Okay ksearls, keep us up to date on this!!


Downtown OKC Inc. eyes commercial real estate
The Journal Record
November 29, 2007

OKLAHOMA CITY – Based on the success of a project to bring available downtown Oklahoma City residential projects together in one searchable database, Downtown OKC Inc. has similar plans for the downtown office market.

The project, dubbed Downtown OKC Works, will kick off in 2008 with a budget of $21,500 for Web site development and advertising. Kim Searls, with DOKC, said the project is patterned after other downtown commercial development initiatives in cities around the country.“We’ve always wanted to highlight the office space that’s available downtown a little bit more,” Searls said. “With this campaign we’re really going to be doing that.”

The project will be a co-operative campaign between DOKC, developers and commercial real estate professionals with a stake in downtown Oklahoma City. When complete, the package will be available in several formats, including an online version available for download.

Searls said the initiative will really kick off in January to feature all available commercial property downtown. The organization currently has a Web link and information about housing available downtown and residential development in the works. “We’re really going to be pursuing those people that are thinking about moving and really going after them trying to get them to relocate in downtown Oklahoma City,” she said.

Brett Hamm, president of DOKC, said there have already been several positive events in the downtown office market in the past year, citing in particular the purchase of the former Kerr-McGee buildings by SandRidge Energy. SandRidge’s purchase of the approximately 450,000 square feet of space was significant in that it kept the space from being purchased by an entity that could have dumped it on the market, severely driving up the vacancy rate numbers downtown.

A report by Price Edwards & Co. showed that for the first half of 2007 the vacancy rate for office space in the central business district remained mostly unchanged at 27.7 percent. The report showed in turn that vacancy rates overall for office space in Oklahoma City dropped from between 15.7 percent and 15 percent for the first half of 2007.


Brett Hamm, president of Downtown OKC Inc., gives a presentation to board members Wednesday during an end-of-year meeting at Leadership Square. (Photo by Jennifer Pitts)