$B-B-BILLION Jenks River Development Lure Driller

[tim huntzinger]

JENKS MAY LURE DRILLERS

# # #

The Tulsans in T-Town liked the River a lot, but the Trolls in the committees downtown did NOT.

They hated the River, its wildlife and beauty, but pavement and buildings gave them quite a woody.

# # #

Can we PLEASE stop talking about Branson Landing, and is it too late to stop the presses on the RiverTax signs?

[cannon_fodder]

Honestly, if the TULSA Driller's want to move to Jenks - have fun.  I won't be making the drive to see you play, but have fun.

In the last few years - other than the Aquarium, Riverwalk development, and Bass Pro Shops Tulsa has done really well attracting retail/tourist development.  I mean, we did get a new strip mall in south Tulsa.

Any one of those developments in downtown and something could have gotten started.  Instead, I'm happy to see a damn walmart considering a move in.
- - - -

and while I'm at it, what does this do to the Branson Landing thing?

I'll be so incredibly pissed off if the new "urban" living and shopping destination is in the most rural of settings.  Get your crap together Tulsa and get something done to lure exciting development to my city.

[Breadburner]

Chucky knows where his bread is buttered......

[swake]

Here is the Baltimore firm designing the project, and a similar project in Maryland they did:

http://www.ddg-usa.com/Projects/National_Harbor/Project.html

Images of the Jenks Project:





I personally still hope the Drillers go downtown, but this is a private developer that is willing to build a stadium for them and the downtown sites have been talked about for years with no action. Can you blame them? This site is literally 1000 feet from Tulsa and they weren't in Tulsa before anyway. Read the World article. It's a huge project and great for the Tulsa area.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=070821_1_A1_hThec72150

This development is not contingent on the river tax passing or on The Drillers moving, it's happening. Tulsa needs to get on board with river development now or the Tulsa river may never be developed, which is fine too, it's a very nice park, but is that really what's best for the city of Tulsa?

[aoxamaxoa]

It amazes me how many people believe this type of development has the critical mass neccesary to become reality.


The media never questions the rationale behind this kind of dreaming.

[V]

[sgrizzle]

I'm gonna agree with AOX. This is not the first plan for this development. They just think the lure of the drillers will bring in investors. That is a horrid location and layout for the stadium. They would be right up against the power plant in jenks. Plus, anything south of the turnpike is very low visibility. You'd have a great view of Kum-N-Go.

If anything, I hope this is just another example of dumb idea begets good idea.

[MichaelC]

There is something to be said for the Bricktown folk .  Ideally, if you can drag a whole bunch of commercial in just because there the agreement on the stadium, it ends up become self-fulfilling prophecy here.  Commercial jumps on board because of the stadium agreement, Drillers jump ship because there's commercial lined up.  

Obviously there's little reason for the Drillers to move tomorrow, but perhaps the same could have been said for the 86ers down in OKC pre-MAPS.  The clock may truly be ticking here.  Can't completely discount it, IMO.

[aoxamaxoa]

No retail department store in their right mind ends up there in that location.

Just more architects getting paid to use their crayons to create that vision thang because a land buyer pays him to draw. Mitchell bought property that needs major infrastructure and roads to suck seed.

Give me a break.
Kevin Costner developments we need not....
The Jenks Stink....great name for a ball club.
Very fitting.

[YoungTulsan]

Could this possibly be just an oligarchy ploy to "scare" us into voting yes for the river tax so we do not "lose" Tulsa to Jenks and the burbs?

[MichaelC]

Ha, good one.  No, we've been losing that battle for a while now.  The objective should be to make Jenks work harder, and for Tulsa to lose with style.

[Breadburner]

One only needs to look at the players to see this deal is going nowhere....What a bunch of puffery and bull$hit......

[swake]

The site is from the turnpike to about 111th and the Jenks power plant is just south of 121st, just a little over a mile or about exactly the same distance from the "Tulsa Landing"  to the power plant on Riverside (and is minus the refinery across the highway).

And, as for multiple plans for this site, that's just not correct, Bells wanted the site, but wanted Jenks to buy the land for them. The city said no and didn't really want Bells anyway with it's track record. The current owners bought the land out from under Bells even as they still were saying they might move to Jenks. This is the only real and tangible plan there has been for this location.

As for access, Elm (Peoria) is now five lanes to the turnpike and the funding to widen Elm to five lanes with a jogging trail to 111th was passed last year. That jogging trail will connect to the one that follows Aquarium Drive. Aquarium Drivewhich is also going to get a direct connection to the stop light at the end of the 96th St Bridge. At one end of this development is the 96ths St bridge and at the other is the Elm St Creek exit with improved streets all around it. Not to mention green space and jogging trails that connect into the whole Riverparks system already. There's even a nearly unused (but still working) heavy rail line to the site that goes through downtown Jenks all the way to downtown Tulsa.

The other issue is Demographics? Well, the article states that the Jenks zip code now is the wealthiest in the state. That's aside from being the fastest growing, growing at about 10% a year. And Tulsa's zip codes right across the river aren't too shabby either.

You are taking your idea that it won't fly from the guy that said no one would go to Riverwalk, that it was too hard to get too. The same person that said there were only 10,000 (ugly drunk) people at the PGA Championship for the final round on Sunday. The biggest problem with Riverwalk has been that there's simply not enough parking.

[swake]

The site is from the turnpike to about 111th and the Jenks power plant is just south of 121st, just a little over a mile or about exactly the same distance from the "Tulsa Landing"  to the power plant on Riverside (and is minus the refinery across the highway).

And, as for multiple plans for this site, that's just not correct, Bells wanted the site, but wanted Jenks to buy the land for them. The city said no and didn't really want Bells anyway with it's track record. The current owners bought the land out from under Bells even as they still were saying they might move to Jenks. This is the only real and tangible plan there has been for this location.

As for access, Elm (Peoria) is now five lanes to the turnpike and the funding to widen Elm to five lanes with a jogging trail to 111th was passed last year. That jogging trail will connect to the one that follows Aquarium Drive. Aquarium Drivewhich is also going to get a direct connection to the stop light at the end of the 96th St Bridge. At one end of this development is the 96ths St bridge and at the other is the Elm St Creek exit with improved streets all around it. Not to mention green space and jogging trails that connect into the whole Riverparks system already. There's even a nearly unused (but still working) heavy rail line to the site that goes through downtown Jenks all the way to downtown Tulsa.

The other issue is Demographics? Well, the article states that the Jenks zip code now is the wealthiest in the state. That's aside from being the fastest growing, growing at about 10% a year. And Tulsa's zip codes right across the river aren't too shabby either.

You are taking your idea that it won't fly from the guy that said no one would go to Riverwalk, that it was too hard to get too. The same person that said there were only 10,000 (ugly drunk) people at the PGA Championship for the final round on Sunday. The biggest problem with Riverwalk has been that there's simply not enough parking.

[aoxamaxoa]

quote:Originally posted by swake

The site is from the turnpike to about 111th and the Jenks power plant is just south of 121st, just a little over a mile or about exactly the same distance from the "Tulsa Landing"  to the power plant on Riverside (and is minus the refinery across the highway).

And, as for multiple plans for this site, that's just not correct, Bells wanted the site, but wanted Jenks to buy the land for them. The city said no and didn't really want Bells anyway with it's track record. The current owners bought the land out from under Bells even as they still were saying they might move to Jenks. This is the only real and tangible plan there has been for this location.

As for access, Elm (Peoria) is now five lanes to the turnpike and the funding to widen Elm to five lanes with a jogging trail to 111th was passed last year. That jogging trail will connect to the one that follows Aquarium Drive. Aquarium Drivewhich is also going to get a direct connection to the stop light at the end of the 96th St Bridge. At one end of this development is the 96ths St bridge and at the other is the Elm St Creek exit with improved streets all around it. Not to mention green space and jogging trails that connect into the whole Riverparks system already. There's even a nearly unused (but still working) heavy rail line to the site that goes through downtown Jenks all the way to downtown Tulsa.

The other issue is Demographics? Well, the article states that the Jenks zip code now is the wealthiest in the state. That's aside from being the fastest growing, growing at about 10% a year. And Tulsa's zip codes right across the river aren't too shabby either.

You are taking your idea that it won't fly from the guy that said no one would go to Riverwalk, that it was too hard to get too. The same person that said there were only 10,000 (ugly drunk) people at the PGA Championship for the final round on Sunday. The biggest problem with Riverwalk has been that there's simply not enough parking.

I did not refer to them as ugly...they were actually quite funny drunks....I will stand by my 5 pm Sunday crowd estimate.

Riverwalk continues on thin ice. Except the boozeries.

Swake, where did you get your degree in urban land planning? OSU?

[sgrizzle]

The baseball field is south of 106th so we'll say 108th or 109th. The power plant is from 111th to 121st. So the north end of plant property is less than half a mile from the stadium property. Not to mention the plant in Jenks is far larger than the old plant in Tulsa.