I've preached about windows quite a bit on this site before, and the responses generally show how many people don't "get it." They get far more concerned with brick, EFIS, etc., and generally accept that old windows = bad and "modern" windows = good, though it is nowhere near that simple.

In the case of these buildings, the windows make up roughly 50% (or more) of the total façade area. As far as design elements go, they are INCREDIBLY important, perhaps even the MOST important in some cases.

Your preaching about windows and Rover's preaching about window AC units have really opened my eyes to details that seemed fairly trivial before, but make a world of difference.

Is anyone surprised that design review in OKC didn't do its job?

Noticed there is now scaffolding up around part of this building.

^^^^^^
I saw the same thing. It was only a small section of scaffold; my guess is that they were doing a materials inspection of some sort, but the good news is that would indicate movement toward renovation. Of course if they add more scaffolding it would mean renovations of some type were actually underway.

^^^^^^
I save the same thing. It was only a small section of scaffold; my guess is that they were doing a materials inspection of some sort, but the good news is that would indicate movement toward renovation. Of course if they add more scaffolding it would mean renovations of some type were actually underway.

The lobby lights have been on for the last few nights as well.

According to Mr. Dowell, the plan all along has been to start the demo work floor by floor once the Kerr / Couch parks were finished.

That was supposed to happen about a year ago and even the last "dead-set promise" was for October and the fences are still not down.

So this is an exterior renovation also?

Just took this:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell011616.jpg

^^^^^^
Like I said, probably materials fact-finding.

Glad to see this. Rick has always said that he would start when the parks and the building next door were finished. This has been a long time coming though!

Holy crap, actual progress, and it looks good, or at least not bad! At first glance! lol

You can see from this photo, they are clearing debris from the 2nd floor in advance of renovation.

Mr. Dowell told me the plan is to renovate one floor at a time, as they are leased. He is targeting smaller tenants.

Each floor has its own HVAC unit so they can have positive cash flow even if most the building remains empty.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell012316.jpg

Yeah, meant to mention that the other day when I was by it had become apparent that the scaffolding was there to support a chute for demolition debris.

Not much has changed here since this work started back in January; sidewalk still completely closed.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell090816.jpg

The "projects" this man gets away with are so irritating. I am so tired of the line, "Well Rick Dowell just works at his own pace."

Perhaps there should be some scrutiny to a 'temporarily closed sidewalk' who has had this status for years. ....

I think Oklahoma City needs to step up code enforcement, this might light a spark under such folks as Dowell to either put-up or sell to someone who will.

On a side note, I was in Houston last week and stayed at the downtown Doubletree. First, Houston's downtown area is awful. It's completely dead, there are hardly any restaurants around the office buildings, and the streets are totally dead. It's one of the worst downtowns (along with Phoenix) that I've visited. Moreover, there were numerous sidewalks unnecessarily blocked off even for minor construction projects. Pedestrians are forced to either unreasonably waste a lot of time and energy crossing their wide car-centric streets just for 50 feet, or walk the wrong way in the car lane and hope no cars come buzzing around the corner. I think most people choose the latter because Houston's downtown is pretty devoid of cars outside of weekday business hours. It's almost comically bad, dangerous, and unnecessary. I've seen the same in Dallas too to slighly lesser degrees. So, OKC isn't alone in such poor planning.

On a side note, I was in Houston last week and stayed at the downtown Doubletree. First, Houston's downtown area is awful. It's completely dead, there are hardly any restaurants around the office buildings, and the streets are totally dead. It's one of the worst downtowns (along with Phoenix) that I've visited. Moreover, there were numerous sidewalks unnecessarily blocked off even for minor construction projects. Pedestrians are forced to either unreasonably waste a lot of time and energy crossing their wide car-centric streets just for 50 feet, or walk the wrong way in the car lane and hope no cars come buzzing around the corner. I think most people choose the latter because Houston's downtown is pretty devoid of cars outside of weekday business hours. It's almost comically bad, dangerous, and unnecessary. I've seen the same in Dallas too to slighly lesser degrees. So, OKC isn't alone in such poor planning.

They have a Benihana though, what more do you need?

Im not sure why so many people are surprised by this sort of thing. You build a bunch of office buildings with no residential and this happens. And what's the draw to living in downtown Dallas or Houston...the crime rate, the lack of affordable parking and housing, or the wonderful smog? How about the lack of parks? These are central BUSINESS districts. This is NOT Manhattan guys. towns in Texas (and OK) were built for the car and for the suburbs. Hell Houston didn't really explode until AC made the place livable. There is simple zero NEED for the city to go up rather than out no matter how much we'd like to see that change. The same is true in Dallas....and really in OKC we're only now catching on to the idea that building IN is important. You can look at it as an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the big boys like Houston and Dallas that now have a core that no one wants to live in.

towns in Texas (and OK) were built for the car

but it wasn't built for the car? OKC wise anyway... you didn't really NEED a car until the streetcars and inter-urbans were shut down... by the car companies that bought them...

but it wasn't built for the car? OKC wise anyway... you didn't really NEED a car until the streetcars and inter-urbans were shut down... by the car companies that bought them...

In OKC one line went bankrupt and the other main line just shut down. I don't think any car company bought our streetcar lines...I think they lost money and had to shut down.

That was also before the time of Pei, which erased half of downtown, and before a lot of downtown went highrise. Yes we had some height back in the 60's, but i would argue that the majority of what you see now, was after that. And at that point, it was rebuilt for the car. Not to mention when downtown flight came in and everyone started building on the NWXway /Memorial, it really put the breaks on any activity after dark unless you were homeless. Magnify that a thousand percent in larger cities. But like i said, at least we're at a point in our development that we can start to correct that mentality and weren't too far gone to give it hope.

The GM conspiracy is a popular scapegoat, but from what I have read it only affected ~10% of the streetcar lines in the country.

^^^^^
It's true that it didn't affect all of them, but it was in larger cities and started the trend away from streetcars and toward buses, and eventually auto-dependence for most of the country.

Dowell plans to reopen downtown office building after renovations

By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record February 9, 2017

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rick Dowell has spent the last three years removing asbestos from his downtown building, the Dowell Center.

In the next couple of months, he’ll start the next phase to bring the building at 222 N. Robinson Ave. back to life. He’s filing his application for building permits next week, he said. Interior construction will start once the city grants him the permits.

He said he’s targeting smaller, growing businesses as lease tenants.

“We’re designing it where one tenant has the whole floor,” he said. “We have multiple floor plans, so we won’t have build-out allowances.”

Each suite is separately metered with its own bathrooms and common areas.

He said he thinks he can squeeze into the office market with lower rent rates. He expects he’ll spend about $75 per square foot on renovations. New construction would likely cost about $300 per square foot.

“We can afford to have a cheaper rent,” he said.

The 20-story building was built in 1927, though at that time, it was only 18 stories and called The Petroleum Building. In 1964, Kerr-McGee Corp. added floors 19 and 20. The building measures 205,000 square feet, with 195,000 square feet of leasable space.

The Dowell Center parking garage at 433 N. Harvey Ave. has had some updates as well. It now boasts 700 spaces, Dowell said.

“The downtown market is fairly strong still,” he said.

In 2016’s fourth quarter, the Central Business District office market had a vacancy rate of 11 percent, a 0.8-percent increase from the 2015 fourth quarter, according to an Xceligent report.

Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort office broker Ben Knott said the 11-percent vacancy rate isn’t keeping him up at night.

He’s been busy since 2017 started.

“The tenants we’re working with now are larger than they have been in the past,” he said. “From midyear last year to the fourth quarter, it’s been kind of slow. Now that the elections are over, we’ve had a lot of activity.”

He said in 2016, a lot of companies downsized and sublet their spaces. Marketwide, sublease space availability decreased by 194,000 square feet, reports Xceligent.

Dowell said he’s already getting calls from people about his space. He said tenants could move in starting this fall. Office sizes will range from 2,000 to 10,000 square feet.

Glad we have those new sidewalks and freshly painted bike lane.

This construction stuff has been blocking both -- just to clean out the 2nd floor -- since January of 2016!!! (Just scroll up a few posts to see my photo when this started.)

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell021917.jpg

They've been driving trucks up onto that sidewalk for over a year now? I wonder what damage has been done. Pretty sad

^
New sidewalks

If it's going to take them well over a year just to clean out one floor, this project is going to last a century.

Mr. Dowell just doesn't do things the right way. Too busy pinching pennies. Is it legal to use a sidewalk this way for a YEAR!?

I just looked on streetview (January 2016). The same truck/dumpster is literally in the same spot. So this brand new P180 sidewalk has had a truck and scaffolding parked on it for over a year with a sidewalk closed sign draped over beaten down orange construction net.

I am going to go over there and see if there is damage, I can't imagine the curbs have held up to a year of dumpsters and trucks being hauled up and down it. Although, it does look like there may be a curb cut that the truck is using, but I can't recall correctly if there is a cut.

I flip houses, which is an entire different animal and smaller project, but the demo aspect usually is the fastest moving. Is Dowell doing it by himself?

If you look at the photos and ever walk by. There is usually 3-4 vehicles that park right next to the dumpster in those "closed off" spots behind the cones. I am assuming this is likely the vehicles belonging to the workers. So perhaps less than 10 people working on it.

Steve said in his chat after all this time, the work on this project has stopped for the time being.

More than 10 years after Dowell bought this property, it still sits 100% vacant.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell042717.jpg

I'm not trying to offend, but I am not a Rick Dowell fan. I fear that when/if his remodeling of this building is finished it won't look much different than it does now.

I'm not trying to offend, but I am not a Rick Dowell fan. I fear that when/if his remodeling of this building is finished it won't look much different than it does now.

Rick Dowell is virtually clueless when it comes to urban design and placemaking and the thing is, he doesn't even care. The worst offender is that parking garage. However, most Dowell buildings have the same tinted windows and look lifeless at street level.

While I agree the sidewalk situation was ridiculous, but I think Rick Dowell gets a bad rap. What does he do? He buys vacant buildings, that NOBODY else wants, does a basic re-do and leases them for rates below CBD rates. If the tenant wants additional finish, it's on them. His buildings at 4th and Walker do very well financially. His tenants enjoy on-site parking and pay much less than Leadership Square, etc.

He may not appeal to our tastes, but at least he is doing something. Rehabilitating long-vacant buildings is very expensive.

This building continues to sit empty and completely idle.

Dowell has owned this property for 22 years. Twenty. Two. Years.


It is the only empty downtown building not under construction.

:mad:

With the increasing office vacancy rate downtown, I wish he would take a serious look at converting it to housing.

With the increasing office vacancy rate downtown, I wish he would take a serious look at converting it to housing.

Imagine if that was housing and the glass building next door housed amenities much like what sandridge was originally proposing such as a pool, cafe, work out center, ping pong, etc (it'd be cool if it were open to the public as well. Dowell Center is right on the park, has garage access through the underground, and would be a short skip over to First Natty and Park ave. Would be cool!

It's quite similar to the Park Harvey and that conversion to housing seems to have been quite successful, and they don't even have parking.

http://www.normantranscript.com/news/university_of_oklahoma/dowell-properties-divests-from-multifamily-market/article_298d54a5-1682-5a97-9449-b4f41f1c6c09.html

Maybe leaving the multi-family market will give Dowell time and resources to finally work on this building instead.

lmao

I thought this quote from the Norman Transcript article was very telling...“They’re run down and have a lot of deferred maintenance,” said Forrest Jinks, Altus Equity.

Whether he deserves the rep or not, this is how I always feel about this properties and projects.

Since Dowell completely ceased work a couple of months ago, the City should make him take this down.

It's been like this -- usually with trucks pulled up on the sidewalk -- for two years.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell091717.jpg

Since Dowell completely ceased work a couple of months ago, the City should make him take this down.

It's been like this -- usually with trucks pulled up on the sidewalk -- for two years.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell091717.jpg

I think it’s time for everyone to send emails and call to city councilmans, action center, mayors office etc.
Ive had great responses when I email my councilman directly with complaints and frustrations.

If enough people start taking action and letting the city know this is unacceptable, surely the city will take action.

From Saturday:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell063018.jpg

I think the fastest way to get anything done here is for one of us to start living in it and claim squatter’s rights. What’s another 15 years, right?

I think the fastest way to get anything done here is for one of us to start living in it and claim squatter’s rights. What’s another 15 years, right?

If we would have started 8 years after he bought it we'd have a legit claim by now.

I saw a window tinting service leaving the Dowell Center yesterday so that means that this development is definitely starting to ramp up again. Rick has marked his territory!! now expect roman columns to be installed and evergreens to be planted soon..

14799
Took it down

I believe someone reported it to the city and they forced the issue with Dowell.

Crews have been working on the interior again, windows have been tinted and washed.

I feel like we've heard this story before.

What decade or century is he living in...tinting the windows???

We missed an important anniversary.

In June, Dowell passed 35 years of ownership.


Still completely empty.

He is THE WORST to work with haha. Hope this thing changes hands soon.

16426

Shout out to what was lost, errr covered.

My understanding is that this building is under contract for sale and will be converted to apartments.

Not sure of the buyer, but my money is on Dick Tanenbaum who has already converted The Montgomery, Park Harvey, Classen Tower, and Lincoln Plaza. He's also in the process of converting two properties along Broadway into the Harlow and will soon start conversion work on the Robinson Renaissance building.

An out-of-state developer is well along in converting the old downtown Holiday Inn into housing called The Pulse.