Downtown Development Overview

[swake]

Picture from the WPX site. Looks like they've started some actual construction while finishing up the remaining ground work.

I can see the base of a tower crane.

[Jacobei]

I can see the base of a tower crane.

Drove by on the highway today and saw this crane up even further.  With the Davenport's crane lift crane up as well, this part of downtown looks very different from the highway.

[ComeOnBenjals]

Lots of exciting (crane) stuff going on this weekend!

Took a few pictures of the WPX crane construction as well as a final look.

Crane Segments:




Partially Erected:



WPX and Davenport Cranes:




Not sure what they're doing, but there was another crane blocking third street between Main and Boston. Appeared to be doing something with the abandoned building on 3rd and Main.




Exciting stuff! Always good to have multiple tower cranes at any given time.

[shavethewhales]

Great updates! Glad to see WPX finally getting off the ground. Haven't seen it in the day light properly yet, but it looks like things are going to start going vertical there shortly. The Parker building was supposed to become a hotel at one point, but it never seemed to land an operator. Did it switch to housing?

I'll add a few photos I snapped while walking around Friday night.

Otasco is coming along, but still finishing up the structure.
It looks like Davenport has one more residential floor to go before the clubhouse?
There are signs in the window of the new Empire pizza place next to Soundpony saying they are hiring. Inside looks pretty much complete.
The wall is up around the new OKPOP site. Doing a bit of infrastructure work in the ROW at the moment, haven't really gotten a lot of dirt moving yet.
I didn't get any of the Edge building across from the ballpark, which has gone vertical.

[AdamsHall]

Not sure what they're doing, but there was another crane blocking third street between Main and Boston. Appeared to be doing something with the abandoned building on 3rd and Main.




Exciting stuff! Always good to have multiple tower cranes at any given time.

The crane on 3rd between Main and Boston was used to remove the oil derrick structure from the NW corner of the roof of the Parker Drilling building.

[ComeOnBenjals]

Main Street makeover: Parking garage exterior set for face lift


"The Tulsa Parking Authority is collaborating with the Tulsa Arts Commission and the Tulsa Planning Office's Arts and Culture division to solicit qualifications from professional artists and designers for a public art installation at the site, 410 S. Main St.

Planners are seeking to "reactivate" the ground level of the garage by adding a "permanent, engaging and interactive installation to the site's facade," according to the request for qualifications."

"This corner certainly was more active back in the day," TPA Director Peyton Haralson said by phone. "With our upgrades, coupled with the art installation, the goal obviously is to attract more foot traffic in that area and revitalize a corner that has a lot of potential."

"About $1.2 million is being invested into new canopies and glass for the business storefronts located in the building, Haralson said.

The primary available "canvas" for the art is the unadorned facades on the east and northeast corners of the Main Street garage. Its plain exterior is in stark contrast to the Price Family Properties garage, which sits directly across the street and has color-changing ability that illuminates the area nightly."

Really love this announcement. I've thought this parking garage screams "blank canvas" for a while now. Will be exciting to see what's chosen.


https://www.tulsaworld.com/business/main-street-makeover-parking-garage-exterior-set-for-facelift/article_2f510ed3-6467-5eaf-adf8-c64ed51a7af7.html

[shavethewhales]

Here's a few from last Friday.

Greenwood:


The View is vertical:


Really getting into it at WPX:

[SXSW]

I didn't realize WPX had such a larger underground garage, cool (and rare) to see in Tulsa.

[DTowner]

I didn't realize WPX had such a larger underground garage, cool (and rare) to see in Tulsa.

Is WPX the largest downtown project (in terms of size) since BOK center?

Now if we could just get OKPOP kicking up dirt (I know, never satisfied).

[DowntownDan]

Is WPX the largest downtown project (in terms of size) since BOK center?

Now if we could just get OKPOP kicking up dirt (I know, never satisfied).

The Cimarex building is pretty big, but it's half parking garage and makes me want to vomit, so I wouldn't count it.

[Jeff P]

The Cimarex building is pretty big, but it's half parking garage and makes me want to vomit, so I wouldn't count it.

Yeah - remember the original renderings of that development?  Oh...what could have been...

[DowntownDan]

Yeah - remember the original renderings of that development?  Oh...what could have been...

I seriously wonder if there is an architect somewhere who is proud of that work. Like seriously patting themselves on the back for finding a way to plot a few usable floors on top of a pretty visible parking garage. Same with the BOA building. I seriously just don't get it, at all.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Yeah - remember the original renderings of that development?  Oh...what could have been...

Why remember when we can see what was sold to the public:

It's just a parking lot right now. But soon the corner of 2nd and Cheyenne will be a place where you can work live and play.

(caveat: can't actually live there and your options for work are very limited and play includes a coffee shop and candy shop)

https://ktul.com/archive/new-downtown-tower-brings-energy-in-revitalization-efforts


WPX looks like it is making a place Tulsans can be proud of. It is still to be seen how closely it'll be to renderings, but it sounds like they're going forward with the plans they showed everyone. Let's hope it ends up as nice as those.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Michael Overall: Tulsa needs to avoid another bait-and-switch ugly development

Talking about PAC development:

Let's just hope developers and city officials follow through this time

https://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/michael-overall-tulsa-needs-to-avoid-another-bait-and-switch/article_0e97a2c9-5e99-59f9-acca-7b99142873ac.html

There've been many much better developments since Cimarex, but it will long be a reminder of how we should never get our hopes too high and that we should aim to keep developers and city leaders accountable, or at least call them out when they fail the city like this.

I'm guessing the next big disappointment will be Santa Fe Square and not because it ends up looking anywhere near as bad as Cimarex, but because it is just far too large for what DT can sustain at this point and the core "wow" parts of it will likely be pushed back 5+ years and/or pared down like they already started doing ( see the proposed vs latest here: http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=21117.165).

I'd rather wait for the right development than move forward with poorly planned cheap development. I'm guessing the people in charge of it would rather the same also. They sold the public on a DT-altering plan and seem to do things the right way. They are better of doing nothing than putting up a bunch of mediocre office buildings. The latest released version of the corner office building and redesigned core development already look like a big disappointment compared to the beautiful original concept. It looks nice still and if they had sold that originally, people would've been happy, but they sold a transformative project and are now reducing that to generic trendy/urban. Will the final version be even cheaper looking?

Santa Fe was first announced publicly in early 2015. 5 years later, they have a couple of the smaller buildings up but looks like none of the big buildings are in process. It looks like there's just not demand for that much volume of buildings downtown (especially not multiple city blocks of 7-story buildings like the original renderings). So many companies with big work forces want to build their own place far away from downtown (like Unit Petroleum in Tulsa Hills). It saves them a lot in rent and real estate can be had cheaply and built with fewer restrictions. Then ample parking and they get to be the lords of their own place. It takes a lot to lure in big companies to move to a big pricey place like Santa Fe and mostly these new places seem to be poaching tenants from other downtown buildings rather than bringing in new businesses to DT.

[SXSW]

Santa Fe Square is backed by local groups that have a vested interest in making sure it is a quality development.  I have hopes it will be great, even if it does take awhile to all come together.