The Edge at East Village

[johrasephoenix]

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/technology/developer-plans-new-downtown-apartments-completes-million-sale-apartment-complexes/article_4feb26a0-4263-5941-918e-abe7aba9b234.html

From TW:
In one of the biggest one-day apartment-property sale clusters in Tulsa County's history, American Residential Group sold all four of its properties outside of the downtown area for a combined $95 million.
Thanks in part to the sale, American Residential is preparing to build two new properties downtown that could total well over 300 units.
The transactions, which closed Tuesday, hands them to Weidner Apartment Homes, a Seattle-based apartment management group that manages more than 38,000 units across the country.
Affected properties include Lincoln on Memorial at 7777 S. Memorial Drive; Villas on Memorial, located directly to the south of Lincoln on Memorial at 7877 S. Memorial Drive; Memorial Creek, located at 9602 S. Memorial Drive; and Woodland Park, located at 7350 S. Garnett Road.
All current employees of these communities will be retained by Weidner.
Jay Helm, president and CEO of American Residential, said the move is a combination of a redeployment of capital and a refocus.
"We decided we wanted to focus on urban development, not just here but in other cities," Helm said.
That focus includes plans for two new developments in downtown Tulsa. The first, an unnamed project formerly known as Hartford Commons, will be $21 million in new construction at 215 S. Greenwood Ave., and will feature 162 units.
Steve Ganzkow, senior vice president at American Residential, said they're in the process of bidding out the final details of construction and plan to begin construction by the end of December.
Tulsa businessman Elliot Nelson, developer of McNellie's Public House and various other businesses in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, has a small interest in the development, said Ganzkow.
The second, to be located on the southeast corner of Elgin and Archer near ONEOK Field, would be a new building with between 160 and 220 units. Plans for that development have not yet been finalized, though Ganzkow said they hope to start construction in the middle of next year.
American Residential currently has the land for that development under contract from the Stadium Trust.
In addition, Ganzkow said they'd like to have a third project under development over the next three years. They're currently investigating potential areas for development along Riverside Drive and the area between downtown and 21st Street.
Ganzkow said he felt the company's non-downtown developments have been successful, but their passion lies closer to downtown.
"We've been involved with the suburban market and the urban market, and we've found that urban markets are very complicated and time-consuming," he said. "But we believe that being able to give back something to the community and participate in the revitalization is exciting for us."
The company is also considering building in the urban core of other cities, though they haven't identified where yet.
American Residential Group's downtown-area communities, which will remain with the company, include Lincoln Park at 18th Street and Carson Avenue, Renaissance Downtown at 11th Street and Denver Avenue, the Tribune Lofts at 20 E. Archer St., and the Metro at Brady at 10 E. Archer.
Lincoln Park was originally developed by Helm in 1984 for a different company, while the rest were built by American Residential. Tribune Lofts were made from the redeveloped former home of the Tulsa Tribune.
Helm said the properties were marketed for sale for four weeks before they entered into a contract with Weidner. He said the company received multiple offers, but went with Weidner because he felt the company would be a good fit for the residents and employees.
The purchase is Weidner's first in the Tulsa area, though Helm said they're looking for other communities in the area in which to buy.
In September, Weidner purchased Liberty Pointe Apartments near Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City for $37.25 million.
All of Weidner's Oklahoma transactions were brokered by Brandon Lamb and Tim McKay with Apartment Realty Advisors.

[DTowner]

This is great news.

[swake]

Are there renderings anywhere? With the former Hartford Commons starting next month someone has to have something.

[carltonplace]

Amazing news. 300 new apartments is a very nice augment..that is almost an additional third of the current apartment stock inside the IDL and it puts lots of new downtown residents in the East End and Greenwood Districts.  That and the aggressive start dates. Very good to hear this.

Can't wait to see the plan for the Greenwood apartments

Bring on the retail.

[carltonplace]

Are there renderings anywhere? With the former Hartford Commons starting next month someone has to have something.

There was an artist's concept rendering in the Journal Record some time ago. Not sure if it's still relevant but here you go:



Updated: I just found this on the American Residential Group page, so the rendering above is still current as of July 2014.
The artist must like sports cars
http://www.argtulsa.com/pages/current-projects.asp

[TheArtist]

Great to have more living downtown.  As for retail, at least the Hartford Commons location, in that pic on their website, does not appear to have space for ground floor retail.  And that is fine, you don't want to have every building having ground floor retail space.  But this begs the question, Where are the retail corridors going to be?  

Did a quick drive through the other day of some of the area near downtown OKC that has a lot of new development going in, including lots of housing.  What I noticed though is that scattered randomly throughout were a few small office buildings and some retail/restaurant offerings.  That is not going to work to create a vibrant street in any of those areas, nor will those retail/restaurants be able to do as well as if they were on a street with many shops/restaurants all along it.  You would see a row of apartments, then a shop, then more apartments, then perhaps an office building, then more apartments, then an isolated restaurant, a parking garage, etc.  Nobody walking around, because there is no real reason for them to walk around, no incentive, no "draw", etc.

Another city I was reading about a while back that is farther along development wise than we and OKC are were struggling with a new problem they were noticing.  They had already developed a good amount of new retail and restaurants in their downtown.... but had noticed that the developments were "spotty" and struggling and the street life they had hoped for still not materialize like they thought it would. Especially the retail component. They were looking at trying to come up with some ideas on how to connect these spotty developments and create a more thriving shopping/retail component for their downtown.

I want to expand in a couple years, open another location or a larger store.  Am glad to see these new developments go in, but still have no clue as to where the best place is going to be?  There is no zoning in our downtown to say "we would like this to be a thriving retail corridor".  My business, and those other shops scattered around downtown are not going to be able to reach their potential, staying isolated, scattered shops.  Every break in your retail/restaurant street fabric is essentially money lost.  I really really really wish we could zone, and or have incentives to encourage at least a few streets, at least 5 or 6 connected blocks worth, to be retail corridors.  Those will be the streets that will be super lively day in and day out and will be great corridors for any future transit connections.

[DolfanBob]

Any idea what rent might be? I would love to live downtown. But 2 grand a month is a little out of reach. 

[carltonplace]

Great to have more living downtown.  As for retail, at least the Hartford Commons location, in that pic on their website, does not appear to have space for ground floor retail.  And that is fine, you don't want to have every building having ground floor retail space.  But this begs the question, Where are the retail corridors going to be?  

Did a quick drive through the other day of some of the area near downtown OKC that has a lot of new development going in, including lots of housing.  What I noticed though is that scattered randomly throughout were a few small office buildings and some retail/restaurant offerings.  That is not going to work to create a vibrant street in any of those areas, nor will those retail/restaurants be able to do as well as if they were on a street with many shops/restaurants all along it.  You would see a row of apartments, then a shop, then more apartments, then perhaps an office building, then more apartments, then an isolated restaurant, a parking garage, etc.  Nobody walking around, because there is no real reason for them to walk around, no incentive, no "draw", etc.

Another city I was reading about a while back that is farther along development wise than we and OKC are were struggling with a new problem they were noticing.  They had already developed a good amount of new retail and restaurants in their downtown.... but had noticed that the developments were "spotty" and struggling and the street life they had hoped for still not materialize like they thought it would. Especially the retail component. They were looking at trying to come up with some ideas on how to connect these spotty developments and create a more thriving shopping/retail component for their downtown.

I want to expand in a couple years, open another location or a larger store.  Am glad to see these new developments go in, but still have no clue as to where the best place is going to be?  There is no zoning in our downtown to say "we would like this to be a thriving retail corridor".  My business, and those other shops scattered around downtown are not going to be able to reach their potential, staying isolated, scattered shops.  Every break in your retail/restaurant street fabric is essentially money lost.  I really really really wish we could zone, and or have incentives to encourage at least a few streets, at least 5 or 6 connected blocks worth, to be retail corridors.  Those will be the streets that will be super lively day in and day out and will be great corridors for any future transit connections.

I was thinking about this not too long ago. The area around Home Depot seems like a natural urban retail corridor working its way both north along Elgin and into the East Village in the Nordam campus and West along 10th/11th towards TCC.

Actually there is plenty of room in the Home Depot parking lot to add additional (suburban style) retail.

[DTowner]

There was an artist's concept rendering in the Journal Record some time ago. Not sure if it's still relevant but here you go:



Updated: I just found this on the American Residential Group page, so the rendering above is still current as of July 2014.
The artist must like sports cars
http://www.argtulsa.com/pages/current-projects.asp

I wish they were few stories taller (easy for me to spend someone else's money), but otherwise the design is ok.  I will be glad when more development pushes further south from the railroad tracks (as I type this, I can hear a train whistle blowing).

[carltonplace]

I noticed that the one story building at 2nd and Greenwood was demolished yesterday and that they are starting some dirt work on the lot where Hartford Commons will be. Not sure why I'm so excited about an apartment complex but I guess I am. Bring on the downtown dwellers!

[cannon_fodder]

I noticed that the one story building at 2nd and Greenwood was demolished yesterday...

2nd and Greenwood has "The Hartford Building" (or whatever the block long white building that we hoped would be TUs medschool and is owned by TDA is called now), Legends bar, and 2 emtpy lots.

Did you mean Greenwood and Archer?  If so, the single story building there was the Oklahoma Eagle - who's long time publisher died ~6 months ago.

[carltonplace]

Sorry, this was actually 2nd and Kenosha. The building faced Kenosha and is now a pile of rubble.

[LandArchPoke]

I wish they were few stories taller (easy for me to spend someone else's money), but otherwise the design is ok.  I will be glad when more development pushes further south from the railroad tracks (as I type this, I can hear a train whistle blowing).

I would love to see this taller as well. The economics just aren't there for non wood apartment construction downtown yet. We are getting very very close though. Once that barrier is broke we should see some 10-15 story infill projects.

I'm at a loss of why the city isn't requiring them to put retail spaces in the corners along Greenwood at 2nd and especially 3rd. They are letting ARG create to much dead space.

[rdj]

I would love to see this taller as well. The economics just aren't there for non wood apartment construction downtown yet. We are getting very very close though. Once that barrier is broke we should see some 10-15 story infill projects.

I'm at a loss of why the city isn't requiring them to put retail spaces in the corners along Greenwood at 2nd and especially 3rd. They are letting ARG create to much dead space.

I bet they aren't doing retail because I believe they've struggled with the retail in the Tribune projects.  But, I could be wrong.

[LandArchPoke]

I bet they aren't doing retail because I believe they've struggled with the retail in the Tribune projects.  But, I could be wrong.

Wouldn't surprise me. The difficulties of the retail at Tribune was due to them not knowing what they were doing. The depth is terrible, and the retail spaces have almost no visibility from Archer.

I think this new project should at least have one retail space at the corner of Greenwood and 2nd. It would be great for a corner store, coffee shop, or small bar. It would keep that entire area just being a dead space outside someone who is visiting someone there and has to park on the street and walk to the buildings front door.