Wheeler District

[BG918]

Impressed by this development and Carlton Landing. The Humphrey's have created a unique brand with these New Urbanism developments and I'll be interested to see where they end up going next.

[Pete]

Wish something similar was happening at Strawberry Fields.

[Canoe]

Wish something similar was happening at Strawberry Fields.

Do you think they would they allow it?

[Pete]

Do you think they would they allow it?

What Blair Humphreys is doing with Wheeler involved about a decade of planning, having several big public charettes (out-doing anything done by anyone here, including the city itself), hiring a nationally-known and very expensive urban planning firm, working first with economic development for years then completely bypassing them when they only put up roadblocks.

Wheeler didn't just happen, it took big family resources and Blair's sheer force of ample will and intellect... Not to mention an incredible drive to do something meaningful in OKC. I remember sitting down with him and going over this massive and complex spreadsheet (and I'm a bit of a spreadsheet guru) and being awed at how much effort he was putting into that project.

And I say all this not because I'm buddies with Blair; we've actually had our differences and I've met him in person no more than a handful of times and none in several years. I also seriously doubt that I will ever live in or near the Wheeler District (although it's turning out so great I'm starting to thaw on that a bit).


No disrespect to the SF people but what I described is what it takes to get to where the Wheeler District is headed.

[Teo9969]

What Blair Humphreys is doing with Wheeler involved about a decade of planning, having several big public charettes (out-doing anything done by anyone here, including the city itself), hiring a nationally-known and very expensive urban planning firm, working first with economic development for years then completely bypassing them when they only put up roadblocks.

Wheeler didn't just happen, it took big family resources and Blair's sheer force of ample will and intellect... Not to mention an incredible drive to do something meaningful in OKC. I remember sitting down with him and going over this massive and complex spreadsheet (and I'm a bit of a spreadsheet guru) and being awed at how much effort he was putting into that project.

And I say all this not because I'm buddies with Blair; we've actually had our differences and I've met him in person no more than a handful of times and none in several years. I also seriously doubt that I will ever live in or near the Wheeler District (although it's turning out so great I'm starting to thaw on that a bit).


No disrespect to the SF people but what I described is what it takes to get to where the Wheeler District is headed.

To be sure there, there's a permanence in the work that Blair and co have done already such that some of the initial work Blair did will longer necessary for future projects that mimic this, and that future projects will get more buy in and resources from the community when such a plan is presented. i'm not saying they could do in 5 years what they did in 10 years by any means, but I do think given their success they could do it in less time with more help in the resource department.

One would hope that Blair has at least one more of these types of herculean efforts in him after this thing is basically finished around 2030.

[andrew]

Noticed that airpark coffee in the shop homes here has opened with temporary business hours from noon-6pm

[Pete]

Noticed that airpark coffee in the shop homes here has opened with temporary business hours from noon-6pm

That's very cool.

I don't even like coffee but will go check them out.

[krisb]

Airpark Coffee looks very cool. Just curious why a coffee shop would not be open in the morning? Based on some of the previous comments in this thread, 12-6p would not be a good time for business since everyone is at school and work. I really want this development to be a functioning mix of uses for residents of Wheeler and nearby neighborhoods.

[king183]

Airpark Coffee looks very cool. Just curious why a coffee shop would not be open in the morning? Based on some of the previous comments in this thread, 12-6p would not be a good time for business since everyone is at school and work. I really want this development to be a functioning mix of uses for residents of Wheeler and nearby neighborhoods.

They are temporary hours until they get everything in order and do a grand opening, which should be in a couple weeks. Their normal business hours will be 7am to 7pm.

They have done a great job with such a small space—and they’re not even done.

[andrew]

[warreng88]

It should be noted that they serve coffee in the Terminal as well. I think the hours are 8-2.

[shawnw]

8-8 for Terminal Commons, unless you just meant coffee

[Pete]

I had mentioned upthread that Nonesuch was planning to relocate to Wheeler.

Those plans have been called off and they just filed a building permit to expand their current space on Hudson.

[shawnw]

Good for midtown. And makes sense to expand into the space next door that isn't really getting utilized.

[Pete]

[5alive]

Hard to express how much I like this development!

[dcsooner]

I like the development but the industrial areas adjacent to it (for me)take away from the area . Similar to the auto salvage yard across from the Lower Park area

[dankrutka]

If you haven’t been to a Wheeler Crit, it’s a really fun event. It was packed on Tuesday.

[Roger S]

Was at Metro Appliance over the weekend looking at appliances for the farmhouse and overheard a couple talking to a salesperson there that were building in Wheeler.

They spoke good English but I've had a couple of friends from Brazil and their accents sounded very similar to the two Brazilians I've known and it kind of sounded like they were relocating here from somewhere else.

[Plutonic Panda]

Half of family is from Brazil and many are relocating to OKC from Brazil or Dallas. Hopefully we get more Brazilian restaurants here. I was hoping they’d go with a Fogo de Chao in first national center but maybe they can build one in the wheeler district.

[warreng88]

This development is getting a lot of hate (again) on Pete's facebook post. Still don't understand why. If you don't like it, fine, don't live there. If it costs too much, fine, don't live there. It is a great development for the city and I am glad the Humpreys are moving forward with it.

[David]

Apparently building homes in an empty field is gentrification. Who knew.

[catcherinthewry]

Apparently building homes in an empty field is gentrification. Who knew.

An empty field with lots of TIF money.

[David]

An empty field with lots of TIF money.

A bunch of fairly densely put together homes in a previously empty field are going to generate a lot more property tax than the empty field ever did.

[shawnw]

I'm no fan of TIF abuse, but the place had nearly zero infrastructure (outside the edges) before Wheeler. Seems like a textbook case of valid TIF use to me.