Downtown Development Overview

[Oil Capital]

That's the Oneok building in the background.  It looks pretty much like the photo to me, they just haven't installed the exterior materials yet.

That picture was pretty clearly photoshopped.

[swake]

That picture was pretty clearly photoshopped.

As a rendering of a building not yet constructed you expected an unaltered photo?

[BKDotCom]

As a rendering of a building not yet constructed you expected an unaltered photo?

that's-the-joke.jpg
?

[Oil Capital]

As a rendering of a building not yet constructed you expected an unaltered photo?

No, but I expected anyone that gave it a glance could tell it did not reflect reality, and did not even try very hard to do so.

[carltonplace]

That Residence Inn is irritating.

On the positive side...they filled in an empty parking lot and hopefully will put a lot of visitors on the streets of downtown

But other than that. \_(-")_/
What is wrong with this town...we need to expect and demand better. I mean ugh, Little Rock got a better looking hotel than we did.

[hello]

That Residence Inn is irritating.

On the positive side...they filled in an empty parking lot and hopefully will put a lot of visitors on the streets of downtown

But other than that. \_(-")_/
What is wrong with this town...we need to expect and demand better. I mean ugh, Little Rock got a better looking hotel than we did.

It is hideous. Especially when compared with the Mayo and heck, even the renovated YMCA.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

It is hideous. Especially when compared with the Mayo and heck, even the renovated YMCA.

Did they change the YMCA outside at all? Last time I saw it a few weeks ago, it still looked about the same ugly building it has always been. To me the YMCA is the worst application of the historical renovation tax credit. It has always been an eye sore. It was a cheap ugly building and isn't really wasn't worth saving. Retrofitting it ended up being a terrible hassle. Might've been cheaper to start from scratch. That is a serious waste of taxpayer money for a  hideous building although it does at least have some character.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

With a long way still to go, Tulsa is becoming a more walkable city

In 2016, the Tulsa Regional Chamber set a five-year goal to improve the city's "walkability" by 10 percent, but the city has already reached that target more than three years ahead of schedule.

That might sound more impressive than it is. When a mole hill grows by 10 percent, it doesn't become a mountain. It's still a mole hill.

Tulsa started out with a "walk score" of only 36, a complex metric that evaluates how easy it is for residents to reach nearby amenities on foot.

The score takes into consideration how far people need to go to reach certain amenities, such as grocery stores or restaurants, while also considering population density and traffic conditions.

Now, Tulsa's walk score is 40.

That's basically going from a double F-minus to just an F-minus. But at least we're trending in the right direction.

A score of 40 is still described as "car-dependent," meaning nearly all errands require a vehicle. Tulsa would have to improve another 10 points to reach a level described as even "somewhat walkable."

Several neighborhoods, however, are already there. Areas near Cherry Street, Swan Lake, the Pearl District and Brookside reach scores in the mid to upper 70s, classified as "very walkable."

But it is downtown revitalization that seems to be driving Tulsa's improvement on the walkability scale, with some parts of the central business district scoring as high as 89. That's better than "walkable" gold standards like Seattle and Boston.

Of course, Tulsa's overall score is dragged down by the suburbs, where "walk scores" sink into the 20s or even into the teens, which means you can hardly go around the block without a car.

Nonetheless, Tulsa reaching the chamber's goal so quickly proves yet again how much progress we're making downtown and in the more urban neighborhoods around downtown. And it makes you wonder how much higher our "walk score" might go in the next few years.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/columnists/michaeloverall/michael-overall-with-a-long-way-still-to-go-tulsa/article_a51efed9-95ca-5714-ab6c-d9fa60629352.html

This seemed more relevant to this thread than any other and maybe not worth its own discussion thread in general. That is good (and surprising) downtown has some areas scoring 89.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

I would guess most of the gains in the overall "Walk Score" probably have more to do with their rating system changing, not Tulsa changing that much since last year. I remember Cherry Street neighborhoods were in the high 80s and even into the 90s last year and prior years. I also noticed some inconsistencies on what they considered a "grocery store" and other mis-categorizations.

Still that is good if Tulsa has in fact improved and good that the Regional Chamber is trying. If I had to rely on walking and public transit I would try to live in Brady, Pearl or Cherry St and try to work downtown and mostly use a bicycle. It would be tough having to bicycle (or take a bus) from Brookside to downtown everyday. Not enough professional-level jobs within walking distance of Brookside for it to ever be fully walkable.

The article didn't mention that a large part of the Pearl District is the highest scored area in Tulsa and gets into the 90s. There's a nice band of high walkability from Renaissance Neighborhood up to downtown with some of the higher scores in Tulsa.
https://www.walkscore.com/apartments/search/OK/Tulsa

The part of downtown with the highest rating is around the Library/Courthouse. That spot is technically at the outer cusp of walking distance to lots of amenities (could technically walk to QT and CBD) but wouldn't be a the best location to live. You'd have to bicycle to everything, with no useful every-day amenities easy to walk to. Also, less of a cool factor than Brady or Blue Dome but can't put that in objectively!

[BKDotCom]

It is hideous. Especially when compared with the Mayo and heck, even the renovated YMCA.

Can someone post a side-by side?
bonus: show along with other promised vs delivered developments.

[erfalf]

Can someone post a side-by side?
bonus: show along with other promised vs delivered developments.

I don't have a picture outside of my mind of this, but I really don't see how this is going to be all that much different than what is in Little Rock. Which is a brick building with one door over 300 feet of street frontage. What exactly did they promise beyond that. Because all I have seen is an extremely cropped picture of the entrance of the Little Rock location.

None of that was to say this is a great looking development, just that they didn't really over promise or under deliver.

[erfalf]

Now this is what we should be demanding in Tulsa.



www.fortworthbusiness.com/news/ac-hotel-now-stories-headed-to-downtown-fort-worth/article_b311c830-c025-11e7-9c0c-bfa927572039.html
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article136081058.html

That is on a 10,000 sf lot in downtown Fort Worth. The equivalent of 1/9th of a lot in downtown Tulsa. I understand this is just proposed, but relatively similar sized footprint buildings have been completed in the last decade there as well, so it is possible. Of course Fort Worth has smaller blocks, sort of forcing the issue more or less. Land apparently isn't expensive enough around the county building to demand smaller footprints or more vertical development. Maybe it will get there someday. Hey, look at the new Hampton. I think that one only sits on about a quarter of that block.

[Townsend]

Topeca Coffee to move to new spot across alley from Mayo Hotel

http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/scene/restaurants/table-talk-topeca-coffee-to-move-to-new-spot-across/article_d327ce80-6e7a-59ae-a0b7-ea44516c26d9.html

Topeca Coffee will be moving its coffeehouse and restaurant in the Mayo Hotel east across the alley to the building at 111 W. Fifth St., according to owner John Gaberino.

"It will be a little larger and have a full kitchen and a full bar with alcohol," Gaberino said Thursday.

He said the move probably won't happen until late spring or early summer next year.

"They are gutting the building and putting in apartments on the upper floors," he said. "That's going to be pretty neat, but it will take a while to get done."

Topeca Coffee, touted as the country's first "seed-to-cup" coffeehouse, opened just before Christmas in 2007. It has specialized in pastries, panini, crepes and its own brand of coffees.

Gaberino also is co-owner of Hodges Bend, also a Topeca coffee spot with a full bar.

"This won't be another Hodges Bend," he said. "It still will be a coffee shop at its heart."

[MostSeriousness]

It won't be, but it sounds pretty much like another Hodge's Bend. Not a bad thing by any means!

In other Hodge's Bend news, someone shared photos of what look to be a Hodge's Bend location in Minneapolis.

Not quite related to the sub, but pretty cool if more franchising/expanding is happening with local Tulsa venues.

EDIT: Guess it's not exactly new news: https://www.facebook.com/HodgesBend/posts/1507720659314650

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

City selects consultant to create master development plan for area near BOK Center
Consultant tasked to find solution to tie BOK Center to the rest of downtown

The city of Tulsa has selected MKSK, a Columbus, Ohio-based landscape architecture, planning and urban design company, to create a master plan for the area around the BOK Center and Cox Business Center.

City officials say the "Arena District" plan will provide a long-sought-after roadmap for how to spur commercial development in the area, add attractive public spaces, connect the district with other parts of town and brand it with an identity of its own.

A steering committee made up of downtown stakeholders, city and county officials and representatives of Tulsa's Downtown Coordinating Council recommended MKSK this fall after reviewing and scoring 14 proposals. The city is finalizing its agreement with the company, which is expected to submit its plan within eight months.

"The Arena District is the part of downtown that has had the greatest public investment from the citizens of Tulsa," said Nick Doctor, the city's chief of community development and policy. "We have a world-class arena that constantly wins national and international awards for its quality, and we have a Cox Business Center that is going through a $50 million renovation.

"We want the area around those two incredible amenities to be thriving, be successful and to build to being a part of our larger downtown fabric."

Tulsa leaders have long dreamed of injecting life into a part of town best known for uninspiring government buildings such as the Tulsa County Courthouse, Page Belcher Federal Building and the Police-Courts Building.

Slowly, they are making progress.

• Vision 2025, a $530 million economic development package approved by voters in 2003, provided nearly $230 million to build the 19,199-seat BOK Center and construct a 30,000-square-foot ballroom in the Cox Business Center.

• Last year, city voters approved $55 million for more renovations and additional exhibit space at the business center as part of the Vision Tulsa package.

• Private developers, meanwhile, spent $1.3 million to purchase the former City Hall building on Civic Center Plaza and then turned it into an Aloft hotel.

• A $55 million public/private investment has transformed Central Library into an eye-pleasing, state-of-the-art facility.

In all, more than $1 billion in public and private money has been invested downtown since 2008, according to the city.

Still, the area is best known as a place people visit only when they need to — the smashing success of the BOK Center being the exception — and then escape as quickly as they can.

"You walk outside of the convention center, you might as well be a mile from downtown," said Jeff Nickler, BOK Center general manager. "The first impression that one of our visitors gets when they leave that building is not a good one."

The biggest obstacle to developing the area has been — and remains — the Page Belcher Federal Building. Its size and significance — the same attributes that make it stand out — are what have bedeviled generations of city officials looking to either repurpose it or remove it. Neither would be easy, the latter nearly impossible.

"It is the lynchpin of this whole plan — this prime real estate that is directly between the BOK Center and the convention center," Nickler said. "How can we develop that block in a meaningful way that really creates a sense of neighborhood, walkability and excitement?"

Dedicated 50 years ago as the new downtown post office, the mammoth structure is also home to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. The building spans two city blocks between Third and Fourth streets and Denver and Frisco avenues.

One idea that has been floated for years is to turn the building, or a portion of it, into a hotel. The city's Arena District request for proposal notes that despite a surge in downtown hotel development, the city still lacks a major convention hotel to help secure business for the Cox Business Center.

That is not news to Nickler.

"We are missing a major, full-service hotel for the convention center that we desperately need to recruit new convention business," Nickler said.

No easy solutions exist when it comes to the Page Belcher building, Doctor said, but added that the city continues to explore the issue.

Under Mayor Dewey Bartlett, the city in 2011 began the process of trying to purchase the structure, which is owned by the U.S. Postal Service, but the complicated transaction never gained traction.

The plan included having the Tulsa Industrial Authority partner with a private, third-party entity to purchase the building — the estimate then was for $10 million — and lease it back to the federal government over 15 to 18 years. At the end of the lease, TIA would take ownership of the building.

But that was only one piece of the puzzle. Looming over any discussion of what to do with the federal building is, to where would the post office and federal court be relocated? City officials have consistently said they need to stay downtown, but securing a new site — or sites — is itself a complicated process that the federal government, not the city of Tulsa, has the ultimate say over.

Chris Hermann, who is overseeing MKSK's work on the Arena District master plan, said in an email that his company specializes in cities and downtowns in the Midwest and Midsouth.

"As one example, we were, and continue to be, the master planner for the Nationwide Arena District in Columbus, Ohio — one of the nation's highest-rated entertainment and sports districts and a model for many others in the country," Hermann said. "We have experience in planning and designing such districts."

The city is now betting on that expertise. The master plan will be paid for with $500,000 designated for that purpose in the Vision Tulsa package.

"This study will make the case for why investing in the Arena District is worthwhile and will have that return on investment for the private sector in particular," Doctor said. "And what kinds of tools we have at our disposal from the public to really maximize the investment we made there already."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/city-selects-consultant-to-create-master-development-plan-for-area/article_489343f0-f5dc-556c-b222-64210b295b92.html