The Thunder will want enough on-site parking to accommodate premium ticket holders, plus support whatever on-site commercial development is attached to the arena. Beyond that they won’t be motivated to take up additional space that could instead be utilized for other revenue streams, such as retail, restaurants and other hospitality and entertainment venues.
Besides the abundant surface and structured parking already nearby (which is currently underutilized at night), there will certainly be structured parking included with whatever eventually appears on the REHCO site and the development that will replace Paycom in its current location. I wouldn’t be too worried about the new arena site being dominated by structured parking; that’s not where the money is and the team’s overarching motivation is unlocking new revenue.
Folks really need to start thinking about all three of those plots of land - arena site, REHCO and existing Paycom - as the whole of arena-connected development instead of thinking of them as islands. I can promise you that the City, the Thunder AND the owners of the REHCO site are thinking about it as an ecosystem, NOT simply as individual sites.
To be fair, I think the reason people aren't thinking about it that way is that no one has blatantly come out and said that. I know you have on this forum, but the mayor, team, city reps, etc have not indicated anything. I look forward to seeing how the properties all mesh together when fully developed.
There is zero information out there about anything other than the arena site.
And regarding that site, yesterday it was confirmed there will be a parking garage constructed.
Regardless of what goes on around it, it's disappointing an above-ground parking structure will be built to replace 1,000 spaces that are currently completely underground.
Hopefully, the garage will be well-integrated into the rest of the development, but there is no disguising a large parking structure right in the middle of the CBD. In fact, look at all the more recent parking facilities constructed all around here (Devon x 3, Arts District, Convention Center, ParcFirst) and they are all pretty awful and detract from downtown streetlife.
Do any of the recent new arenas/stadiums surrounded by similar developments have structure parking involved? Ironically the only one I see on Manica's website is the Chase Center in SF, which has 950 spots beneath office buildings in the development.
They could build a smaller parking garage on site for VIP types and get into agreements to build other garages with the option to build towers on top of those in the future on the other adjacent sites. I don't know if they will do that, but that's one way to avoid a "super garage".
There’s no reason why the parking associated with the OKC arena might not be integrated with the ancillary buildings, as you describe.
During the Teams arena demo/construction meeting Pete references, David Todd indicated that subterranean parking directly under arenas was something simply no longer being done in the NBA and other sports. It isn’t a decision by the City or by the Thunder. This makes total sense, as properly screening hundreds of vehicles during a compressed arrival time, before then allowing them to park directly underneath tens of thousands (or even just TEENS of thousands) of fans sounds next to impossible. It would be highly irresponsible, and it seems that the NBA agrees.
But that wouldn’t necessarily prevent parking from being well-integrated with the other buildings that will land on this site.
Echoing what Urbanized mention earlier, This talk is just confirmation that the current Paycom's days are numbered. Good chance the city won't RFP all that land and a 'phase 2' begins immediately after the Thunder move out of the current arena. I don't think parking is super critical to the timeline? Plenty of temporary parking on the REHCO site for construction workers.
Or they do cram parking onto the current site and they save the Paycom Arena land for something else? Either way that land is to valuable for the city to leave an arena on it.
None of it was built until after the Streetcar came online. FACT!
Also FACT - most development downtown is happening along the streetcar line. Renaissance hotel. anybody?
I'm not saying development happened exclusively due to the streetcar, but none of this happened before the streetcar came online. Facts don't lie.
Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!
Yes facts can lie when trying to assign cause and effect. There is no causality by coincidence.
Tell us how many patrons of these developments actually use the streetcar? Im guessing few of the Renaissance guests chose the hotel because it was near the streetcar and more because of the reservation system. In fact, I'm betting very few even were aware of the streetcar when they booked.
I would almost think you can't have underground parking in an NBA arena just for safety reasons.
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