Downtown Development Overview

[DowntownDan]

I recently saw the OKPOP Executive Director speak and they are planning to break ground this year.  Hope that's true.

[SXSW]

Overall, this delay of planned developments downtown will mean slower build years down the line. At least there've been some big developments announced in midtown in general even if it isn't downtown, the Utica and developments could be good for downtown area in general.

Tulsa seems to run counter-cyclical to other cities when it comes to development.  If the rest of Santa Fe Square gets going as well as the The Annex (12 story apt tower on the PAC lot) and the planned 17 story hotel by BOK that will be the largest amount of new construction we've seen downtown in decades.  Not to mention one of the coolest projects currently underway which is the renovation of the Tulsa Club into a boutique hotel.  

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

There hasn't been major announcements recently, but there is a ton of activity:


Presumably in the works:
OK Pop
Bob Dylan Center
The rest of Santa Fe Square
Whatever ends up going in near the PAC
The New Amazon HQ
Lot between fka Rusty Crane and the Ballpark
New office/retail building on Greenwood
The Hampton Garden project
Schneider/Bricktown/ex Nordam development
Route 66 Museum

Tried to sneak that one in there, huh? 

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

There hasn't been major announcements recently, but there is a ton of activity:

Merida Apartments opened (fka Enterprise building)
Harrington Lofts opened
Hampton Inn opened
Hotel Indigo building up on floor 6
Lofts on Archer building up on floor 4
Holiday Inn near the ball park doing foundation work
Welltown Brewing seems to be finishing up the building
Apartment Complex at Denver/Riverside
36 Degrees North Campus II opened
The refinery/Magic City Books/Lone Wold/The Goods, Made/Guitars of Tulsa opened up in the Arts District
Hotel across from the Courthouse
New parking garage for 1st Place Tower
Tulsa Club being remodeled
Glacier II set to open in the Arts District
Apartments in the Palace Clothiers/Old Arby's building


Presumably in the works:
OK Pop
Bob Dylan Center
The rest of Santa Fe Square
Whatever ends up going in near the PAC
The New Amazon HQ
Lot between fka Rusty Crane and the Ballpark
New office/retail building on Greenwood
The Hampton Garden project
Schneider/Bricktown/ex Nordam development
Route 66 Museum


That's a lot going on in a couple square miles, and I'm sure I left things out.

I guess I'm just not easily impressed.




I acknowledge it is a lot of stuff overall, but just seemed like there was tons of momentum downtown from 2013 to early-2016 and since then most of those projects are still not done although quite a few are finished and a few are in process. I'm really excited to see some more of this stuff finished, but when I drive around and see an almost countless array of empty lots all around the area, it is a bit discouraging. If those planned developments had followed anything close to the original timelines, I would be thrilled and downtown would be really quite a bit more interesting.

[SXSW]

I'm really excited to see some more of this stuff finished, but when I drive around and see an almost countless array of empty lots all around the area, it is a bit discouraging. If those planned developments had followed anything close to the original timelines, I would be thrilled and downtown would be really quite a bit more interesting.

Santa Fe Square and the Annex will make huge dents in the prevalent surface lots in Blue Dome.  These are major transformative projects.

[Hoss]

I guess I'm just not easily impressed.




I acknowledge it is a lot of stuff overall, but just seemed like there was tons of momentum downtown from 2013 to early-2016 and since then most of those projects are still not done although quite a few are finished and a few are in process. I'm really excited to see some more of this stuff finished, but when I drive around and see an almost countless array of empty lots all around the area, it is a bit discouraging. If those planned developments had followed anything close to the original timelines, I would be thrilled and downtown would be really quite a bit more interesting.

Sorry I couldn't resist....

[DowntownDan]

I guess I'm just not easily impressed.




I acknowledge it is a lot of stuff overall, but just seemed like there was tons of momentum downtown from 2013 to early-2016 and since then most of those projects are still not done although quite a few are finished and a few are in process. I'm really excited to see some more of this stuff finished, but when I drive around and see an almost countless array of empty lots all around the area, it is a bit discouraging. If those planned developments had followed anything close to the original timelines, I would be thrilled and downtown would be really quite a bit more interesting.

My office view from 2008-2016 was the Arts District.  I saw the development project by project, beginning with OneOk Field.  Guthrie Green, The Metro, the Fairfield Inn, Channel 6, Mathews Warehouse, Gates Warehouse, etc.  It's very much noticeable.  Even projects that don't take up a parking lot have been transformative.  It's impressive as heck, and still going strong with lots of new projects.  Some may or may not materialize, but it's still going strong overall.

[SXSW]

Boulder Ave is huge, it has four lanes of traffic and two lanes of parking.  

Why not cut it down to two lanes with a middle turn lane and a bike lane (heck, even a bus lane if you put all of the parking on one side).

Boulder absolutely should have bike lanes.  This is my long-time fantasy for a cycle track on Cincinnati Ave. that would connect directly to the Midland Valley trail via the existing Cincinnati flyover.  Eventually this could connect via bike lanes on Archer to the Osage Prairie Trail by OSU.  This gives downtown a direct bike connection to the Gathering Place and river trail network.

Red is the existing MV trail, yellow is the cycle track


Example of a two-way cycle track with landscape buffer

[Conan71]

Boulder absolutely should have bike lanes.  This is my long-time fantasy for a cycle track on Cincinnati Ave. that would connect directly to the Midland Valley trail via the existing Cincinnati flyover.  Eventually this could connect via bike lanes on Archer to the Osage Prairie Trail by OSU.  This gives downtown a direct bike connection to the Gathering Place and river trail network.

Well it does kind of connect to the MVT assuming you are talking about south of downtown only without a painted surface which is really slick when it is wet.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

3 downtown affordable housing proposals vie for TDA loan

Redevelopment agreement will include a $1 million low-interest loan


Backers of three affordable housing projects downtown made their pitches Thursday for $1 million in public funds from the Tulsa Development Authority.

After an executive session, the TDA took no action, saying it likely would make a decision at next month's regular meeting.

Underwriters of the project selected will enter into a TDA redevelopment agreement that will include a $1 million low-interest loan. The money represents leftover funds from a 2001 voter-approved sales tax for public projects designed to energize the local economy and enhance quality of life.

The request for proposals, issued Oct. 5, required that proposals contain a housing component. Thursday's presentations were titled Hartford Crossing, the Adams Building Redevelopment and Carpathia.

Hartford Crossing

Hartford Crossing would be a $7 million to $8 million mixed-used building at First Street and Greenwood Avenue. The first floor of the five-story building would be reserved for a large restaurant and other retail space, with the remaining floors encompassing 55 residential units, said developer Shaun Bhow, manager of Blue Dome Anchor LLC.

"We want to use this to define the outside edge of the IDL (the Inner Dispersal Loop around downtown) and create a sense of arrival to the area," he said.

The development would represent phase two of the group's $3 million renovation of the adjacent Hartford building, which is commercial office space. It also would complement nearby new developments such as The Edge, Hogan Assessments and the upcoming Santa Fe Square, Bhow said.

The base rate for the 525-square-foot residential units would be $789, he said.

"We'd love to see more university students and faculty, young professionals — even minimalists — and service providers of all kinds to become part of this community," Bhow said.

Adams Building

The developers who purchased this vacant 13-story historic building in December would like to re-establish a restaurant on the ground floor — Casa Laredo vacated that spot last year — and put 60 residential units on the remaining floors.

Partners on the nearly $10.4 million project at 403 S. Cheyenne Ave. are Tulsa-based Addax Development, Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort and J&R Investments. Monthly rents would be less than $800 on average, the partners said.

"This low-interest loan will allow us to deliver more affordable units than we can already to the people that serve us all," said Tim Strange, president of Oklahoma City-based Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort. "These are the police, fire, teachers, emergency responders and other service workers that are in need of these affordable units."

Originally constructed as a hotel in 1928, the building has intricate terra-cotta detail and is among the most-photographed structures in the city.

Carpathia

Carpathia is a blended development group of Nelson Stowe, with principals Elliot Nelson and Casey Stowe, and Ross Group, headed by Warren Ross, Stowe said.

Carpathia wants to update two historic buildings — Cheyenne Arms at 1210 S. Cheyenne Ave. and Denver Apartments at 1111 S. Denver Ave. — and convert them into a total of 99 residential units, Stowe said.

Combined, Nelson Stowe and Ross Group have poured $65 million into downtown development, with another $235 million in the works, Stowe said.

"We're obviously committed to Tulsa, committed to downtown," he said. "We love it here. We love trying to continue to develop the fabric of downtown."

The renovation of the Cheyenne Arms (49 units) and Denver Apartments (50 units) would be similar to the Nelson Stowe-backed refurbishing of the downtown Coliseum Apartments, completed in 2015. All three buildings were built roughly a century ago.

"We know how to go in," Stowe said. "We know how to do this. We know how to turn these projects around. These two apartment buildings are in better condition than the Coliseum was."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/realestate/downtown-affordable-housing-proposals-vie-for-tda-loan/article_ad0b1f8a-ce0c-5f4b-ae3d-7c93fca8979f.html

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Hartford Crossing would be a $7 million to $8 million mixed-used building at First Street and Greenwood Avenue. The first floor of the five-story building would be reserved for a large restaurant and other retail space, with the remaining floors encompassing 55 residential units

Wow the Hartford Commons really takes an artistic license in this rendering! I don't recognize any of the surrounding buildings in that photo and I can't tell which corner this is supposed to be on (I'm assuming SE corner as it's supposed to be adjacent to Hartford building, but it is not shown in the rendering). $7-$8 million will not make that intersection look anything like this rendering (especially those non-existent tall buildings in the background) and certainly not the wide promenade. Just looking at the 5-story building in question, I doubt it will even look that nice for $7-$8 million. This rendering is misleading at best and borderline deception.

Looks like they are trying to wow the decision makers rather than show where the building will be and what will be around it.  I am all for ambition and dreaming big, but this seems to be marketing at its worst. They must've learned from the One Place marketing team: sell it big with no concern for reality.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

It looks like they just took a generic rendering from some other project as an example of what the building could look like. Pretty lazy.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

If Mods and the Candy Castle moved away from being opposite me, or Jimmy Johns or Elote being almost next door left.... it would be death to my business.  I will do whatever I can to try and help the building owners in my area get other tenants across from and next to me that are retail/restaurant so that my business will do better.  If more office goes in, or a club thats only open at night, not any good for my business.

It looks like Mods and Candy Castle both closed/moved from that spot. Has anything moved into the old Candy Castle location?

Good news is Topeca is supposed to reopen at the old Mod's location.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

`Topeca trifecta': Local coffeehouse establishing what will be third location

New shop opening on Boston Avenue

Local roastery Topeca Coffee is opening a new shop on Boston Avenue.

It is remodeling a space at 507 S. Boston Ave. that was formerly occupied by Mod's Coffee and Crepes, which closed in December.

Topeca recently closed its coffeehouse and restaurant in the Mayo Hotel in preparation for a move next door in the building at 111 W. Fifth St., which owner Price Family Properties is converting into luxury lofts. It could be 2019 before Topeca gets into that space, said Jace Pavlik, the shop's general manager.

Topeca, which also operates a venue at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa at 100 E. Second St., plans to open its Boston location as early as next week, Pavlik said.

"We want it to be a viable location," he said by phone. "We're planning on it to be permanent.

"I hope we're able to build up some clientele over here with things that are happening in this area. It will be the Topeca trifecta once we get all three of them open."

Topeca represents a number of new tenants in the historic Philcade Building, also owned by Price Family Properties.

Resolute, a public relations firm, this week moved into a refurbished space at 501 S. Boston Ave., CEO Nicole Morgan said. Resolute had been at 36 Degrees North until November, when it moved to the Petroleum Club building, 601 S. Boulder Ave., while its new space was being remodeled.

"We hired our ninth person in October," Morgan said by phone. "At that point, we really had stretched it about as far as we could. We were just ready to graduate and have our space and kind of settle somewhere for a while."

Also on tap for the Philcade is a new branch of TTCU, which is scheduled for completion in May, a credit union spokeswoman said.

Known for its interior artwork, architectural design and role in the city's oil history, the Philcade was completed in 1931 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"We're lighting up Boston," said Stuart Price, head of Price Family Properties. "One of the world-class art deco buildings is starting to get some attention since Price Family Properties took over."

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/realestate/topeca-trifecta-local-coffeehouse-establishing-what-will-be-third-location/article_2ce4205a-b652-5635-94d8-18a7cde2c2d7.html

[SXSW]

If actually built like this it would definitely raise the bar for new development downtown.  This is across the street from Santa Fe Square.  If both projects are built as shown, along with GreenArch II, then Greenwood Ave. will be a pretty decent urban street after having zero development along it 3 years ago before GreenArch I, Hogan Assesments & The Edge.