Rumblings: Oklahoma River set to boom...

[Luke]

The clues are "Ray Ackerman", "Oklahoma River", "Mind-Boggling Development", and "soon".

The only article I could find related to those things was this one from 2 years ago:

http://www.okcbusiness.com/news/news...=46&newsid=957

So, at the very least, it seems that some of the development talked about in that article is getting set to realize.

Anybody have more details?

[Patrick]

Hmmmmm. Downtownguy, anymore clues??? The only thing really on the table right now is Dell.....wonder if they've made there final decision.

For those of you that may want to read the clues for yourself, check out downtownguy's blog at http://www.downtownguy.blogspot.com/

[Midtowner]

I was kind of hoping for a Tulsa-like environment along the river. They did a really nice thing with their riverfront land, turning it into a huge and beautiful park. We just don't have anything nice like that in the downtown area. In fact, the only park I can think of off hand (over by Bryon's liquor) is not even mowed by the city (yeah, they violate their own ordinance on weed/grass height).

[Patrick]

I think things will improve as times goes on. The Rivertrust has a great Master Plan for the river. Much of the river will be transformed into a park like setting. And the existing parks should be maintained better. Soon!

The one thing I don't like about Tulsa's design though is that the entire east side of the river is a park. In OKC it's going to be more mixed development intermixed with parks. The one drawback to the apartments on Riverside in Tulsa is that they aren't right on the river. Having apartments right on the river is much more attractive.

[Nuclear_2525]

I agree with you Patrick that Tulsa should have much more commercial and residential development on the river. However, I think the East Banks are perfect the way they are. I can't think of any city that has that extensive and beautiful of a park(except NYC!). I've never seen anything like it before. As for more commercial development, I am pretty upset that in the master plan for the river, that Tulsa is planning on turning most of the west banks in to parks also. I know that the whole idea behind it is to get people in the city to mingle or whatever, but would it really be that hard for those people to walk across the Arkansas river on a bridge to get to the parks on the East Banks and the others to do the same to get to the excitement on the west banks? I don't know. I hope OKC creates some nice parks, but I also hope there is much more room for commercial development. Tulsa has something that OKC will never have, the huge Arkansas River, and to me it seems like they are wasting the potential of it. There are some good things to the plan...such as landscaping, and Crow Creek development, but as for development along the actual river...it sucks.

[swake]

Well, now read the master plan for the Arkansas, and I don't think there is no plan for commerical development, just not even most of the banks are planned to have commercial development, but then, that would be unrealistic see that there is over 40 miles of riverbank in Tulsa county.

There already are big commerical developments being built or planned for the areas between 81st and 101st in Tulsa and Jenks.

Riverplan

http://www.incog.org/ark%20river/default.htm

Riverwalk Crossing Center

http://www.riverwalkcrossing.com/

and the new Kings Landing Center and expanded Creek Casino