Downtown Living Tour 2009

[metro]

I'd disagree. I'd say newer buildings have them in the unit or a laundromat for the building. Older properties may not offer them. There are plenty of young professionals and others in larger, hipper cities that use laundromats. Go to San Diego, Austin, LA, San Fran, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, you will see plenty of them using landromats. Some do it just for the experience for meeting other people, reading time, etc. I still think it's a healthy part of an urban core. It helps bring all walks of life downtown. We don't want an upscale, gated community type of downtown, which is most of what the new developments are, especially The Hill. Sycamore Square is also kind of isolated and gated off. We need people interacting more with the street, and not gated off in their condo.

[Midtowner]

Park Harvey's facilities don't let anyone interact with the street. They're somewhere on one of the upper floors next to some sort of lounge with a big TV.

This ain't NYC or Atlanta and this is certainly not an old building (at least not since it's been newly renovated).

Sycamore's not really urban. We could plop it in the middle of Edmond and it'd fit right in. That aside, all of the urban bricktown properties have built in laundry. Park Harvey stands alone.

[metro]

True, but at least their laundromat gets some of their tenants to interact more. They have a Sushi/Sports Bar that interacts with the street, as well as the old Claybourne's vacant space that will hopefully be filled soon, so on that note, I do like how PH interacts with the street and the CBD more than the other properties. Also Bricktown only has one residential property, The Centennial.

[Midtowner]

By "Bricktown," (in my mind) I was including the area north of there. Block 42, Deep Deuce, etc. No laundromats there either.

I'm guessing Park Harvey's laundry issues have more to do with the expense of installing dryer vents. I'm not really sure how that'd work.

The parking I can get past (my parking isn't that much better than theirs), but for the money, at least for me, the laundry thing was a dealbreaker. We have a top-of-the-line washer/dryer which does just about anything we could ask it to do. Way too much money was dropped on that to put it in storage.

[metro]

Park Harvey had all kinds of issues from what I understand. As you may know the 99 year ground lease almost lost the whole project. Also due to the financing type, I understand they wanted to dress up the outside of the building, but had to keep the original exterior, etc. The Downtown Living Tour was a success, several condos downtown got contract offers, one was a cash offer. Definitely were more serious buyers this year than last year.

[onthestrip]

Im all for making urban areas urban, but I dont think laundromats are a required for an area to be considered urban. I think if we asked those who live downtown or those that want to, a majority of them would much rather prefer washer and dryers in the individual units, especially for the prices being asked at these housing complexes.

[Midtowner]

Im all for making urban areas urban, but I dont think laundromats are a required for an area to be considered urban. I think if we asked those who live downtown or those that want to, a majority of them would much rather prefer washer and dryers in the individual units, especially for the prices being asked at these housing complexes.

I think that goes without saying for condos. I'm a happily married individual who likes his privacy and likes to have lots of spare change in his car so laundromats are not for me. If, on the other hand, I moved to OKC, was single and looking, or just wanting to meet folks to establish a social life, a laundromat in the expensive apartment building I leased might be ok.

[metro]

Im all for making urban areas urban, but I dont think laundromats are a required for an area to be considered urban. I think if we asked those who live downtown or those that want to, a majority of them would much rather prefer washer and dryers in the individual units, especially for the prices being asked at these housing complexes.

I do live downtown, for 3 years now. On the board for all the downtown residents, there isn't a huge demand, but I do think it's a part of a healthy urban landscape. Now I too have w/d in my unit, and would not use one either as I am married, but if single I probably wouldn't care as much. As I said earlier and Mid added, it's a common meeting place for singles in major urban areas. It also brings all walks of life in the innermost core, especially when some more affordable housing comes online downtown.

[soonerguru]

In San Francisco, the laundromats have full bars in them. Nice place to get lucky.

[Midtowner]

especially when some more affordable housing comes online downtown.

I think that eventually, with its W/D accommodations and lack of parking, the Park Harvey will probably end up having to be an 'affordable' option for housing. When more units of similar quality in comparable locations come on line (units with w/d hookups), I don't think PH will be able to compete at its current price point.

- but maybe they can add a full bar to the laundry? they already have a nice lounge area just off of it.

[westsidesooner]

I didn't go on the tour this year because there didn't seem to be anything new form what was shown last year. And it was mostly overpriced. One thing about the Park Harvey units is whoever gets a unit on the south side should have a great view of Devon going up the next few years. There was also a nice workout facility there. (If I remember correctly).

[metro]

Keep in mind, not a lot of new projects were built or started construction after the economy tanked, so most developments were just completed as most all of them last year were incomplete. Sieber was finished this year, Central Avenue Villas was on the tour and complete this year, Block 42 is complete, many of the Brownstones are now complete. The Maywood Lofts were brand new this year (they are going to have an amazing rooftop and clubhouse), Sage was new, we had a stop in Bricktown this year if people wanted to eat/shop, etc., Carnegie Centre was actually at their location this year (the old downtown library) instead of Red Prime with renderings. Man, I think they are a little overpriced, but they are going to have some AWESOME balcony views, especially the ones facing west. I shot some video footage at the tour and will try and edit and post some of it in the coming weeks. We also had lots of restaurants participating and offering discounts this year so people had other things to do besides just look at houses.

[betts]

I thought the tour was very different from last year. Even Block 42, which was open last year, had two very different options to look at this year. I enjoyed the opportunity to see the new developments as well.

[metro]

If anyone has feedback or things they liked or would like to see that maybe weren't on the tour, please post comments here or PM me. I am putting together a list and will take it into consideration much earlier for the next tour. Midtown Properties were going to be on the tour, but decided that they weren't quite ready for this year.