WPX Downtown HQ

[kvanover]

Well I guess we know what is going to happen to the old Spaghetti Warehouse building...

(From KOTV News on 6 website) TULSA, Oklahoma - WPX Energy announced plans to build a $100 million office complex at 222 North Detroit in downtown Tulsa. The new company headquarters will cover an entire block, and have an 11 story tower as part of a multi-level development that is six stories at the perimeter. The design features a public plaza and walkway between the Greenwood District and Arts District, and a parking garage with 700 spaces available for employees and the public.

It's the first separate headquarters building in Tulsa for the company, which has offices now spanning seven floors of Williams Tower. WPX was created from Williams, but became a separate company in 2011. WPX plans to move into the 245,000 square foot building in early 2022.

The plans call for demolition of the former Spaghetti Warehouse building and another warehouse used for storage. Demolition equipment is already on site.

Company CEO Rick Moncrief said the design intentionally faces east to connect with the Greenwood District, and is designed to encourage public access to the two parks on either side of the building.

He noted while the company considered several locations in Texas, "After we looked at the culture we've developed here, we knew this was the right place."

Moncrief noted the closest wells owned by WPX are 550 miles away, but the company has had great success with recruiting employees in Tulsa, and attracting them to Tulsa from other cities.

WPX employs 450 people in Tulsa, with an annual payroll in excess of $55 million.

[Conan71]

I think this is a fair trade-off for the jobs created.  Brick warehouse is pretty ubiquitous in the Brady District, I really don't consider the demo a major loss for the area especially since office space will help residential and retail efforts within the IDL.

[SXSW]

I think this is a fair trade-off for the jobs created.  Brick warehouse is pretty ubiquitous in the Brady District, I really don't consider the demo a major loss for the area especially since office space will help residential and retail efforts within the IDL.

The best scenario would've been this development happening at Archer & Boulder, or one of the BOK lots along Archer or at Main & Cameron.  I'm just curious how they are planning to lay out the building on the site, how it interacts with Guthrie Green and Brady Street. 

[SXSW]

I'm pretty sure this is the perspective from Brady & Detroit:


And this is the perspective from Guthrie Green, I can't believe they are having the parking garage on this side.  An no park-facing retail space.  FAIL


Honestly if you flipped this and had the Detroit side face MLK it would be 10x better.

[commonsense]

The front of the building faces east toward Oneok Field and John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

I'm pretty sure this is the perspective from Brady & Detroit:

And this is the perspective from Guthrie Green, I can't believe they are having the parking garage on this side.  An no park-facing retail space.  FAIL


Honestly if you flipped this and had the Detroit side face MLK it would be 10x better.

That's a bit harsh. I see what you're saying, but there's many counter points for why the positioning they picked is better. They are probably taking many things into consideration that we don't know about. There's no retail or anything "walkable" to the north of Guthrie Green. It's essentially a dead zone around there with the news station, whereas there's potential to the north and retail that is online to the East and SE, even if a block away. Maybe they wanted to connect to the Greenwood side and be closer to the hub over there including Elgin Park and some other restaurants (and Ross Group buidling going up). Maybe they just want to be a bit further from Guthrie Green for concert noise concerns.

Who knows if in the future they may expand either above the garage or on the empty part of the lot on the SW (might be a secret potential phase 2 we don't know of).

This is taking 2 old warehouse buildings that were apparently not salvageable at this point and turning them into a beautiful 11 story 260,000 square foot facility with 700 parking spaces in 1 place which will can replace many lots. It'll be convenient for those parking for First Friday, Ball-park and Guthrie Green. They didn't have to, but they are making 6,000 square feet of retail. Look around at all the many corporations who fail to do that for their HQs. This is a great win for Tulsa.

[SXSW]

Don't get me wrong I think this is a great project.  I am just interested in seeing more details on how they treat the Guthrie Green frontage.  For retail it would probably make the most sense to concentrate that along Brady and have a restaurant space that opens out to the plaza on the southwest side.  Brady is an important corridor for people walking between Elgin/the ballpark and Main. 

[DTowner]

The most exciting thing is the end result is going to end up actually looking like these awesome renderings unlike some other [cough] large downtown developments.

As for orientation, CEO said it was intentionally facing east towards Greenwood as an acknowledgement of the past and a connection to the future.

700 parking spaces will be a great addition and, combined with new Vast bank garage, will provide a lot of public parking in the area.  Hopefully that will expedite the demise of more surface lots.

As for the old Spaghetti Warehouse building, the flooding from the busted water pipe a few winters ago likely made a rehab of the building cost prohibitive if not impossible.

[Conan71]

The most exciting thing is the end result is going to end up actually looking like these awesome renderings unlike some other [cough] large downtown developments.

As for orientation, CEO said it was intentionally facing east towards Greenwood as an acknowledgement of the past and a connection to the future.

700 parking spaces will be a great addition and, combined with new Vast bank garage, will provide a lot of public parking in the area.  Hopefully that will expedite the demise of more surface lots.

As for the old Spaghetti Warehouse building, the flooding from the busted water pipe a few winters ago likely made a rehab of the building cost prohibitive if not impossible.

The buildings this will eventually cover won't be missed in the future.  They were really utilitarian buildings which weren't "timeless" by any stretch of the imagination. The only historical significance to the Spaghetti Warehouse building is that it was a huge risk in 1991 or 1992 when we got one in Tulsa and there was barely any lifestyle development in the Brady in those days.  The food was nothing special but by having one open in Tulsa, it indicated we were on par with Dallas or KC in our region and it did inspire more other entrepreneurs and developers to give north downtown a shot.  We definitely owe the SW parent company some accolades for being a part of the genesis of Brady gentrification.

[SXSW]

The buildings this will eventually cover won't be missed in the future.  They were really utilitarian buildings which weren't "timeless" by any stretch of the imagination. The only historical significance to the Spaghetti Warehouse building is that it was a huge risk in 1991 or 1992 when we got one in Tulsa and there was barely any lifestyle development in the Brady in those days.  The food was nothing special but by having one open in Tulsa, it indicated we were on par with Dallas or KC in our region and it did inspire more other entrepreneurs and developers to give north downtown a shot.  We definitely owe the SW parent company some accolades for being a part of the genesis of Brady gentrification.

Also Mexicali Border Cafe and Tom Wallace of Wallace Engineering

[Weatherdemon]

Forgot how to upload an image to post but, Spaghetti Warehouse is no more...

[Jeff P]

I think this is a FANTASTIC development.

I was seeing some people complain about it on Twitter because it wasn't an "arts/entertainment" development... but (IMO) you need developments like this to help anchor/spur further development in areas.

And I think it's a gorgeous building that fits in very well in the Arts/Greenwood District.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Don't get me wrong I think this is a great project.  I am just interested in seeing more details on how they treat the Guthrie Green frontage.  For retail it would probably make the most sense to concentrate that along Brady and have a restaurant space that opens out to the plaza on the southwest side.  Brady is an important corridor for people walking between Elgin/the ballpark and Main. 

I see what you're saying. On the Guthrie Green side, it will always be a park, and while that may add more eyeballs for any retail restaurant, so far Guthrie Green has been a very tough place for restaurants (little to no walk-up customers most the time, with short spikes in demand). It is surrounded by News on 6, a block of manufacturing companies and block of museums. Not a great prospect for a future retail corridor. On the side WPX will front, there is a big parking lot next to Living Arts which could be turned into mixed use development along with a big building to the north begging for remodel.

I think this stretch specifically has potential to become something neat: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1603255,-95.9910573,3a,73.5y,320.13h,82.54t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sBa7g6ruGDDUWfS_3KEdu7A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DBa7g6ruGDDUWfS_3KEdu7A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D162.12933%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Imagine those garages and that blank building turned into a series of small shops, cafes, bars or artist-nooks with office and apartments upstairs. That building on right (North of new WPX) has a pretty nice facade on the east side with large garage doors that could be great storefronts that direction as well. Then there's a big empty lot to the north of that which would be a good spot for housing.  This WPX development brings in hundreds of new faces, 15,000 square feet of commercial space and 6,000 square feet of retail/restaurant. After this development, it looks like what the district needs is more residential.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

I think this is a FANTASTIC development.

I was seeing some people complain about it on Twitter because it wasn't an "arts/entertainment" development... but (IMO) you need developments like this to help anchor/spur further development in areas.

And I think it's a gorgeous building that fits in very well in the Arts/Greenwood District.

I agree. Their argument isn't even valid. There's 6,000 square feet of retail space they can use for art/entertainment if someone wants. If there's a demand for more arts/entertainment or an arts organization needing a spot, this opens up more opportunity either downstairs or in the 15,000 square feet of other commercial space.

[erfalf]

Just curious what the lunch traffic is in the Brady area. I know in downtown Bartlesville, lunch crowds are good largely because there are about 3k-4k people working within blocks of a dozen or so restaurants.

I have to think this is a positive development for Brady in any way you could fathom.