8 new highrises

[SOONER8693]

I just spent 3 days in the Dallas convention center and north of downtown Dallas area near the AA arena. There are 8 new highrises currently under construction. Now, I know we aren't Dallas, nor do we want to be, but wow. It seems to me, there may never be 1 new highrise built in OKC. We would do anything to get just 1. It's kinda discouraging.

[mburlison]

supply and demand...

[MadMonk]

We would do anything to get just 1. It's kinda discouraging.

Why is that? Are we short on space downtown or is this just a "want" rather than a "need" thing?

[Saberman]

What came first, the chicken, or the egg?

We're not going to get any new highrises in OKC until we make downtown area the place to go. We don't have the the access to OKC(airport, seaport, etc.) that draws people to a places like Dallas, nor do we really want that, IMO. Then we get the things that Dallas has to deal with like traffic, crime, and a**holes.

We need to have quality of life things that bring people to downtown. We in the southwest have more of the urban sprawl thing going, and the only way we will build more highrises is if they build west from the current downtown area. IMO, we need to keep identity and go more for an urban type setting, with a city downtown atmosphere.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

We could build east too. There's not a whole lot on that side of the highway.

But yeah...Supply/demand, etc...It's not like we have a dire NEED for a new one right now. There's no critical shortage of space down there at this point. Be it office or residential.

[adaniel]

I just spent 3 days in the Dallas convention center and north of downtown Dallas area near the AA arena. There are 8 new highrises currently under construction. Now, I know we aren't Dallas, nor do we want to be, but wow. It seems to me, there may never be 1 new highrise built in OKC. We would do anything to get just 1. It's kinda discouraging.

Hey sooner, were you in the uptown district? Yeah that area is booming, but don't be fooled. I don't know this for a fact, but you could probably ask any real estate professional and they will tell you Dallas has a bad habit of overbuilding both residential and commercial properties any time the economy is even half decent. For better or for worse, most developers around here (and the banks that finance them) play it very conservative. OKC needs to keep doing well for a while before any sort of new, major buildings are announced. And if I'm not mistaken, isn't OKC Class A office vacancy rate something like 6 or 7 percent? If so, I wouldn't be surprised if something is announced soon.

[BDP]

I'm pretty sure we'll continue our same city plan: build as far apart as possible, as far out as possible, with as much parking in between as possible. It's beautiful.

[brianinok]

The construction in downtown Dallas is misleading. I have some friends who work down there. They have told me that Class A space is in large abundance in downtown Dallas, and yet they continue to build. They tell me a number of the buildings under construction are being built by companies who currently rent downtown, and a few are just developers speculating. So, once those companies move into their new buildings, there will be even more space down there.

I just wonder if it is like the condo developers who continued to build on the coasts well into the start of the housing downturn. Not that Dallas is going to go through a recession (they shouldn't because of O&G), but there is such a thing as too much office space.

[Kerry]

Go to Emporis.com and pick any city with over 500,000 metro and everyone of them has contructed atleaset one new high rise in the past 10 years. When was OKC last build over 20 stories contructed? 1984?

[Moondog]

Hey, some of the coolest cities have smallish skylines (Colo. Sprs, Portland, Wash. DC., Madison.) It's not the skyline that counts; it's what's down on the street level that matters.

Still, I'd love to see at least one new high rise in OKC. (I thought I read somewhere that we had four new ones on the drawing board??)

[BDP]

It's not the skyline that counts; it's what's down on the street level that matters.

Totally agree, but towers do help street level services, because it creates density and more businesses can service more people easier.

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of street level activity either. The problem isn't so much that we haven't had any towers built, it's that so much of our development has been and continues to be in the outer mile of the city. So, we get parking lots instead of neighborhoods and business districts (and we have to pay to build and maintain the additional infrastructure, too, but that's another issue.)