Wheeler District

[kevinpate]

Good, pleaseeeeeeeeee move Bass Pro out of downtown, by all means. Move it to Memorial Rd. or I-35 somewhere.

Nah, BP is fine where it's at, over on the edge of BT with multiple waves of parking segregating it from most everything else of import. Moving it would just let some other even less suitable big box retail take over the spot.

It sort of fits with the other retail between there and Lincoln, as well as anything could I imagine.

[metro]

Nah, BP is fine where it's at, over on the edge of BT with multiple waves of parking segregating it from most everything else of import. Moving it would just let some other even less suitable big box retail take over the spot.

It sort of fits with the other retail between there and Lincoln, as well as anything could I imagine.

No, moving it would allow us to learn from the past mistakes ( I think even city leaders now realize it was a mistake) and hopefully get a developer to put a real mixed use development.

[betts]

No, moving it would allow us to learn from the past mistakes ( I think even city leaders now realize it was a mistake) and hopefully get a developer to put a real mixed use development.

While I don't love Bass Pro, shouldn't we table that as an option until we get closer in mixed use development? I'd like to see the sheet metal site developed first, and we're not even there yet.

[BG918]

I just can't see this development happening like what is proposed. The area around it is very rundown and it's still a couple miles from downtown. Go over there sometime and drive through the neighborhoods around the airpark and ask yourself if you would want to live there.

[lasomeday]

It probably won't happen for a while. I could see it slowly being implemented, but the Humphreys will do it right and won't cut corners like a lot of other developers.

[kevinpate]

I just can't see this development happening like what is proposed. The area around it is very rundown and it's still a couple miles from downtown. Go over there sometime and drive through the neighborhoods around the airpark and ask yourself if you would want to live there.

The same could of been (and was) said of downtown, Bricktown, even certain pastures that became prime developments elsewhere in the metro. Most everything grand starts out as something that looked way less grand. Shoot, ya oughta see my early baby pictures sometime. fuuuuuuuuugly was moi.

[rcjunkie]

I think this site would be perfect for some type of amusement park, amphitheater, etc:

[Kerry]

No, moving it would allow us to learn from the past mistakes ( I think even city leaders now realize it was a mistake) and hopefully get a developer to put a real mixed use development.

Bass Pro is a mixed use development. They have both hunting and fishing.

[BG918]

The same could of been (and was) said of downtown, Bricktown, even certain pastures that became prime developments elsewhere in the metro. Most everything grand starts out as something that looked way less grand. Shoot, ya oughta see my early baby pictures sometime. fuuuuuuuuugly was moi.

True, but would you want a condo in this area? Would you want to walk around the surrounding neighborhoods in the evening, or even during the day? What type of people are they marketing these towards, families, young professionals, retirees?

[Mikemarsh51]

Say what you want, those rednecks are down there at Bass Pro Shop's stimulating the heck out of the economy!

[ljbab728]

True, but would you want a condo in this area? Would you want to walk around the surrounding neighborhoods in the evening, or even during the day? What type of people are they marketing these towards, families, young professionals, retirees?

Have you seen what some of the areas near midtown are like or what they used to be like? You certainly wouldn't have wanted to walk around there after dark. Some people seem to think that anything south of the river should just be written off as unliveable.

[kevinpate]

Again, I imagine the same was uttered over a beer to the first 2 or 13 folks who told friends they were of a mind to move to Deep Deuce. Probably someone looked at the developers a bit odd when the decision was made to put in a Red Prime or to upgrade those rather dumpy properties on E 9th into something useful.

Another example is looking at the Paseo District

[metro]

While I don't love Bass Pro, shouldn't we table that as an option until we get closer in mixed use development? I'd like to see the sheet metal site developed first, and we're not even there yet.

Meinders isn't going to develop that for a long time, if ever. He's not a visionary that seems to act. Heck, he's had this property since at least 2003. My assumption is when east Bricktown finally starts filling in, he'll look for a sweet flip, if those exist anymore. He was supposively hoping to bank of the Hill's success, and we knew that was a joke before it was even awarded. Look at my post from back in 2004

http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-are...ntown-okc.html

metro
VIP Member Join Date: Nov 2004
Total Posts: 12,628

Re: Are there any condo developments in downtown OKC?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patrick, the Steel Yard won't start until "The Hill at Bricktown" although in Deep Deuce in reality, is finished. I personally have talked with the owner and he wants to tie his development in with that somehow and have some sort of shared courtyard area and possible retail area. I'm not counting on this development any time soon although I hope I'm proven wrong due to lucrative market conditions.

I just can't see this development happening like what is proposed. The area around it is very rundown and it's still a couple miles from downtown. Go over there sometime and drive through the neighborhoods around the airpark and ask yourself if you would want to live there.

Actually a local respect architect, Brian Fitzsimmons recently started a modern, affordable neighborhood over there http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-are...s-up-plan.html, not to mention that Humphreys probably wont' start working on this project for 4-5 years, and will take several years to complete, so by then it WILL be a more desirable place. Build it and they will come mentality usually works if done right, and Humphreys has a good track record.

[bluedogok]

Good, pleaseeeeeeeeee move Bass Pro out of downtown, by all means. Move it to Memorial Rd. or I-35 somewhere.

I-40 & MacArthur, maybe replacing Bigger Lots, now that Garden Ridge is a shadow of its former self.

I just can't see this development happening like what is proposed. The area around it is very rundown and it's still a couple miles from downtown. Go over there sometime and drive through the neighborhoods around the airpark and ask yourself if you would want to live there.

Many people said the same things about the Stapleton Airport redevelopment in Denver, now those neighborhoods are some of the hottest properties in the Denver area.

[Steve]

BG918, it seems as if a lot of people have spoken on this already.
But yes, it's true - the conditions you set up would also have prohibited development of MidTown, Deep Deuce, Automobile Alley, and now Film Row.

[Brandon Rush]

I think this site would be perfect for some type of amphitheater

Exactly the thought I had in mind, man I wish I had money to develop land for that...

[Spartan]

Exactly the thought I had in mind, man I wish I had money to develop land for that...

See, I just wish the Humphreys' did. lol

[Puppet]

Again, I imagine the same was uttered over a beer to the first 2 or 13 folks who told friends they were of a mind to move to Deep Deuce. Probably someone looked at the developers a bit odd when the decision was made to put in a Red Prime or to upgrade those rather dumpy properties on E 9th into something useful.

Another example is looking at the Paseo District

I think I will pass on the Paseo District... Still too rough for my taste...

[khook]

puppet stay in the mall..... at least mall security can come running....

[ljbab728]

I think I will pass on the Paseo District... Still too rough for my taste...

I believe when the ex-governor of the State of Oklahoma was accosted by a gunman in the driveway of his home recently, that was in Quail Creek. I don't remember hearing about anything quite like that in the Paseo. Maybe Quail Creek is the area that should be too rough for your tastes.

[Spartan]

Not to mention it was George Nigh, who is like the nicest old man ever. How could anyone ever do that to him?

[Larry OKC]

I think I remember reading that it didn't appear that the attacker even knew who he was attacking. He just saw an old man that was an easy target.

[kevinpate]

FWIW, my own little spidey sense will kick up in a mall setting way more often than it will in BT, Paseo, and depending on the mall, more often in some malls than numerous other places which lots of folks would consider far too sketchy to even drive within a few blocks of the place.

To each their own from their own experiences I suppose.

[warreng88]

Sharing a vision: Developer to present plans for riverfront
By Brianna Bailey
Journal Record
Oklahoma City reporter - Contact 405-278-2847
Posted: 07:32 PM Tuesday, November 30, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY – There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to facilitate development along the Oklahoma River, Developer Grant Humphreys said.

“One of big challenges downtown and along the riverfront is infrastructure that is either nonexistent or antiquated and needs to be replaced and how might the city approach that infrastructure,” he said.

Humphreys will give a group of riverfront stakeholders an update on Wednesday on his Waterfront development planned for the site of the old Downtown Airpark at a meeting facilitated by the Oklahoma Riverfront Development Authority.

Humphreys hopes to facilitate a dialogue between other groups that have a vested interest in the future of the Oklahoma River.

“What we are looking to do is not just cast a vision for what our waterfront project should look like, but talking about a shared vision for the Oklahoma River and discussing with stakeholders a possible framework for an action plan that would help the river reach its full potential,” Humphreys said.

The riverfront stakeholders group includes representatives of the Oklahoma City Boathouse Foundation, the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum, Devon Energy, and the Stockyards City area, which all have an interest in development along the river, said Pat Downes, director of development for the Riverfront Development Authority. The stakeholders have been meeting regularly each quarter to communicate about various development projects along the river.

Humphrey’s 86-acre Waterfront development site on the south bank of the Oklahoma River on S. Western Avenue has just been accepted into the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality’s federally funded Brownfields Program, making it eligible for grant money for environmental cleanup from the Environmental Protection Agency. The area was once the site of an oil field and commercial airstrip. Humphreys said he has already spent about $300,000 of Environmental Protection Agency grant money and private funding doing preliminary environmental work on the site.

The Waterfront is planned as an “urban village” on the airpark site along S. Western Avenue south of downtown. The Waterfront development would include office and retail components as well as up to 950 housing units. The first phase of the project is slated to begin in 2012, but the entire development could take up to 10 to 12 years to build.

Humphreys and a group of investors bought the old airpark for $7.2 million in 2006, but sat on plans to develop the area when the economy took a nosedive.

“We always knew it would be a long-term play,” Humphreys said.

[Spartan]

The more that I think, the more that I feel this is actually a bad location. Great development in a bad location. Better than a bad development in a great location, but still..mixed feelings about what he's trying to attempt.