I think its fair to say OU and Norman were functionally found/created at the same time.
I think its fair to say OU and Norman were functionally found/created at the same time.
UNP didnt even exist 20 years ago and look how its become a massive shopping complex over that time, all somehow without a small college arena. Guess it magically happened.
$600 million will be repaid back quickly from this TIF district? A billion dollars worth of real estate will only bring in $10 million per year. A well performing walmart will bring in maybe $5 mil/year. To pay back the $600 mil isnt going to happen quickly, if at all. And if not, someone is left on the hook. Maybe below Boulder can answer.
So who is the owner of the arena and guarantor of the bonds?
my bad... may of 2006. so 18 and a half years.... and if you call that a massive shopping complex, then you and i sure think differently. in 18 years, it's basically 3 anchor stores in Crest, Target, and Academy, and then a bunch of stuff has come an gone. and lets not forget that over half of the area is still undeveloped after 18 and a half years, and that we are just now seeing some infill. This place should have been packed with no space left 10 years ago.
We do think differently, and for good reason. Cell phone data shows that UNP is the most visited shopping center in the entire state. Main Event and Sephora are coming, both of which will drive lots of additional traffic. And all of this is happening without a small college arena, which are famously not known to be a driver of hundreds of thousands of square feet of retail, thousands of living units, nor do they have recent college grads asking themselves "why move to OKC or Dallas when I can stay in Norman because of this 8,000 seat college arena?!"
Norman has excess retail now according to the developers for Moore farms on 36th SW.
OU and the developers are free to use their lines of credit and build what they will on their land. Keep Norman finances out of this speculative venture.
As far as the arena, tap BMD donors like Hamm and Bennett and put their name on it.
There are currently 26 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 26 guests)
Bookmarks