$173MM Veterans Administration Hospital Coming to Downtown

[ComeOnBenjals]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/watch-now-downtown-tulsa-va-hospital-attracting-attention-for-collaboration/article_f7923f4e-2c4b-11ec-b505-0bed037a15a8.html

Watch Now: Downtown Tulsa VA hospital attracting attention for collaboration

"Friday's event was billed as a groundbreaking, although no ground was broken, won't be for at least several more months, and then likely will require jackhammers because the ground being broken is covered by an asphalt parking lot.

The complex's main feature, a 58-bed VA hospital, is being fashioned from the existing Kerr and Edmondson state office buildings. New construction primarily consists of a new 436-space parking garage to be built and operated by the city of Tulsa and a psychiatric hospital to be owned by Oklahoma State University and operated by the state of Oklahoma."


Exciting! It feels like OSU is really making a play in Tulsa.. I hope they continue to expand downtown. They could really have a second "full time" campus in Tulsa at this rate.

[SXSW]

Yes OSU has been rapidly expanding its hospital and health sciences center.  Now they need to turn their attention to the Greenwood campus.  Between OSUHSC, OSU Med Center and Greenwood they could be one of top employers downtown, if they aren't already.

[SXSW]

This is from a recent article about the OSU Med Center expansion and VA Hospital.  This is a huge deal for downtown and will be an economic engine for Tulsa.  

"This is Tulsa's opportunity to grow a true university medical campus engine here," said Judy Zarrow Kishner, president of The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation. "There is no question that Tulsa County needs additional mental health beds and expanded services, and the State has been committed to helping us get there over the next few years."

Chairman of the OSU Medical Center Trust, Jay Helm, welcomed the county commissioners to the local, state and federal partnerships that have made the expansion possible.

"This will be the largest development in downtown Tulsa since the Williams Center was built more than 40 years ago," Helm said. "This will allow the OSU Medical Center to expand and train the physicians that Tulsa County and the state of Oklahoma will need in the future."

https://ktul.com/news/local/osu-medical-center-granted-4-million-by-tulsa-county

[Oil Capital]

Very cool project for downtown Tulsa.  A couple of questions:

Is the 436 space parking garage intended to serve more than just the VA hospital? It seems kinda large for a rather small hospital (total of 128 beds, at most, including 70 in the psychiatric unit).

Have we ever seen where the state offices relocated to (or are going to relocate)?

[swake]

Very cool project for downtown Tulsa.  A couple of questions:

Is the 436 space parking garage intended to serve more than just the VA hospital? It seems kinda large for a rather small hospital (total of 128 beds, at most, including 70 in the psychiatric unit).

Have we ever seen where the state offices relocated to (or are going to relocate)?

This is an expansion of the overall OSU Medical Center, the psychiatric unit will be a separate hospital from the VA Hospital at the complex in a new building. I would assume the parking garage will serve all of the Medical Center, but I haven't seen any renderings of it and nothing really about it other than size and that it will be at 7th and Houston.

No idea on where the state employees are going.

[Tulsan]

This is an expansion of the overall OSU Medical Center, the psychiatric unit will be a separate hospital from the VA Hospital at the complex in a new building. I would assume the parking garage will serve all of the Medical Center, but I haven't seen any renderings of it and nothing really about it other than size and that it will be at 7th and Houston.

No idea on where the state employees are going.

Reading between the lines, I expect the eventual plan is to use the $200 million portion of the Purdue Pharma settlement that was allocated to OSU for their wellness center.

[SXSW]

I would assume the parking garage will serve all of the Medical Center, but I haven't seen any renderings of it and nothing really about it other than size and that it will be at 7th and Houston.

You can see a part of it in the rendering of the VA.  I'm not sure where the psychiatric hospital will be located on the OSU Med campus though. 

I wonder if the state would build a new office building downtown? 

[swake]

You can see a part of it in the rendering of the VA.  I'm not sure where the psychiatric hospital will be located on the OSU Med campus though.  

I wonder if the state would build a new office building downtown?  

I found this document that has much more information on where and what all is being built:
https://medicine.okstate.edu/site-files/documents/about/osuma_minutes_july_21_2020.pdf

[SXSW]

I found this document that has much more information on where and what all is being built:
https://medicine.okstate.edu/site-files/documents/about/osuma_minutes_july_21_2020.pdf

Thanks this clarifies what they have planned.  So the orange building at 7th & Houston in the rendering is a research building and the parking garage is south of it.  Looks like OSU plans to build additional buildings along Houston south of 7th with the VA expanding to the north along with the psychiatric hospital closer to 3rd.

[swake]

Thanks this clarifies what they have planned.  So the orange building at 7th & Houston in the rendering is a research building and the parking garage is south of it.  Looks like OSU plans to build additional buildings along Houston south of 7th with the VA expanding to the north along with the psychiatric hospital closer to 3rd.

Yes, this is a huge expansion of the whole OSU complex. That end of downtown behind the convention center is going to be completely transformed. Also, the 1300 new continuing jobs.

[LandArchPoke]

You can see a part of it in the rendering of the VA.  I'm not sure where the psychiatric hospital will be located on the OSU Med campus though. 

I wonder if the state would build a new office building downtown? 

The State bought the building at 202 W 5th Street (think it was called the Exec Center) if I'm not mistaken to move several of the groups that was here there. I don't think that was everyone but I think it was enough to relocated 30-40% of the people. I have no idea where the rest will end up if they'll just lease space downtown or elsewhere.

There was an RFP out sometime last year for office space but never heard a word about it again - they were looking to lease or buy and the lease rate was very low, low enough I'd be shocked if they were able to find anything downtown. It seemed more like they might end up somewhere like Cityplex (even here might have been too expensive) or Verizon or maybe Eastgate type places that have some large holes to fill still and aren't super expensive.

[LandArchPoke]

Yes, this is a huge expansion of the whole OSU complex. That end of downtown behind the convention center is going to be completely transformed. Also, the 1300 new continuing jobs.

I wish there was a bit more mixture of uses in the expansion... would be nice to see some more food places, etc. on the ground floor of the parking garage and in some of the infill buildings. All these workers are going to need places to go and walking to them would be a bonus. Seems like a huge opportunity for the convention center folks to team up with OSU as well and build out retail that would be mutually beneficial. That is a huge thing that gets counted against our convention center when groups look at it is a severe lack of retails within a few blocks. It's difficult for people to grab food at lunch in between sessions and get back. It's something that needs to be fixed along with a convention center hotel for us to be in the upper tier competitiveness wise with other centers our size.

[Oil Capital]

The State bought the building at 202 W 5th Street (think it was called the Exec Center) if I'm not mistaken to move several of the groups that was here there. I don't think that was everyone but I think it was enough to relocated 30-40% of the people. I have no idea where the rest will end up if they'll just lease space downtown or elsewhere.

There was an RFP out sometime last year for office space but never heard a word about it again - they were looking to lease or buy and the lease rate was very low, low enough I'd be shocked if they were able to find anything downtown. It seemed more like they might end up somewhere like Cityplex (even here might have been too expensive) or Verizon or maybe Eastgate type places that have some large holes to fill still and aren't super expensive.

I had run across an item where the state had proposed to buy 202 [SIC, it's actually 201] W 5th St, but could never find anything as to whether that purchase had ever been completed. Just now looked it up on the County Assessor site and it is indeed owned by the state.  The World reported that they 201 W 5th building has about 81,000 square feet.  According to this document https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/omes/documents/TulsaTenantSpaceRequirements.pdf, the agencies that were in Kerr-Edmondson requested 85,000 square feet of space, so maybe they squeezed, or are going to squeeze, all of them in to 201 W. 5th?

[SXSW]

I had run across an item where the state had proposed to buy 202 [SIC, it's actually 201] W 5th St, but could never find anything as to whether that purchase had ever been completed. Just now looked it up on the County Assessor site and it is indeed owned by the state.  The World reported that they 201 W 5th building has about 81,000 square feet.  According to this document https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/omes/documents/TulsaTenantSpaceRequirements.pdf, the agencies that were in Kerr-Edmondson requested 85,000 square feet of space, so maybe they squeezed, or are going to squeeze, all of them in to 201 W. 5th?

Does the state own the adjacent parking garage on Cheyenne and parking lot on Denver?  Seems like that location could easily be expanded if they needed more space

[LandArchPoke]

Does the state own the adjacent parking garage on Cheyenne and parking lot on Denver?  Seems like that location could easily be expanded if they needed more space

That parking garage is owned by the Mayo entity still. The sale did include the surface parking lot adjacent that is along Denver. They could always infill that location if they wanted, not sure the state is willing to find the budget to do something like that though.