Downtown Development Overview

[erfalf]

When I mentioned that OKC got it worse than Tulsa, I should have elaborated a bit more. OKC core (center of downtown) got it WAY worse than Tulsa did. The Pei plan literally flattened several blocks in the center of town (where Devon tower is now) that for the better part of two decades were parking lots (and the Myriad Gardens so not a total loss). The center of Tulsa was generally spared this destruction. However, the periphery of the core in Tulsa was devastated. Hence the parking crater contest win. I would dare to say that not near as much history was lost as with the Pei plan debacle, but still it was significant in that it literally cut the vein and made Tulsa more disconnected. Only now is that starting to heal (not south of downtown unfortunately). OKC was able to maintain a large amount of building stock in the areas immediately surrounding the downtown core.

So in short, Tulsa snipped it's veins, OKC blew up its heart.

[swake]

When I mentioned that OKC got it worse than Tulsa, I should have elaborated a bit more. OKC core (center of downtown) got it WAY worse than Tulsa did. The Pei plan literally flattened several blocks in the center of town (where Devon tower is now) that for the better part of two decades were parking lots (and the Myriad Gardens so not a total loss). The center of Tulsa was generally spared this destruction. However, the periphery of the core in Tulsa was devastated. Hence the parking crater contest win. I would dare to say that not near as much history was lost as with the Pei plan debacle, but still it was significant in that it literally cut the vein and made Tulsa more disconnected. Only now is that starting to heal (not south of downtown unfortunately). OKC was able to maintain a large amount of building stock in the areas immediately surrounding the downtown core.

So in short, Tulsa snipped it's veins, OKC blew up its heart.

You can blame that nice big Catholic cathedral for a lot of the destruction that created the south downtown parking crater, along with TCC they are the biggest villains. The other downtown churches contributed too, but Holy Family and TCC were the worst. The most maddening part is most of TCC's parking need is at night and the church parking lots are basically only full on Sundays. All times when the parking for downtown workers is mostly empty.

[cannon_fodder]

I'm not sure how to say this without sounding like sarcasm, but I truly do like how this has become a "who tried to destroy their urban core the most" competition. It shows that there are people in both communities who have recognized mistakes in the past. 

That said, the outskirts of OKC do have plenty of sparse areas. But the core seems relatively intact. Even before Devon, there were just a few lots in the core area.  Tulsa still suffers from serious asphalt deserts that divide populated urban areas:







Some surface lots near the BOk Center have been filling in (but those were just created when the BOk Center was built), also lots of progress in north and northeast sections of downtown. But south portion of downtown remains award winning in its expanses of asphalt. They actually have grown in the last couple of years (thanks to TCC), but it seems the Churches in the area have recognized the value of old buildings and that source of destruction is now a source of creation.

The tide is turning. Good things are happening.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Downtown business owners contemplating future parking enforcement past 5 p.m.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/downtown-business-owners-contemplating-future-parking-enforcement-past-p-m/article_9c9b8fd0-6763-5ed7-93b2-0b6260800e3f.html

Downtown officials and business owners discussed a concern Wednesday that could lead to parking enforcement past 5 p.m. in some parts of downtown.
Currently, metered spots are free and clear after 5 p.m. as downtown workers head home.
The concern is that in several years, as a number of housing developments fill up, people coming home to downtown will anchor spots in front of businesses from 5 p.m. through the next morning.
The discussion came at a Downtown Coordinating Council meeting, where future issues facing downtown such as parking are frequently a topic.
The solution — although it wouldn't be necessary for several years — may be to extend parking enforcement in certain areas past 5 p.m., said Libby Billings, vice chairwoman of the Downtown Coordinating Council.
"I'm not advocating that we extend it past 5 o'clock yet," Billings said. "It's just that I think that as the Deco District is so densely populated with homes ... that we will get to a point where people who don't work downtown but do live downtown figure out the system."
William Franklin, a DCC member who owns Decopolis at 502 S. Boston Ave., said parking issues such as this have evolved over the past decade.
"Ten years ago, you could go down Boston Avenue in the evening and there was hardly any cars," he said. "Now, there's more and more, and we're noticing that they're moving less and less."
Billings, who owns Elote Cafe and Catering at 514 S. Boston Ave., said the issue would, at first, only be a problem on blocks like hers where residents and nighttime businesses coexist.
City Councilor Blake Ewing said he envisions the potential problem growing along with downtown, but only a few blocks would be affected for years to come.
"The anticipated problem is that as more people move downtown and have to find a place to keep their car overnight that they end up parking curbside on the street," Ewing said. "Then the businesses and retailers who do business after 5 p.m. don't have ample parking for customers."
Ewing said districts such as Blue Dome and Brady shouldn't ever run into that issue, so would likely not be affected.
"The real hope is to drive people — the long-term parkers — to the parking garages," Ewing said. "The on-street parking system is generally designed to support come-and-go business."

This type of discussion has come up on these boards before. Night parking meters seems like an inevitability in the denser parts of downtown. Personally I have never had issues parking within a block of Decopolis, Elote, Mods, etc. Even during big events downtown, it seems easy to find street parking at night within a few blocks (Mayfest, parade, etc).

I wish they could come up with a way to distinguish the resident cars from the occasional customers. Or just have much lower parking meter rates with a 3-4 hour limit at night to discourage overnight parking but not discourage customers.

[Bamboo World]

Downtown business owners contemplating future parking enforcement past 5 p.m.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/downtown-business-owners-contemplating-future-parking-enforcement-past-p-m/article_9c9b8fd0-6763-5ed7-93b2-0b6260800e3f.html

This type of discussion has come up on these boards before. Night parking meters seems like an inevitability in the denser parts of downtown. Personally I have never had issues parking within a block of Decopolis, Elote, Mods, etc. Even during big events downtown, it seems easy to find street parking at night within a few blocks (Mayfest, parade, etc).

I wish they could come up with a way to distinguish the resident cars from the occasional customers. Or just have much lower parking meter rates with a 3-4 hour limit at night to discourage overnight parking but not discourage customers.

I live south of the downtown area, and it takes me about 15 minutes to walk from my home to 5th & Boston.  When I drive downtown, I've had very few issues with parking.  It's usually easy to find a space on the street.  More angled parking would help in the most congested areas.  Also, long-term meters at the fringes of the CBD would help.  A few years ago, there were 10-hour meters near 9th & Main.  It was possible to park there all day, then walk to the core, to lunch, etc.  I think those have been replaced with one-hour or two-hour meters.

Ninth Street from Elgin to Boulder could have angled parking on both sides.  North Boulder from Cameron to Easton could have angled parking on both sides.  If there's enough demand to install meters, then the single meters are much easier to use than the multi-space meters. 

[saintnicster]

Downtown business owners contemplating future parking enforcement past 5 p.m.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/downtown-business-owners-contemplating-future-parking-enforcement-past-p-m/article_9c9b8fd0-6763-5ed7-93b2-0b6260800e3f.html

This type of discussion has come up on these boards before. Night parking meters seems like an inevitability in the denser parts of downtown. Personally I have never had issues parking within a block of Decopolis, Elote, Mods, etc. Even during big events downtown, it seems easy to find street parking at night within a few blocks (Mayfest, parade, etc).

I wish they could come up with a way to distinguish the resident cars from the occasional customers. Or just have much lower parking meter rates with a 3-4 hour limit at night to discourage overnight parking but not discourage customers.

Do we think that the City would actually be willing to pay people to do the enforcement "after hours"?

How many tickets need to be written (and paid, mind you) to support the additional manpower in this initiative?

[TheArtist]

The feeling is for me, especially now that I am in the new location that we have this small little "core" of shops and restaurants right around 5th and Boston and outside of that 1 block area is a dead zone of sorts.  Then add to that more living going in and you imagine perhaps more cars parking on the streets for blocks around and staying there all night after 5.   Well, it's a different matter for places like the Blue Dome and Brady Arts with their destinations and larger concentration of night life things where people will tend to walk further to get to "more stuff".  I don't know if someone say driving down Boston Avenue at night and seeing my store for instance will then park 4 or 5 blocks away and walk to my store past dark office buildings along the way.

Hopefully we will see more retail and restaurants go into our area and make it more of a draw.  What I would hate to see is that once many of the empty building that are being turned into lofts for instance or filling back up with offices perhaps, end up with office type places on the ground floor that close at 5.  This would leave our little island of shops and restaurants more isolated. 

Like I said in the article, not a problem now, but you can see a pattern emerging of more and more cars "anchored in" to spots along Boston Avenue all night and slowly spreading outward over time as more residential and such happens.  Extrapolate that out over what is currently going in residential and hotel wise and even more late evening office workers, and you can see where it could become a problem. 

Just something to keep our eye out for and be thinking of solutions for that possibility. 

Also, there is talk of having residential medallions for cars and we were curious as to what locations those automobiles would be able to park and what the price of the medallions would be. 

[Laramie]

That's probably a nationwide trend especially in many large city central core parking.  There are parking garages going up in OKC faster than you can blink.  Some of these structures aren't very pretty.

In Bricktown, one of the largest surface parking lots is set to be developed as a 7-story parking structure with ground level retail.


Could this be the new trend in Tulsa & OKC for design approval.

Personally, I've never been a fan of parking garages.  Have had to get adjusted to parking garages because of the time spent at the OU Medical Center research area.  Citizens want more sleek exterior decor with the garages.

[DowntownDan]

That's probably a nationwide trend especially in many large city central core parking.  There are parking garages going up in OKC faster than you can blink.  Some of these structures aren't very pretty.

In Bricktown, one of the largest surface parking lots is set to be developed as a 7-story parking structure with ground level retail.


Could this be the new trend in Tulsa & OKC for design approval.

Personally, I've never been a fan of parking garages.  Have had to get adjusted to parking garages because of the time spent at the OU Medical Center research area.  Citizens want more sleek exterior decor with the garages.

Parking will always be necessary in this part of the country.  Something like this needs to be the standard.  Aesthetics and ground floor infill are the key to dealing with parking demands while pursuing urban development.

[SXSW]

If you're going to build a parking garage making it look like that or wrapping it with offices/apartments is the way to go.  Downtown Tulsa could use something similar near Blue Dome to free up development of the remaining surface lots.  The block between Detroit/Elgin and 4th/5th is a good location for such a garage with retail on all sides especially Elgin.

[DowntownDan]

If you're going to build a parking garage making it look like that or wrapping it with offices/apartments is the way to go.  Downtown Tulsa could use something similar near Blue Dome to free up development of the remaining surface lots.  The block between Detroit/Elgin and 4th/5th is a good location for such a garage with retail on all sides especially Elgin.

I got the perfect tenant for the ground floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sbDBXOk7KA

[Conan71]

Nice article focuses primarily on the Universal Ford Building and Fox Hotel building in the Brady with a nice slideshow sidebar:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/photovideo/slideshows/downtown-development-projects-you-should-know-about/collection_2e50248b-80c7-57a5-aa0d-5668c2f1d07b.html?mode=jqm

Massive building renovations in Brady District near completion

Photo gallery: 19 downtown development projects you should know about

All told, it's taken three years of careful planning and hard construction to get the Hotel Fox and Universal Ford buildings back into shape, said Anne Pollard James, property manager for the buildings.

But now, those efforts are paying off.

"It's been exciting to see this building spring up and get populated," James said.

The new entrepreneurial incubator 36 Degrees North is about to mark its grand opening Monday, although it's just one component among restaurants, apartments and other office space.

The George Kaiser Family Foundation acquired the buildings along Main Street between M.B. Brady and Cameron streets, and the $16 million conversion began January of last year.

Although traditional businesses make up much of the conversion, some of it has been set aside to support the area's artistic and young entrepreneur communities, James said.

The most visible portion of that is the 11,500-square-foot, sprawling business hub of 36 Degrees North, which takes up much of the Universal Ford building's first floor. Dustin Curzon, executive director of the program, said it's quickly reached its initial goals even before it opened.

"It's been amazing," he said. "We wanted 100 members, and I think we'll hit that number on Monday."

Open to all workers looking for advice, work space or both, 36 Degrees North features flexible spaces for workers to occasionally drop in, hold a specific desk or occupy a small office in exchange for a monthly fee, Curzon said.

Among the first companies now operating out of 36 Degrees North are four local employees of Mozilla, a developer of software including the Firefox web browser; Mother Road Travel, a new shuttle bus service that takes people between Tulsa and Oklahoma City; Shipzen, a Tulsa and Los Angeles-based maker of warehouse logistics software; and Resolute PR.

Curzon said the space was designed to provide private spaces, including a Skype room and space for breastfeeding, as well as collaboration in its lounge areas and conference rooms — one of which was carved out of a former freight elevator.

"A lot of the people here have worked out of coffee shops, and they've been telling me they appreciate being around other people," he said. "They had no idea there were people doing these kinds of work in Tulsa."

The space will also host regular workshops on various aspects of running a business, and various professionals from outside areas, including Silicon Valley, have offered to become mentors, Curzon said.

"We want to connect Tulsa to the greater economic community around the world," he said.

Both buildings also have apartments built above them — 23 above the Ford building and eight above the Fox. James said some of these have been reserved for the Kaiser Foundation's Teach for America and Tulsa Artists Fellowship programs, but all of them have been rented out.

"We've got some people living here who work downstairs," she said. "That's a short commute."

One of the tenants is Nathan Young, a multimedia artist who focuses on Native American imagery. Although the Tulsa Artists Fellowship gave him the option to fulfill his residency in his hometown of Tahlequah, he said he gladly moved into a studio apartment in the Ford Building.

"I wanted to be here with all the other artists," he said. "The art studios nearby are amazing."

The apartments range from 500 to 900 square feet, and rent for between $1.15 and $1.20 per square foot. James said the goal was to make the spaces affordable.

The Ford apartments retain the wide banks of windows from the original construction, along with exposed wires and the original raw concrete columns. By contrast, the Fox apartments have more discrete windows and wood trim for a more traditional feel.

Of the three restaurants, Antoinette Baking Co. became the first tenant of the development in October when the bakery moved from its Brookside location.

Molly Martin, co-founder of the bakery, said the move allowed them to triple the size of their kitchen and include more mixers and a walk-in kitchen. They've also been able to increase Antoinette's already-considerable following.

"There's been a great energy, and we've gotten a lot of new customers," she said.

Upscale eatery The Tavern, part of the McNellie's Group of restaurants, was a tenant before the conversion and temporarily moved to 305 E. Archer St. as renovations progressed.

While much of the new Tavern will be familiar to long-time diners, it now has an additional 5,000 square feet for an expanded kitchen, private dining rooms and a wine cellar.

And although McNellie's Group employees decline to publicly acknowledge it, rumors persist of a new speakeasy-style lounge with a piano in the space behind Antoinette.

The last of the three restaurants, the Prairie Artisan Ales brew pub, is still slated to open in February, James said. The pub is the brainchild of R Bar developers Paul Sorrentino, Josh Royal and Bill Grant.

The beer taps, which will include 20 different kinds of beer made in-house and five guest taps for local beers, will circle around a giant wine barrel. The space will retain the white floor tile from when the building was originally constructed 110 years ago.

Finally, an array of established businesses will have offices with a shared common space above the Fox building, including Art Alliance Tulsa, Lilly Architecture — the architecture firm behind the Ford and Fox renovation, and James' own office, Pollard & Associates Realtors.

robert.evatt@tulsaworld.com
http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/realestate/massive-building-renovations-in-brady-district-near-completion/article_77b063ab-2108-5b39-abaa-0129c266336d.html?mode=story

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

And although McNellie's Group employees decline to publicly acknowledge it, rumors persist of a new speakeasy-style lounge with a piano in the space behind Antoinette.

I found this part interesting considering the fact that the Lounge speakeasy has been  open for weeks. Maybe they want to keep it word of mouth as already, you have to call ahead or get on a sometimes long wait list. It is an incredible space though. Really well done. Just the 10 light fixtures over the tables cost $2000-$3000/each (so $20k-$30k just on those!). They must have put some serious cash into this.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Upscale eatery The Tavern, part of the McNellie's Group of restaurants, was a tenant before the conversion and temporarily moved to 305 E. Archer St. as renovations progressed.

While much of the new Tavern will be familiar to long-time diners, it now has an additional 5,000 square feet for an expanded kitchen, private dining rooms and a wine cellar.

I saw the Tavern walking by and wondered what the rennovations were. That makes more sense. Does anyone know if they did anything to the main/original dining/bar areas? They look exactly the same.

[rdj]

I've dined there once and had dessert & drinks at "The Lounge" on a couple occasions.  It is a fantastic addition to downtown Tulsa.  The staff told me when I called to make a reservation opening weekend there would be no website, no social media, no marketing of any kind.  They want it truly word of mouth.  There isn't a real sign in the alley, just a bronze bull hanging above the door.  It's a pricey meal, but if you can scrape together $100 a plate it is worth it.