.

[jacobi]

If anyone cares, look at the area north of the soundpony or cains.  Flattened.  Kaiser does really well by tulsa, but I see this becoming a new 'urban renewal'.

[tulsascoot]

Well, there already is a massive park over behind the school. It is a public park that the school also uses for recess. It's a large green space. In contrast to the neighborhood north of the IDL, there is earth moving, not just demolition; however, the buildings that were razed were low rent and full of crime and a lot of bad elements. They are not going to be missed, except by one person. I spoke to Moe, the owner of the store on the corner of 6 and Lewis, and he said razing all those rental units has hurt his business a lot. That kinda sucks, but hopefully what replaces it will bring him a better kind of business, and fewer low lifes.

I didn't know who had done that area downtown; it was all gone by the time I was old enough to understand anything about downtown. I can say the last 2 buildings north of Cain's to be demolished were crack havens and hangouts for prostitutes. I used to drive that way and any time of day in any weather people would wave for me to stop my car to come see them for whatever they were selling. Needless to say, I just kept driving. They were not missed and if the other area around there was anything like it, than maybe it wasn't all bad, even if a historic neighborhood is gone and likely nothing will ever replace it.

[dsjeffries]

George Kaiser Family Foundation is partnering with other organizations to build new apartments here. Story in the Tulsa World today: http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=32&articleid=20120525_32_E1_CUTLIN721477

A 21-building apartment development is being created in the Kendall-Whittier neighborhood by a team that includes the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the University of Tulsa, the city of Tulsa and McCormick Baron Salazar, a St. Louis-based urban development company.

West Park Apartments will be constructed between Lewis and Atlanta avenues across the street from Kendall-Whittier Park, which is also getting a face-lift as part of the project. In all, the 148 apartments and improvements will cost $36 million.

Josh Miller, a program officer with the Kaiser foundation, said the organization has been increasingly active in the neighborhood over the past seven years with various educational programs and services, including helping to establish an Educare childhood school in the neighborhood at 2511 E. Fifth Place.

Inspired by the work of Harlem Children's Zone, a nonprofit that has had great success helping the children of Harlem in New York City, the foundation decided to expand its efforts to help provide a better environment for children after school hours.

"The foundation saw an opportunity to take all the current services we're providing in the neighborhood and build a pipeline from birth to school to college to career," Miller said.

"One of the significant challenges we've identified in the area is the lack of safe, affordable, quality housing."

Construction has begun, with the first central building to be finished in mid-2013 and the rest of the buildings by the end of that year, Miller said.

Funding for the project is coming from the Kaiser foundation, TU, low-income housing credits, outside financing secured by MBS and other sources, he said.

Additionally, the city of Tulsa is providing sanitary and storm sewer infrastructure work, said Henry Somdecerff, design engineering manager in engineering services for the city.

The first building to go up will be a large facility that will house the apartment management office, amenities such as a community room and fitness room, 20 apartments and 2,600 square feet of retail space.

Miller said the building will be one of the first mixed-use structures in the area to go up using guidelines from PlaniTulsa, the citywide effort to update the city's comprehensive plan.

Not only will its 20 units be devoted to graduate students from TU, but also the university will own the building, said Kevin Buck, executive vice president and treasurer at TU.

"The foundation was looking to do something in the neighborhood to clean it up and provide better quality housing, and they came to us to see if we could be involved," he said. "We've always been very active in the Kendall-Whitter neighborhood."

TU owns multiple lots and buildings in the neighborhood, Buck said.

The foundation had also reached out to MBS for construction and management of West Park based on the company's track record of community development and urban revitalization, Miller said.

Mary Kellers, vice president and senior project manager at MBS, said units at West Park should have an average rent of $572 per month, compared to an estimated market value of $630 per unit. There will be one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans.

Miller said planning for West Park began in 2008, when the foundation and MBS started reaching out to residents in the neighborhood.

"We had a whole series of neighborhood meetings to find out what the neighborhood wanted," he said. "The design of the apartments is the result of input from the residents."

The buildings won't just blend into the neighborhood, they'll embrace the eclectic architecture and have unique looks, Miller said.

"It's meant to look like a neighborhood," he said. "One of them will have an arts and crafts look and one will have a European romantic look, for instance."

The renovation of Kendall-Whittier Park is aimed to make it more open and inviting for use, Miller said.

"Right now, it's very choppy and user unfriendly," he said. "There's a tree at second base, and most of the activity only takes space in one corner."

Among the changes planned are new lighting, new entrances, a splash pad, new pavilions and gazebos, an ornamental metal fence, walking trails and more.

A quick search also turned up a detailed PDFs of ALL the plans and construction documents. View here.

This is an amazing project. I especially like the mixed-use building facing Lewis.

Thanks again to GKFF.

[TheArtist]

  On that pdf   A8.15 shows the mixed use building on Lewis, elevation.  Looks pretty good. 

[dsjeffries]

Mixed Use Building


Apartment Buildings:











Site Plan: (Including 298 parking spaces, 41 of which are on-street spaces)

[nathanm]

This should be neat, presuming there is money for maintenance.

[ZYX]

This looks fantastic. Awesome to have such a huge project sneak up under our noses like this.

[carltonplace]

This looks fantastic. Awesome to have such a huge project sneak up under our noses like this.

Very nice. The mixed use building looks great.