Downtown Wal-Mart

[perspicuity85]

I hate to be negative, but Wal-Mart is a company whose corporate headquarters are located in a military-looking compound in Arkansas.  Why would they care to invest in an urban-designed spectacle of a store?  Wal-Mart only cares that the average person thinks the quality of their products is good-enough.  The goal for the city should be to rehab the block so that it allows for on-street parking with curb bump-outs, thus preserving the possibility of a walkable neighborhood.  Even if the sidewalk is just a border between the street and parking lot, it would be better than nothing.

I'm not sure if the planned parking deck will serve the store and the apartments, but if it doesn't, the TIF should be conditional on Wal-Mart's building fronting the street and parking in rear.  That way they could possibly realign the typical two front entryways into one in front and one in back.

[carltonplace]

Judging by Don Himlfarb's comments in the paper recently, I don't think he takes this developement very seriously. I get the feeling that the administration won't act on anything until they get a new developement consultant in place. Not sure whether that is good or bad, though because I wonder if cooperation with GDP would have helped move that project forward.

[TheArtist]

Why do things have to be one extreme or the other? I have never vouched for a "cheap piece of crap" Wal-mart to go downtown. There is a middle ground and people keep ignoring it. It doesnt have to be either a usual suburban wal-mart or a 2story with structured parking thing. There is a way to make a Wal-Mart, if there is to be one, quite suitable but not of either extreme.





One hope is that the Form Based Codes will finally go through for the Pearl District, sometime late next spring or early summer. Once the precedence is set, it can then much more easily be placed in other areas like the Brady District, parts of Mid-town, and this area of downtown where the Wal-Mart may go. In areas where there are form based codes we wont have to have these arguments every single time a developer comes up with something we dont like. Any developer considering doing something in an area having Form Based Codes, will have to take them into account before they draw up any idea. We sooo need something like this for our city rather than continually going into panic mode with each and every building or development proposal that crops up.

[PonderInc]

I agree.

[Rico]

Originally posted by The Artist.

quote:

Why do things have to be one extreme or the other? I have never vouched for a "cheap piece of crap" Wal-mart to go downtown. There is a middle ground and people keep ignoring it. It doesnt have to be either a usual suburban wal-mart or a 2story with structured parking thing. There is a way to make a Wal-Mart, if there is to be one, quite suitable but not of either extreme.

Perhaps in your opinion there is a reasonable middle ground for a Downtown WalMart....

I have yet to see any substantive argument for the Downtown location versus the Pine and Peoria  location... Which, by the way, has a TIF already in place..

This Corporation has made billions from the use of City tax dollars to build their empire...

They will not build at the Downtown location without a sweetheart deal from the City of Tulsa.


IMO.. TIF's in the Downtown area should be reserved for development that compliment the development as it will be 10 years from now.

You are burning a very rare commodity in Downtown..(property for development).

If Seay is a Developer.... and not just a WalMart lackey... He would be the first to recognize the potential value of the Nordam land.

[Double A]

If Wal-Mart wants a TIF, there's one ready and waiting for them at Pine & Peoria.

[TheArtist]

I agree with both of you.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

If Wal-Mart wants a TIF, there's one ready and waiting for them at Pine & Peoria.

Amen

[Rico]

Let's hear it for Tulsa Now...............!

Maybe now they will look at the Pine and Peoria location.

I knew the Corporate "powers that be" had made a statement at the annual shareholder's meeting something along this line.

WalMart ..Dead in the Water...! Hooray..!

[Rico]

Sorry to post again but I think TulsaNow should throw a party over this one....! [][][]

[booWorld]

W-M corporate's decision to not build SuperCenters could be a good trend.  They could change their minds, of course.

Personally, I hate the huge stores.  A grocery store with a small footprint would be better for downtown.

[TheArtist]

I wonder if they will try to look for a different grocery store chain, though unlikely, or possibly a neighborhood market to go with the rest of the development they had planned? Or will they throw in the towel and put the property up for sale. If so perhaps Global will come back in and do something.

My feeling is that the "times have changed" and the momentum for downtown has fallen a bit in general. Especially with the focus being on the River District, the river vote, and the still unfolding drama of a possible Tulsa Landing type development. For a while, downtown was the focus of interest. Now that has been distracted and faded with all those other "goings on".

[AVERAGE JOE]

quote:Originally posted by TheArtist

I wonder if they will try to look for a different grocery store chain, though unlikely, or possibly a neighborhood market to go with the rest of the development they had planned? Or will they throw in the towel and put the property up for sale. If so perhaps Global will come back in and do something.

My feeling is that the "times have changed" and the momentum for downtown has fallen a bit in general. Especially with the focus being on the River District, the river vote, and the still unfolding drama of a possible Tulsa Landing type development. For a while, downtown was the focus of interest. Now that has been distracted and faded with all those other "goings on".

The hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on the BOK Center, downtown streets and infrastructure, Centennial Walk, downtown housing incentives, downtown police substation and the 6th & Main park indicates otherwise to me. []

[cannon_fodder]

Now is the chance for everyone who thought Wal-Mart wasn't the answer to step up.  Get Reasor's to build down there, add a few specialty shops and look for a smaller general retailer.  That could be a really cool area and I hope it is.

But I am somewhat disappointed that yet another development in Tulsa will just fade away.  Getting tired of that announcement NOTHING crap.  Even if the development was not ideal.

So someone step it up please.

ps.  Wal-Mart decided not to build in a large number of locations and announced it yesterday.  Presumably because of slumping sales (really just not growing as fast, they missed their sales forecast yesterday) and shaky consumer spending in general.  So it was not a Tulsa thing.

[Renaissance]

Drillers