WPX Downtown HQ

[Jeff P]

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.

Depends on the day.  If the weather is nice, it's usually a pretty decent crowd. If the weather is nice and it's food truck Wednesday, then there's usually a really good crowd.

This is will definitely help with foot traffic I would think, but also consider a lot of those people would just walk to Brady from the BOK Tower anyway. I do that all the time myself.

[SXSW]

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.

I love that old building by Gypsy north of Cameron between Detroit and MLK.  That could be a very cool mixed-use development with office and/or housing.

The renderings make it look like the "tunnel" through the building lines up with the old east-west alley that runs through the site and also through the block to the east (north of Living Arts).  What would be really cool is to see some kind of new construction housing built on the parking next to JHF Park and an activated alley through there from Detroit to Elgin.  I think you'll eventually see the same thing happen along the alley next to Wallace/Magic City on the block to the south, if/when Wallace expands their building to the west of the surface lot at MLK & Brady.

[Weatherdemon]

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.

I was told today that they are not putting in a cafeteria with the main driver being to help further support local eating establishments.

[shavethewhales]

They seem to be super focused on being good neighbors to the area. Almost feels like they were braced for some kind of blow-back for some reason? I know a few rando's have complained about tearing down the spaghetti warehouse, but that will be forgotten about within a week.

Maybe they just understand the culture of their younger workforce better. I've heard WPX is pretty focused on hiring younger engineers.

Either way, I personally believe this will be one of the most transformative downtown projects. A lot of people feel that office buildings can be a detriment to vibrant districts, but I feel like just about everything in this development is done pretty well. I would have liked some retail on the Guthrie Green side as well, but nothing is ever perfect.

[Jeff P]

I was told today that they are not putting in a cafeteria with the main driver being to help further support local eating establishments.

I'm guessing the main driver is that it wouldn't be used much. 

We have a cafeteria in the BOK Tower and its use has been mostly decimated by the growth in food options downtown over the past 8-10 years.  When I first started here, that thing was almost always packed during lunch... back when there was like 4 options for eating downtown: McNellies, Mexicali, Spaghetti Warehouse or Billy's on the Square... 

Now unless it's ungodly cold/raining/snowing/etc., it's mostly empty.  There are too many other good options now versus using the "company cafeteria," no matter how good the food is... (and seriously it's actually pretty decent).

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

They seem to be super focused on being good neighbors to the area. Almost feels like they were braced for some kind of blow-back for some reason? I know a few rando's have complained about tearing down the spaghetti warehouse, but that will be forgotten about within a week.

Maybe they just understand the culture of their younger workforce better. I've heard WPX is pretty focused on hiring younger engineers.

Either way, I personally believe this will be one of the most transformative downtown projects. A lot of people feel that office buildings can be a detriment to vibrant districts, but I feel like just about everything in this development is done pretty well. I would have liked some retail on the Guthrie Green side as well, but nothing is ever perfect.

It does seem like they wanted to be above reproach, and boy have they earned that. They went above and beyond what even this board would ask of most businesses. Imagine if someone bought it and just redid those buildings, keeping the parking as-is and converting to a small bit of retail and maybe upstairs office... could've been decades more of that pretty mediocre use of a whole city block. Investing $100 million to build something like this takes guts as a company. It does diversify them a bit, even if slightly. I hope it pays off for them long term.

Now we can dream that the smaller companies around there will grow and expand with mixed use developments onto their neighboring parking lots. Imagine Wallace building a mixed use development on their parking lot and activating that alley (which has the Artist Nooks that open up to alley). They could strike a parking deal with WPX. A 700 spot lot really opens that up as a possibility for places like Living Arts and other firms.

[Conan71]

They seem to be super focused on being good neighbors to the area. Almost feels like they were braced for some kind of blow-back for some reason? I know a few rando's have complained about tearing down the spaghetti warehouse, but that will be forgotten about within a week.

Maybe they just understand the culture of their younger workforce better. I've heard WPX is pretty focused on hiring younger engineers.

Either way, I personally believe this will be one of the most transformative downtown projects. A lot of people feel that office buildings can be a detriment to vibrant districts, but I feel like just about everything in this development is done pretty well. I would have liked some retail on the Guthrie Green side as well, but nothing is ever perfect.

There's nothing particularly compelling about the building and Spaghetti Warehouse was like Casa Bonita: You could never find a Tulsan who ate there other than those compelled by their relatives from Arkansas to join them for some "fine dining".  All gain here, no loss.

You need to have a balance between arts, street-level commerce, jobs, residences, and the income to make it all work.  I think this is a huge win for the Brady and the renderings seem very compatible with the balance of the area.  I also believe the infill seems to be well-balanced thus far.

[SXSW]

With a tower crane up at the Davenport Lofts site and this project getting started we'll likely have two tower cranes up in the Arts District.  The View will have a crane too, it may be a self erector though since it's mostly wood frame construction with a crawler crane for the concrete garage.  I'd be surprised if they have a tower crane, would be cool though.  Now we just need Santa Fe Square to get moving..

[SXSW]

I'm still interested in how the "tunnel" will connect to a future alley behind Living Arts and Elgin Park.  It seems like they are already planning for this alley to be a connection between Detroit and Elgin, with future development on these surface lots next to JHF Park.

[AdamsHall]

With a tower crane up at the Davenport Lofts site and this project getting started we'll likely have two tower cranes up in the Arts District.  The View will have a crane too, it may be a self erector though since it's mostly wood frame construction with a crawler crane for the concrete garage.  I'd be surprised if they have a tower crane, would be cool though.  Now we just need Santa Fe Square to get moving..

Yup ... and the two museum projects.

[SXSW]

Yup ... and the two museum projects.

Good point, OK Pop probably will have a tower crane not sure about the Bob Dylan archive, I don't think they have released any exterior renderings.

[ComeOnBenjals]

Trying to keep other threads active so the Downtown Development Thread doesn't get muddled.

WPX now has two cranes up... bringing the total for the Arts District to 4!

Exciting, exciting stuff.

[shavethewhales]

They are now finally above ground level. Will be fun to watch this shoot up into the skyline. Something encouraging to watch during these times.

[SXSW]

From last month so a little dated now but shows how big an excavation this was for the underground garage

[LeGenDz]

They are now finally above ground level. Will be fun to watch this shoot up into the skyline. Something encouraging to watch during these times.

I don't think they are above ground yet. I took these Saturday.