No Class A?

[G.Walker]

It seems that a lot of focus these days from the City of Norman has been on developing transportation infrastructure, retail, and housing. But what about office space? It seems that the City of Norman is lacking prime Class A office space to attract quality employers. This article http://www.nedcok.com/index.php?opti...ter&Itemid=298 is probably the best thing I heard from Norman in a while, and hopefully something will come to fruition in the short-term. As the 3rd largest city in Oklahoma, its time for Norman to develop some prime office parks.

With that being said, the implementation of the new Norman Economic Development Authority should help this vision come to fruition.

Even Moore, Ok is in the final stages of completing a 30,000SF Class A office building off of Telephone Rd, by Vanguard Development, its not much, but at least its a start.

[BG918]

Downtown would be a great place to start, especially if it included redevelopment of the strip malls between Flood and University. More office space so close to the university and near adjacent neighborhoods and dozens of restaurants would be a big step in creating the "northern gateway" to OU via Main and University that has been discussed.

[u50254082]

My previous employer in Norman put off on expanding offices for years because they couldn't find any newer/larger office space to lease. They were intent on keeping the business in Norman, but only a few lukewarm offerings here and there were all we heard of. Ultimately they ended up going with some of the commercial leasing space at OU's research campus.

It's quite a shame, really, because for the type of business it was, it really needed to stay near I35 close to hotels and dining.

Maybe the guys running the town are intent on keeping it as a sleepy college town?

[bluedogok]

Maybe the guys running the town are intent on keeping it as a sleepy college town?

A core group of people in Austin thought the same way....it didn't work there.

I think it has to do with developers and particularly the type of commercial developers that the OKC area has tend to be more "local" than "national" and their development style reflects that. Most of the national management/development companies in OKC are staffed with people from OKC and not people who have developed in other markets. Most of the developers that I dealt with in Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas were large national companies whose people had worked all over the country and brought a completely different development style with them to their new market. If someone moves up the ladder enough, they move onto a new location. The former head of the Trammell Crow OKC office that I worked with in OKC was in the Austin office for awhile. There are some good, smaller, local developers in OKC but sometimes they don't think outside of a narrow set of parameters. I would think Norman could support much more office space then they currently have.

[rcjunkie]

There are plans to build upscale office buildings in UNP. Some of these buildings may have direct access to the airport adjacent to UNP.

[G.Walker]

There are plans to build upscale office buildings in UNP. Some of these buildings may have direct access to the airport adjacent to UNP.

You are talking about University North Park Corporate Centre, an aggressive Class A office park the City of Norman and NEDC was planning to break ground in 2008, then 2010...still waiting....


http://www.okairports.com/files/2008...Conference.ppt

[ou48A]

It seems that a lot of focus these days from the City of Norman has been on developing transportation infrastructure, retail, and housing. But what about office space? It seems that the City of Norman is lacking prime Class A office space to attract quality employers. This article http://www.nedcok.com/index.php?opti...ter&Itemid=298 is probably the best thing I heard from Norman in a while, and hopefully something will come to fruition in the short-term. As the 3rd largest city in Oklahoma, its time for Norman to develop some prime office parks.

With that being said, the implementation of the new Norman Economic Development Authority should help this vision come to fruition.

Even Moore, Ok is in the final stages of completing a 30,000SF Class A office building off of Telephone Rd, by Vanguard Development, its not much, but at least its a start.

Thanks for posting the link
It’s good information.


Transportation that is not congested is a pretty big consideration when expanding or relocating a significant sized business.
It’s also a major safety and quality of life issue.