University Town Center

[Geographer]

or not

"An aerospace company will be the first occupant of the manufacturing center, Wood said, bringing 400 new jobs to Norman. An official announcement is expected by the end of October."

If you notice, that article was written September 2012...the announcement was supposed to happen October 2012.

[G.Walker]

My point exactly, lol.

[BoulderSooner]

lol ... joke is on me

[Rover]

That is what happens when you a pitch a life-style center location to a company and then they see that your life-style center is a strip shopping center - they question what kind of life-style you are living.

Yes, because we know that is how important business decisions are made by responsible companies....how close are the buildings to the street and is it parallel parking... LOL.

AND, we all know that Norman is such an awful place to live.

So, I guess if GE decides to locate in Norman it is BECAUSE of the strip center life style there.

[Just the facts]

Companies have all kinds of criteria but most of them don't look favorable on the bait and switch tactic. Norman sells the life-style center location but doesn't have a life-style center. So yes, when they say they have a great location in a new life-style center with fountains, and parks, and walkability, and unique architecture, etc... and then the company reps actually see that location and it is an arterial street fronted by giant parking lots with no housing on-site you can bet that creates a bad impression.

[G.Walker]

Here is a more recent article, those renderings for the office park are at least 7 years old, if I see them again, I am going to puke!

okcBIZ: News: Development: Norman

[Just the facts]

Here is a more recent article, those renderings for the office park are at least 7 years old, if I see them again, I am going to puke!

okcBIZ: News: Development: Norman

Even better - instead of life-style center they propose a traditional office park.

[Rover]

Companies have all kinds of criteria but most of them don't look favorable on the bait and switch tactic. Norman sells the life-style center location but doesn't have a life-style center. So yes, when they say they have a great location in a new life-style center with fountains, and parks, and walkability, and unique architecture, etc... and then the company reps actually see that location and it is an arterial street fronted by giant parking lots with no housing on-site you can bet that creates a bad impression.

Yes, of course. They can't use Google Earth or Street View or any of those new fangled things. They just show up and are surprised. No way would they want their company near a slum like UNP. Having Academy Sports nearby with a parking lot ruined the deal.

I think you have lost all objective perspective.

Transportation/Logistics, proximity to educated work force, financial incentives, costs of operations, proximity to intellectual resources, etc., etc. THESE are REAL factors, not some new urbanist manifesto.

If you want to discuss how UNP has violated the new urbanist creed, great. But ascribing all social and economic ills to non conforming shopping areas is more than a stretch.

[Just the facts]

Say want you Rover - but still no large companies at UNP despite multiple companies coming to take a look. Maybe you can explain what the problem is. After all, Norman is great place to live, good schools, OU near by, but ..... still no companies.

[HangryHippo]

Say want you Rover - but still no large companies at UNP despite multiple companies coming to take a look. Maybe you can explain what the problem is. After all, Norman is great place to live, good schools, OU near by, but ..... still no companies.

Yep. Maybe rover can tell us what happened to the aerospace company or why any of the various other companies that look around decide on other sites?

[Questor]

STILL no website for UNP. It's 2013. Why are Oklahoma businesses so technologically impaired???

[zachj7]

Because UNP is crap? Looks like any normal strip mall with an abnormal amount of mattress stores. What's unique?

[G.Walker]

STILL no website for UNP. It's 2013. Why are Oklahoma businesses so technologically impaired???

Because you still have an older generation running things at the City and NEDC. Until they get some young proffessionals, with a new perspective, and out-of-the-box way of thinking, it will continue to be the same.

[Just the facts]

Just for comparison - here is the web site for our life-style center here in Jax.

St. Johns Town Center? Mobile Website - Jacksonville, FL 32246-7429 - Simon Malls

[venture]

Because you still have an older generation running things at the City and NEDC. Until they get some young proffessionals, with a new perspective, and out-of-the-box way of thinking, it will continue to be the same.

Well we got half of council replaced this last go around, time to get the other half done next year. Granted Lynn Miller isn't exactly young, but thankfully the redneck teabagger is gone.

[kevinpate]

Because you still have an older generation running things at the City and NEDC. ...

Surely there is some other more likely reason. Norman and NEDC have each had a web presence for a number of years. Not saying the sites are exceptional or anything, but the two sites have been around a spell.

[venture]

Even better - instead of life-style center they propose a traditional office park.

Technically the plan is to have the office park north of Embassy Suites I believe with hangar access to the airport. Then the lifestyle center is suppose to be across 24th. Who knows though. NEDC and the Norman Chamber just love blowing smoke to serve their own personal agendas.

Yep. Maybe rover can tell us what happened to the aerospace company or why any of the various other companies that look around decide on other sites?

Aerospace company = smoke.

[traxx]

Well we got half of council replaced this last go around, time to get the other half done next year. Granted Lynn Miller isn't exactly young, but thankfully the redneck teabagger is gone.

Dude, get over yourself. I'm not sure who you're talking about but you people with your whining. That's why I left this place for years. Looks like I may need to leave for good. I doubt someone would be allowed to say that liberal, pansy, tree huggers are an embarrassment without some sort of repisal on these boards.

You liberals with your Oklahoma has to change has to be more progressive (read liberal), has to get rid of the conservative thinking etc. I know you all want OKC to be a carbon copy of a place like Seattle but what's the purpose? Instead of making a carbon copy, just go live in the original. You guys and your talk of tolerance is laughable because you can't seem to tolerate anyone with a differing view. You won't shop at Wal Mart of Hobby Lobby because of their conservative nature. I see these posts in these threads on here. It seems there's been more of these posts just lately. The hatred is palpable. There are cities in this country with a decidedly liberal lean. There should be room in this country for cities with a conservative lean. You don't need to change it, you don't need to fix, it because it's not broken.

If someone doesn't join in on the liberal circle jerk on these boards then they're unwelcome.

[Geographer]

Dude, get over yourself. I'm not sure who you're talking about but you people with your whining. That's why I left this place for years. Looks like I may need to leave for good. I doubt someone would be allowed to say that liberal, pansy, tree huggers are an embarrassment without some sort of repisal on these boards.

You liberals with your Oklahoma has to change has to be more progressive (read liberal), has to get rid of the conservative thinking etc. I know you all want OKC to be a carbon copy of a place like Seattle but what's the purpose? Instead of making a carbon copy, just go live in the original. You guys and your talk of tolerance is laughable because you can't seem to tolerate anyone with a differing view. You won't shop at Wal Mart of Hobby Lobby because of their conservative nature. I see these posts in these threads on here. It seems there's been more of these posts just lately. The hatred is palpable. There are cities in this country with a decidedly liberal lean. There should be room in this country for cities with a conservative lean. You don't need to change it, you don't need to fix, it because it's not broken.

If someone doesn't join in on the liberal circle jerk on these boards then they're unwelcome.

Being smart with what you build so that you don't have to rebuild it again doesn't all sound liberal to me, in fact that sounds pretty conservative if you want to put labels on it.

I don't agree with the teabagger statement, per se...however I am in favor of building something that lasts and doesn't take up as much space and utilizes the space to its best use...since I want to be conservative with how much land we are using to construct places like UNP.

I shop at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby....and I also advocate smart growth and wise-use of our land..and I don't believe UNP (the way that it is currently constructed) is either of those things.

[venture]

Dude, get over yourself. I'm not sure who you're talking about but you people with your whining. That's why I left this place for years. Looks like I may need to leave for good. I doubt someone would be allowed to say that liberal, pansy, tree huggers are an embarrassment without some sort of repisal on these boards.

You liberals with your Oklahoma has to change has to be more progressive (read liberal), has to get rid of the conservative thinking etc. I know you all want OKC to be a carbon copy of a place like Seattle but what's the purpose? Instead of making a carbon copy, just go live in the original. You guys and your talk of tolerance is laughable because you can't seem to tolerate anyone with a differing view. You won't shop at Wal Mart of Hobby Lobby because of their conservative nature. I see these posts in these threads on here. It seems there's been more of these posts just lately. The hatred is palpable. There are cities in this country with a decidedly liberal lean. There should be room in this country for cities with a conservative lean. You don't need to change it, you don't need to fix, it because it's not broken.

If someone doesn't join in on the liberal circle jerk on these boards then they're unwelcome.

Apparently you have pretty rose colored glasses. There is a fair amount of back and forth on these boards, and please don't lump me in with the traditional "liberal" definition. My positions are pretty clear. However, if you had been exposed to the follies of Dave Spaulding for the last couple of years, you would be rejoicing to see him kicked out of City Council after one term. He brought an agenda that completely clashed with moving Norman forward and continued to sidetrack discussions with a Tea Party agenda that had no place in local politics. We also need to keep in mind that Norman is a fairly moderate city when compared to the rest of the state. Someone coming in with such divisive viewpoints and agendas wasn't helping anyone.

Perhaps educate yourself on the nature of what is (and was) going in Norman before making assumptions and looking like a fool. Do people want Norman to be the next Seattle? Hardly. I love the balance of an academic college town and a very laid back community. However, we also need to make sure we plan properly going forward to be sure we don't turn into "just another suburb". We are getting close, but hopefully fresh blood on council will help avoid continuing down the path.

[Just the facts]

....continued to sidetrack discussions with a Tea Party agenda that had no place in local politics.

That is because some of my fellow tea-party travelers are misguided; like they haven't thought their position completely. Here is a quick example to prove the point. The right-wing says the economy isn't doing great because all Obama has done is create part-time low wage jobs. Then the liberals in D.C. essentially ban Wal-Mart because they don't pay enough money, consider 27 hours a week full-time, and encourage their employees to go on public assistance to make up the deficiency with their wages. But guess who comes to the defense of Wal-Mart - you guessed it - the right-wing tea-party types.

[MikeLucky]

All the conversation and hand-wringing about this project aside... having the Embassy Suites and Conference Center go up early in the process was what killed this whole thing. It was the equivalent of paying a contractor in advance for building a house. Certain powers-that-be wanted this project to go up so that they could get the conference center built. Once that was done, it was left up to the developer and the city council to keep things rolling on their own... obviously that hasn't worked out so well.

Just my assessment of it all. Having said that, I'm not nearly as upset about UNP as some of y'all. I am there quite frequently and find that the stores and restaurants that are there are pretty convenient and useful for me. But, I wouldn't be upset at something nicer going in there, for sure.

[BG918]

UNP is a nice strip center, and fairly convenient for central and west Norman. I've said it before but any kind of faux-urban lifestyle center should not be part of this development, and so far hasn't been. That should be in a real urban area like Campus Corner or anchoring the west end of downtown along Main as a redevelopment of the strip malls there. Leave UNP as a place for big box stores and a collection of chain restaurants, and hopefully eventually more office space in the northern parts. It is in a good location to create a new office cluster for the entire south OKC metro along I-35 between Rock Creek and Tecumseh.

[traxx]

Apparently you have pretty rose colored glasses. There is a fair amount of back and forth on these boards, and please don't lump me in with the traditional "liberal" definition. My positions are pretty clear. However, if you had been exposed to the follies of Dave Spaulding for the last couple of years, you would be rejoicing to see him kicked out of City Council after one term. He brought an agenda that completely clashed with moving Norman forward and continued to sidetrack discussions with a Tea Party agenda that had no place in local politics. We also need to keep in mind that Norman is a fairly moderate city when compared to the rest of the state. Someone coming in with such divisive viewpoints and agendas wasn't helping anyone.

Perhaps educate yourself on the nature of what is (and was) going in Norman before making assumptions and looking like a fool. Do people want Norman to be the next Seattle? Hardly. I love the balance of an academic college town and a very laid back community. However, we also need to make sure we plan properly going forward to be sure we don't turn into "just another suburb". We are getting close, but hopefully fresh blood on council will help avoid continuing down the path.

I don't mean to threadjack this thread so this will be the last I say about it.

What I was saying wasn't about what was going on in Norman. It was about that some people on here seem to believe that if someone doesn't agree with their point of view then that person must be some redneck, uneducated, backwoods, teabagger. Which I'm guessing teabagger is your "clever" little name for tea party people and not literally a sexual term.

I'm not a teaparty member but I've obviously got differing views from some of you on here. But I try to avoid getting into political or socio-political discussions on here. I stay off of the politics forum on here. I try to be respectful of other people's views and opinions on here.

And it's not just you. Don't think that this is personal, it's not.

[Just the facts]

UNP is a nice strip center, and fairly convenient for central and west Norman. I've said it before but any kind of faux-urban lifestyle center should not be part of this development, and so far hasn't been.

I think that is what we are all saying. The problem is that it WAS sold a new urbanism lifestyle center and is still presented that way - and it isn't one. I wonder if it was built as it was billed if it would be full of office space already.