Level Apartments

[circled9]

It all sounds great but.......

i lived in a downtown apartment for over a year and while downtown living certainly had its good points----there are neighborhoods that are a five minute drive or a cheap taxi fare away where you can get far better value for your money. if you have the bucks, by all means do downtown. however, if you just have an average income, you may want to look at the neighborhoods that make up the new trolley track coalition.

[betts]

It all sounds great but.......

i lived in a downtown apartment for over a year and while downtown living certainly had its good points----there are neighborhoods that are a five minute drive or a cheap taxi fare away where you can get far better value for your money. if you have the bucks, by all means do downtown. however, if you just have an average income, you may want to look at the neighborhoods that make up the new trolley track coalition.

But, it's a lot more simple and relaxing to walk. You don't have to hassle with parking, and you don't have to wait for a taxi. I think the ability to walk everywhere is the absolute best thing about living downtown. The only place I have to drive is to the grocery store, and there's free parking there. Maybe one of these days I can walk to the grocery store too! It's worth a lot to me.

[OSUMom]

My family and I lived Dowtown for a year and loved it. Lived at the Park Harvey and the only reason we left was
because of the parking issues. Our parking garage was handed over to Devon and that became a big hassle. Especially
when you have 2 toddlers.

I love downtown but think there are some things that the area needs. This project looks like it could be one of them.

If we want retail downtown, the retail people are going to want to live close to work. I know this may make the $800,000
condo owners uncomfortable but the reality is that it will be necessary to the area to thrive.

Using San Diego as an example some developers built some cost effective SRO/Studios in the downtown area. They have been a hit and have made the once difficult task of finding retail/entry level help doable. It has been good for both the growth of the
Downtown area and business. The real estate prices are much more expensive there and they have been able to make it work without it being a burden on the developers or the tennants.

Finally - groceries! I will probably get blasted for this one but what about an Aldi in the downtown area? It's small, but pretty much has everything you could need.

Just some thoughts....



Chris
http://www.radiookc.com

Out of curiosity, if you had stayed in Park Harvey, where would your kids have gone to school?

[warreng88]

Developer seeks zoning change for downtown OKC apartments
By Brianna Bailey
Oklahoma City reporter - Contact 405-278-2847
Posted: 07:20 PM Wednesday, September 22, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY – Plans for a still-unnamed, 227-unit apartment development at NE Second Street and Walnut Avenue include roughly 2,300 square feet of space on the ground floor for a gourmet-style urban grocery store, said Norman-based developer Richard McKown, lead partner of City Center Properties LLC.

City Center Properties will ask the Oklahoma City Planning Commission on Thursday for a zoning change and hopes to break ground on the four-story complex at 301 N. Walnut Ave. by January.

Amenities at the complex will include an on-site parking structure, a pool and clubhouse.

“We want people to be able to have the kind of amenities they had when they lived at home with their parents, but maybe they’re not at the point where they want the monster house in Edmond,” McKown said.

London-based architect Wade Scaramucci from the firm Allford Hall Monaghan Morris designed the apartments to have balconies. The parking structure will be hidden from view inside the complex. Allford Hall Monaghan Morris also designed the Olympic Village for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, which will house thousands of athletes and officials from around the world.

The roughly 2.7-acre chunk of land that McKown wants to build the complex on is just to the east of the historic Calvary Baptist Church building and north of the site of a proposed Aloft Hotel overlooking Bricktown.

The area was initially pegged as a site where developer Ron Bradshaw wanted to build high-end condominiums, but like so many other downtown development projects, the plans got put on hold when the economy went south and financing dried up.
Many developers are now looking at building apartments instead of condominiums downtown.

“Oklahoma City is going to have to grow into being a big city,” McKown said. “Condo sales will happen, but what we’ve got to do is get thousands of people living downtown first, experiencing how much fun it is to live in an urban environment.”

McKown wasn’t prepared to say how much it would cost to build the downtown apartment complex. Units at the complex will be priced to cater to a variety of renters, he said, ranging from about $800 a month for a one-bedroom apartment to higher-end, larger units with views of the downtown skyline priced at about $1,500 a month.

“The one-bedroom units will be more attractive to young graduates, students or people new to Oklahoma City and a lot of the luxury units on the top floor will be more attractive to people who want to be downtown and have some elbow room, but aren’t quite ready to buy yet,” he said.

[BG918]

Out of curiosity, if you had stayed in Park Harvey, where would your kids have gone to school?

Is downtown not Emerson Elem School? That is a good school in Mesta Park.

[OSUMom]

Is downtown not Emerson Elem School? That is a good school in Mesta Park.

That could be. I wonder if one day we will see school buses going by these downtown apts and condos.

[stlokc]

I have friends with kids at Wilson, which is in Heritage Hills. They are thrilled with that school.

[BDP]

Forgive me if I am overlooking them, but do we have renderings for this project posted, yet?

[metro]

Yes I believe they were on Steve's blog a few weeks ago. You'll have to dig several pages in past all the Big Truck Tacos ads and Music Videos. Or just go here:

http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/20.../open-topic-2/

[Steve]

Oh hey, it's another jab from Metro! I'm crushing your head. I'm crushing your head. Crush. Crush.

[Spartan]

Come on metro. Didn't you know that the "Taco Beat" is the most important job in all of OKC journalism?

Or is it that according to the metro playbook, local businesses are only to be attacked and lambasted such as Brown's, and never talked-up ??

[metro]

Oh come on from either one of us 3 it's calling the pot black.

[Steve]

Metro, you are the most popular guy in town. I envy you every day I awake. You are the man. You inspire me.

[Larry OKC]

Now Steve, don't consider it a "jab"...maybe a back-handed compliment? LOL

[Steve]

Nah, he's jabbing. He's made it clear on repeated occassions he doesn't like the three posts I wrote about Big Truck Tacos - one written when the Food Network contest started, one after they won, and then a final post of a video done by Dave Cathey. And he doesn't like that I'm posting music videos. To which I simply responded with yet another music video - "White and Nerdy." Lord only knows what inspires me day to day.

[kevinpate]

... doesn't like that I'm posting music videos. To which I simply responded with yet another music video - "White and Nerdy." Lord only knows what inspires me day to day.

[ljbab728]

Nah, he's jabbing. He's made it clear on repeated occassions he doesn't like the three posts I wrote about Big Truck Tacos - one written when the Food Network contest started, one after they won, and then a final post of a video done by Dave Cathey. And he doesn't like that I'm posting music videos. To which I simply responded with yet another music video - "White and Nerdy." Lord only knows what inspires me day to day.

The last time I checked, Steve, it was your blog and if you only want to post cartoons every day because that's what inspires you, that's what you should do. Those who don't approve don't have to look.

[Steve]

Thank you sir!

[BDP]

Thanks for the link, metro.

Thanks for the renderings, Steve.

Big Truck Tacos rules!

[jbrown84]

I keep seeing headlines about a zoning change, but then it's never mentioned in the article...

He's made it clear on repeated occassions he doesn't like the three posts I wrote about Big Truck Tacos

Why?? Did he get "boned" too?

[Rover]

Has any time-frame been established?

http://www.architizer.com/en_us/proj...lopment/15623/

[betts]

I'm quite sure it's going forward, but don't know about a time frame. At one time I heard they would like to break ground this winter.

[warreng88]

Will the building of apartments in this area cause the value of the surrounding for-sale properties (Maywood Brownstones, Maywood Lofts, Block 42, Central Avenue Villas and the Hill) to decrease?

[betts]

I don't believe so, as long as the apartments are quality construction. Anyone who wants to live downtown does so knowing that you're going to be living in mixed-use neighborhoods, I would think. If anything, I think the fact that people will know what's being constructed on those locations will help. When you're looking at an empty lot, you can imagine all sorts of undesirable development. Also, the more people living in the area, the more likely we are to get a grocery store, which will help.

I do think it's silly that people are so insistent on having a grocery store nearby when most people have to drive to one regardless of where they live. The Homeland at 17th and Classen is no farther away than the Homeland on Britton and May was for me when I lived farther out. One of the people who insisted she wouldn't live downtown because of the lack of a grocery store admitted that in Edmond she drives several miles to get to her nearest store. I'm not saying it won't be nice to have one I can walk to, but it doesn't make my life very difficult not to have one within walking distance.

[Rover]

If someone could open a place sort of like Piccadilly in Wichita it would really help. It is a specialty grocery store on one end - about half or 1/3 the size of a WM Neighborhood Market - and a casual restaurant at one end. Lots of take home business. Next door in the building is a wine/liquor shop. Something like that would work well in downtown and really fit in well with the lifestyle.