View Full Version : Another mixed-use development for far NW OKC



metro
04-25-2008, 08:40 AM
Cornett, seriously, I know your not in favor of deannexing our city, but when is this sprawl going to end?



Mixed-use project proposed for NW OKC
Journal Record
April 25, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY – As retail and residential developments continue to sprout up north of the Kilpatrick Turnpike, a mixed-use project is slated for land just northwest of Quail Springs Mall.

The project belongs to Caliber Development Group, primarily known as a homebuilder in the metro area. Last year Caliber purchased nearly 50 acres on and near the southwest corner of the intersection of NW 150th Street and May Avenue. Plans call for potential retail, office, restaurant, grocery and a pharmacy on 13 acres. An early configuration on what is now an empty field would include 123,900 square feet of first-floor commercial space, 20,925 square feet of second-floor commercial space and 702 parking spaces.

Jade Noles, president of Caliber, said his company had eyed the site, which is just north and west of Quail Springs Mall, for a retail and office project.“We’ve got a lot of interest in the Quail Springs area,” Noles said. “We were already invested in the area and we saw the growth potential and knew it was a great piece of real estate in an area that was rapidly growing.” Nearby, Caliber is the developer for The Grove, a 200-acre commercial and residential project, in an area bordered by N. May Avenue, N. Portland Avenue, NW 178th Street on the south and NW 192nd Street on the north.

Caliber also recently completed two 45,000-square-foot office buildings at the Quail Springs Corporate Park. This will be Caliber’s first retail development. Caliber is owned by Connecticut-based private equity firm Wexford Capital But a slowdown in the nationwide economy has delayed plans for the project, tentatively dubbed NW 150th & May Avenue Development.

Early plans called for a tenant such as a large drugstore on the northeast corner of the property. Mike Webb, with Grubb & Ellis Levy Beffort, is handling the sales end of the project. Webb said while several retailers have expressed interest, many national brands are hesitant to expand with the current market conditions.

He said a tenant like a large drugstore could be just the thing to kick off the project. If that takes too much time, Noles said there is the possibility they could build some spec buildings. The look of the eventual buildings and a price tag for the project have not yet been determined, but Webb said it will likely be a mix of casual and fast-food restaurants as well as local merchants with a high-end flair.

Rents are expected to be in the $15- to $18-per-square-foot range, Webb said. Plans could also include a smaller, boutique grocery store to serve local neighborhoods. The center is also in close proximity to the proposed Quail Springs Village, on about 255 acres just across May Avenue, east of the Caliber project.

That project is a proposed large-scale shopping center complete with several hotels and a movie theater. Webb said rather than weighing competition, that Caliber has been focused solely on growing with the area north of the turnpike.“We haven’t really looked at anyone else,” he said. “We just want to create the best product we can.”

Noles said for the time being Caliber will continue looking at the best use for the land and the eventual development. A second phase will likely include office park development on the land to the west of the retail area.“At this point it’s very preliminary,” Noles said. “We just know the location is ideal for the right use.”

Oh GAWD the Smell!
04-25-2008, 08:53 AM
Since no retail-type business owner in their right mind is going to build a store 10-20 miles away from their target demographic on purpose...Well...Cart-horse-horse-cart-etc-so-on-and-so-forth. Sprawl will stop when you convince the vast majority of the population to move into the city center. I predict that will happen when gas hits $10 a gallon.

metro
04-25-2008, 09:06 AM
OGTS, I can agree with your points, but why does the city have to allow it to get that far out of hand. Can we not be proactive for once and limit suburban growth by offering more incentives to live in City Center or to Deannex portions of our city? We don't need 660 sq. miles nor even half of it. Even if we were conservative and shed 100 sq. miles or so, that'd save us millions in infrastructure costs each year. Let the builders that want to build out there pay for it. We have miles and miles of rural land. Even our friend down South Dallas doesn't have as many sq. miles as we do.

Oh GAWD the Smell!
04-25-2008, 09:21 AM
If you remove that many people and businesses from the tax pool, nothing in the precious city core would happen because the money wouldn't be there.

Guess what...Neither would the Sonics. ;)

You cite Dallas as a reference...I've spent a lot of time there, and I'm thinking that their burbs have a MUCH higher population density than we do, making city/state/emergency services monumentally easier to fund via taxes.

If OKC grows, sprawl will become less and less apparent in my opinion. Because while people like to have their space, 50 mile commutes are a thing of the past...It'll fill in. Both with businesses and people. I'm sure Dallas didn't spread out evenly over time from a thriving city center...I bet they exploded into a HUGE area, and over time, did their annexing, splitting, and filling in the gaps as they grew. I know Denver was doing a lot of that while I lived there and they were booming in the late 90's.

metro
04-25-2008, 09:25 AM
OGTS,

I'm not sure if you're understaning me. I'm not talking about suburbia as in Memorial Rd. Corridor, etc. I'm talking about the miles of unpopulated land in far NW OKC, West OKC, West Central OKC, SW OKC (near the airport and west towards Mustang), and so forth. You can't reasonably tell me we have a legitimate reason for 660 sq. miles for OKC alone (not including our suburbs). I'm talking about maybe where' there's 1-10 people per square mile. Not in new development areas where there is maybe 200 a square mile. But the rural rural parts of OKC (which go past Yukon to almost El Reno, that is what is ridiculous!!).

flintysooner
04-25-2008, 09:38 AM
Actually I disagree at least to some extent.

Not everyone wants to live all crowded up against other people. And some people do not make every decision about their living arrangements based on economic considerations. People have been known to give up lucrative jobs in order to pursue a rural lifestyle.

There are lots of problems with urban living. Frank Lloyd Wright's vision of everyone having at least an acre may very well be best all things considered. That does not mean that there should not be walkable areas and other new urban design concepts. But the old urban ideas are awful to my way of thinking.

The energy problem is entirely different. There really is not much escape from hydrocarbon fuels for a long while.

Oh GAWD the Smell!
04-25-2008, 09:39 AM
OGTS,

I'm not sure if you're understaning me. I'm not talking about suburbia as in Memorial Rd. Corridor, etc. I'm talking about the miles of unpopulated land in far NW OKC, West OKC, West Central OKC, SW OKC (near the airport and west towards Mustang), and so forth. You can't reasonably tell me we have a legitimate reason for 660 sq. miles for OKC alone (not including our suburbs). I'm talking about maybe where' there's 1-10 people per square mile. Not in new development areas where there is maybe 200 a square mile. But the rural rural parts of OKC (which go past Yukon to almost El Reno, that is what is ridiculous!!).



Okay, but that's a lot different than 150th and May...Which is what I thought we were talking about.

metro
04-25-2008, 10:05 AM
No no no no. I'm talking about providing fire service, police, sewer, utilities, etc. all the way out to past Yukon by El Reno. That is ludicrus.

flintysooner, I have no problem with people wanting a rural lifestyle, that's their choice. I do have a problem with it when we have approximately 330 of our 660 square miles of it uninhabited, or very very sparcely populated and probably will be so for the next 50-100 years. That is WASTE. We don't need to spend millions to have miles and miles of utilities, sewer, and other things just so 10 people can live on 100 acres each near El Reno. Let Mustang, Yukon or El Reno deal with that if they want to, but OKC shouldn't make that part of city limits.

I can also agree with you about Frank Llyod Wrights idea of everyone on one acre a piece. I think that's the most "utopian" way of living and would make us far more sustainable community. Require everyone to use alternative energy such as solar power, windmills, geothermal, and such. Now that would be sustainable living.

Oh GAWD the Smell!
04-25-2008, 10:11 AM
No no no no. I'm talking about providing fire service, police, sewer, utilities, etc. all the way out to past Yukon by El Reno. That is ludicrus.



Oh, so you're complaining about something that has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

Just making sure. :P