A suggestion for the old Ford dealership lot

[Pete]

BTW, the only reason I sometimes sound critical or point out the negative is that the other primary reporter covering these subjects is completely unethical, serving as nothing more than PR for developers who generally play him like a fiddle.

There has to be legitimate reporting of all sides, not just becoming 'friends' with those you are charged with covering, and merely printing the information they feed you or that that is lifted from OKCTalk.

[TheTravellers]

^^^ Thanks for that list, knew about some of them, but not others, good info to have...

[riflesforwatie]

That is pretty cool, but at the same time it seems like it would be a huge obstruction between Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park. I want something mixed use that would allow easy traversing between the parks, instead of an obstruction.

I think you're on the right track to be worried about obstruction between the parks, but I would go even further. The best use of this property is as public parkland connecting Scissortail Park and the Myriad Gardens. It might not even need to go all the way from Robinson to Hudson, but instead from halfway between Hudson and Harvey to halfway between Robinson and Harvey, with mixed use on the remaining outer sides. I know there was lots of public discussion regarding the siting of the Convention Center and the entire Core to Shore "project" (which means there was even more discussion behind the scenes) but I am not sure we came out of that with the best possible location for everything. These blocks are probably way too valuable now for "more park!" to ever happen, thanks to the $715 million I-40 relocation, the $139 million Scissortail Park, and the $288 million MAPS 3 Convention Center. Maybe there could be a land swap between the Cox Convention Center and the dealership lot? If office towers are the goal the Cox land is way better for that anyway.

I think it's easy to forget just how staggering an amount of empty (or essentially empty) land we're dealing with downtown. Office towers would also work on the old Stage Center site. Or from Walker to Hudson and Reno to the Boulevard. (Speaking of the Boulevard, that turkey is going to separate Scissortail from the rest of Downtown no matter what happens to the Ford dealership site.) And then what do we do with the Producers Co-op, Strawberry Fields, etc? Sure, we've already built a lot of park, but it really seems like a missed opportunity not to connect these two amazing natural resources we've just built and put all the buildings somewhere else.

[SEMIweather]

I think you're on the right track to be worried about obstruction between the parks, but I would go even further. The best use of this property is as public parkland connecting Scissortail Park and the Myriad Gardens. It might not even need to go all the way from Robinson to Hudson, but instead from halfway between Hudson and Harvey to halfway between Robinson and Harvey, with mixed use on the remaining outer sides. I know there was lots of public discussion regarding the siting of the Convention Center and the entire Core to Shore "project" (which means there was even more discussion behind the scenes) but I am not sure we came out of that with the best possible location for everything. These blocks are probably way too valuable now for "more park!" to ever happen, thanks to the $715 million I-40 relocation, the $139 million Scissortail Park, and the $288 million MAPS 3 Convention Center. Maybe there could be a land swap between the Cox Convention Center and the dealership lot? If office towers are the goal the Cox land is way better for that anyway.

I think it's easy to forget just how staggering an amount of empty (or essentially empty) land we're dealing with downtown. Office towers would also work on the old Stage Center site. Or from Walker to Hudson and Reno to the Boulevard. (Speaking of the Boulevard, that turkey is going to separate Scissortail from the rest of Downtown no matter what happens to the Ford dealership site.) And then what do we do with the Producers Co-op, Strawberry Fields, etc? Sure, we've already built a lot of park, but it really seems like a missed opportunity not to connect these two amazing natural resources we've just built and put all the buildings somewhere else.

I forget, have office towers been proposed for the old Stage Center site in the past?

[d-usa]

I don’t think we need to have a park to connect the park to another park.

But again, I would love to see Harvey closed down and turning it into a wide public pedestrian plaza from the Gardens to the Park, with a giant fountain in the middle, room for big patios for the restaurants and shops lining the plaza.

Don’t we need an Oklahoma City Plaza on Oklahoma City Blvd?

[Oski]

A did a bit of (poor) photoshopping to see how everything may look like, with permission from Alonzo Adams Photography, check him out, he shot beautiful photos of OKC landscapes. https://www.instagram.com/alonzoadamsphoto/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fI2...ew?usp=sharing

[ChrisHayes]

A did a bit of (poor) photoshopping to see how everything may look like, with permission from Alonzo Adams Photography, check him out, he shot beautiful photos of OKC landscapes. https://www.instagram.com/alonzoadamsphoto/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fI2...ew?usp=sharing

I have to admit, that looks pretty cool! It's just a shame the Ford lot isn't deep enough between the parks to incorporate something like that where the proportions would be correct. It would need to be west to east rather than north to south. Still, something that acts as a gateway between the parks would be ideal.

[Canoe]

We have a ton of great developers: the afore-mentioned Hall Capital and MidtownR but also Pivot Project, Richard McKown, Jeff Struble (tons of Plaza stuff), Gary Brooks, Andy Burnett & Mark Beffort, Blair Humphreys, Marva Ellard, Jeff Johnson and a bunch of others.

Combined, they've done hundreds of great projects.

And no offense to the Strawberry Fields group which has invested millions with great intentions.


I've said it before, but those who are investing in our community (not only money, but tons of blood, sweat and tears) deserve our respect.

When something fails or has to be scaled back, I can assure you the owners/developers are devastated far beyond the annoyance any of us may feel.


There is a huge difference between being paid by an employer and striking out on your own at tremendous risk and without a large group of locals doing just that, we wouldn't have the huge majority of what most of us consider to be the best things about OKC.

All things considered, I would rather have local developers.