The Lincoln at Central Park / Gardner Tanenbaum project

[metro]

Does anyone know any more about The Lincoln at Central Park, its Tanenbaums newest residential project coming after The Classen. I visited his website and no photos are details are on there yet but it says coming soon. Just curious if anyone can shed some light. I also tried to find info on him regarding his purchase of the Owen's Corning fiber optic plant, I know last year he bought it and already found a tenant from North Carolina. Drove by there a few days ago and it looked nothing was being done yet.

[Pete]

They might be planning to convert Central Park One (six-story office building) to residential.

That building has had chronic vacancy problems.

[metro]

Well actually folks, I decided to do the homework on my post. I called the man directly. Anyhow, this will be new construction at the intersection of I-44 and the Centennial Expressway where Lincoln dead ends, just west of the OG&E if I remember him right. Look for a ground-breaking around June 1st. Oh and BTW, it will be about a 3-4 story luxury apartment complex with owner garages on the first floor. Too bad its not downtown but at least its filling a void in the market and its somewhat in the financial district.

[metro]

Updates and a new website can be found at :

www.thelincolnatcentralpark.com

[TStheThird]

That website does not work for me. Anyone else having problems with it?

[Luke]

Didn't work for me either.

[metro]

its working fine for me

[windowphobe]

It worked for me on Firefox 1.0.7.

[TStheThird]

I got it to work, but it basically had no info. It said "coming soon" at the bottom.

[TStheThird]

Double Post

[sweetdaisy]

Does anyone else think it's an odd place for luxury apartments? My office is located in the Central Park buildings, so I've been watching this thing being constructed. However, it still strikes me as a strange place to build "Luxury Apartments". Perhaps I'm just thrown off by the defunct gas station, seedy-looking motel, trailer park, and office buildings that surround it?

Personally, I'm not thrilled that they're there, but only because it's already challenging enough to get across south-bound Lincoln Boulevard to the highway without more traffic in and out of the area.

[metro]

Apartments to start second phase

By Richard Mize
Real Estate Editor

It went up on a rough spot hung with stigmas.
Now, less than a year after it opened, the upscale 276-unit Lincoln at Central Park's apartments are filled, so developer Gardner-Tanenbaum Group is starting a second phase even larger.

An old part of Oklahoma City, south of Interstate 44 between Santa Fe Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard, on Central Park Drive.

•Stigma No. 1:

Lincoln Boulevard, once known as a hooker hangout, north of the State Capitol, but now better-scrubbed than it's been in decades because of the state's Lincoln Renaissance project.

•Stigma No. 2:

If the land, amid a patchwork of industrial, commercial and office zoning — hemmed in by the interstate just to the north — had been good for apartments, or anything else, surely someone would have developed them by the turn of the 21st century.

It was niche space, but developer Gardner-Tanenbaum Group has been able to tap a non-niche market, said Richard Tanenbaum, chief executive.

Growth downtown and in the inner city is no longer a niche phenomenon, Tanenbaum said.

The Lincoln at Central Park, he said, is tapping into the inbound people movement — from its spot 2 or so miles north of the Capitol, 3 or so miles north of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park, and 4 or so miles from downtown and Bricktown.

More than economic growth fueled the decision to go $30 million in debt for another speculative phase, he said. Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP arranged financing through Comerica Bank in Dallas.

Fuel helped fuel Tanenbaum's decision — since it helped fill the Lincoln.

"That gas (price) thing is real. If they're living (in apartments) on Memorial (Road) and working at the Capitol, they're moving to the Lincoln,” Tanenbaum said, to save gas money.

Property specialists were surprised when Tanenbaum started the project — and some still are.

"Access is the most difficult aspect of that development,” one said of the complex, now accessible from Central Park Drive west off of Lincoln Boulevard, from Beverly Drive north off NE 50 and from NE 53 east off Santa Fe Avenue.

Tanenbaum said the second phase, 432 more apartments on 30 acres west of the existing 14 apartment buildings nearer Santa Fe, will make the whole complex easier to get to, especially after Santa Fe Avenue is extended north over I-44 in a few years.

But it wasn't lack of easy access that made the property seem an unlikely one for an apartment complex, said William Forrest, multifamily property specialist, first vice president and managing director of CB Richard Ellis-Oklahoma.

Some people couldn't see past Lincoln Boulevard and its shady reputation, he said.

Now, Lincoln's stigmas have been torn down, loaded up and hauled away.

The state's Lincoln Renaissance project acquired about 50 parcels of land for the state and knocked down about a dozen dilapidated buildings, said Anthony McDermid, president of TAP Architecture, which handled the $13.8 million project with Trammell Crow Co.

Now, sites are ready for state office buildings, the other main aim of the project besides beautification. One building is under construction for the Oklahoma Banking Department on the northeast corner of Lincoln and NE 28.

"It was an approach to the State Capitol from the north that was blighted and under (former) Governor (Frank) Keating's initiation we removed the blighted stretch and beautified the boulevard and provided future building sites for state buildings,” McDermid said.

Lincoln Renaissance helped pave the way for the Lincoln at Central Park, he said, and now the apartment complex "has added value to that area.”

Construction of the second phase of the Lincoln at Central Park will begin in April — 18 new buildings, including a clubhouse with a 24-hour business center and resort-style swimming pool.

The work will add 252 one-bedroom apartments, 128 two-bedroom apartments, 52 three-bedroom apartments and 140 garages, said Charles Dodson, vice president of multifamily housing for Gardner-Tanenbaum.

The apartments will start at 786 square feet and range in rent from $760 to $1,050 per unit. Work is scheduled for completion in June 2009.

[jbrown84]

I wish he would do another downtown office-building conversion. The Park Harvey has been a success from what I can see.

[ssandedoc]

I am planning on moving into The Lincoln at Central Park in August. Has anyone lived there? I would like some feedback on the place.


Thanks,
Scott

[Platemaker]

That building has had chronic vacancy problems.

Gosh...
I hope that's not contagious to the other buildings in the area!

[Skyline]

I've been told the next phase of this project is coming out for bid soon, 250+ apartment units.