Chesapeake empire marches on

[Bellaboo]

I understand that the Hertz Reservation center buy has fallen through.......

[Pete]

I understand that the Hertz Reservation center buy has fallen through.......

Thanks for the news.

I never understood this to start.

[mrktguy29]

Building permit issued today for the area near that third building for a carport/canopy.

I was by there last week and it does seem to have the shape of a carport/canopy but look at parts of WF and CC, I think it may just be part of the architecture and serve no purpose but looks.

[Pete]

In association with the announcement of Crescent Market closing at NH Plaza, CHK issued a letter stating they plan to renovate and not tear down the south part of the plaza.

Said detailed plans would be announced within a few months.

[Pete]

Here is part of a 2008 Lackmeyer article where CHK and McClendon gave clear indication to the City of NH and tenants of the plaza its intention to completely rebuild that center and tear down the southern section.

Their letter from yesterday cites "rumors" about this, even though they have spoken specifically about this idea, including the possibility of closing Avondale. If their plans have changed no one would know that because they themselves are terrible about communicating about their development, a fact even a city planning commission pointed out.

Tenants of the Nichols Hills Shopping Plaza have been dealing with rumors about what will happen to the mall ever since they found out that Chesapeake had acquired the property in late 2005.

But at an April meeting, merchants met with Chesapeake officials, including chairman and chief executive Aubrey McClendon, where they learned the plaza will be rebuilt in phases.

Holly LaRue, an employee at Palm Place Salon who was asked by its owner to represent the shop at the meeting, said she was happy to finally be able to meet with Chesapeake officials to hear their plans for the property.

"He (McClendon) pretty much lined it out, what he knows,” said LaRue, who was informed the southwest corner of the plaza where the salon is located will likely be razed in 2010.

Merchants at the meeting said the company also revealed its plans to build housing, more offices and a hotel in the area, and indicated it may seek to remove Avondale Drive if it can acquire Nichols Hills' city offices.

[okcisok]

Does anyone know what the schedule is for moving the Nichols Hill Police/Fire Dept/City Hall from it current location? Wasn't that in the works too?

[Pete]

It seems that that relocation may have fallen through because the City of NH doesn't have the money to renovate the old church for its use.

CHK came to them with this idea over three years ago and it seems there hasn't been any recent movement.

[okcisok]

It seems that that relocation may have fallen through because the City of NH doesn't have the money to renovate the old church for its use.

CHK came to them with this idea over three years ago and it seems there hasn't been any recent movement.

Curious. I bet there is more to it. At some point CHK will want to do something with that hunk of land. Guess time will tell.

[Pete]

Yes, and given the amount of money CHK has already spent (by my estimates, about $100 million for NH Plaza and surrounding properties), giving NH the money to renovate the church would be a drop in the bucket. They bought that church for $10 million just to swap for that very small property owned by the City of NH.

For that huge investment, they are certainly not generating much revenue. They aren't renting all the condos and homes they've bought (almost 100 units at an average price of $300K) and demolished an entire complex, along with a service station. They have also moved several tenants from the plaza to Classen Curve.

They are going to have to do much more than just a renovation on the plaza to come close to justifying all this spending.

[ChargerAg]

Does anybody know what they are building to the east of building one? It looks like a stage over the creek but that doesnt make any sense.

http://oxblue.com/pro/open/smithandpickel/chesapeake1

[Pete]

Yeah, that structure is strange.

I suspect it will either be used for a construction crane or just as a general staging area during construction. I'm pretty sure it's just temporary.

[Pete]

Found this picture of the west side of Building #3 at the Triangle at Classen Curve.

I suppose the large structure will just be ornamental:

[betts]

It looks ornamental when you see it up close. But, they are doing something odd to the building that I've always thought was Anthropologie. After adding the walls on the front of the building that originally looked like they were going to be glass, they've now built a 3/4 height wall under the canopy in front of the front of the building that has a door in the southeast corner. It looks like it's creating about an eight foot courtyard under the canopy, but as of right now there are no windows there. I have no idea what its purpose is.

[Pete]

Demolition permit for 5901 N. Shartel, a very nice building that was formerly Van Hoose Construction and one that CHK had been using for offices.

It's just out of the aerial, below the label Garage #4. My guess is they'll be starting on that garage soon, as well as Building #18.

[kinggober]

They completed most of the demo today

[betts]

There's steel going up between the two newest buildings in the Triangle. There's a wall behind it, so it almost looks as if it will be a breezeway. No further work on the smaller building, which I'm still assuming is Anthropologie. The design mystifies me, as it removes all visible windows, and Anthro prides themselves on their window designs.

[kinggober]

They moved the building 1 webcam on top of the tower crane. Awesome perspective. You can also see building 12 which is almost complete.

[ljbab728]

http://newsok.com/community-set-to-r...ad_story_title

[Pete]

See below for plans and renderings for the under construction data center and central plant on CHK's east campus.

Also, you can see from the larger site plan their overall development plan for that area is taking shape. They have also recently rezoned and demolished structures to the south of 57th, pushing their development right up against the Grand Park buildings and Midland Mortgage.

[jn1780]

nm

[ChargerAg]

I think those walls around anthropologie are just temp. I was over at wholefoods this weekend and they didn't look very permanant. I am guessing either they don't want people to see what they are doing or it is to block the wind. Maybe it is to keep out thiefs?

[betts]

Those exterior walls are framed in steel. I saw them going up. Why wouldn't they frame them in wood if they were temporary?

[Pete]

I mentioned a while back that the loss of sales tax revenue could be used by CHK as leverage to get the City of Nichols Hills to see things their way when it came to NH Plaza.

And lo and behold, as soon as Chesapeake makes it clear they won't be renewing leases with Crescent and NH Drug, suddenly the city council is willing to consider selling their Town Hall after all.

******************

NHills Council agrees to pursue sale of City Hall
By Rose Lane
OKC Friday

Facing loss of sales tax revenue from the closing of Crescent Market, the Nichols Hills City Council on Monday voted to pursue the sale of town hall to Chesapeake Energy.

Several years ago, Chesapeake informally offered to swap the city an old First Church of Christ Science property for the town hall. Councilman Peter Hoffman said that offer had never been addressed and is still on the table.

The objective of the council in selling the property would be to encourage the quick redevelopment of the town hall into a retail space, as well as to bolster progress on Nichols Hills Plaza. Both of which, Hoffman said, would help to bring in sales tax revenue for the city.

But, as the council voted unanimously to proceed, various conditions were placed on any prospective negotiations.

The council voted to require that fair consideration be given only for the use of the town hall as retail/commercial space and that any sale be contingent upon the completion of alternative arrangement for town hall operations.

Councilmen also voted for a deadline by when the town hall property would be redeveloped for retail purposes. Councilman voted they would not allow all or a significant portion of the plaza to be demolished for redevelopment at any given time.

Any sale would be contingent upon “satisfactory progress toward finalizing the contract and closing” and would be subject to a “mutually agreeable price.”

The plan would be to use the proceeds from the sale of the existing town hall to fund the construction of a new complex. While councilmen were in agreement that the church property would be their first choice to relocate, they also agreed due diligence should be taken.

They, therefore, voted to have City Manager David Poole investigate the relocation of town hall to a plot of property the city owns next to its Public Works Department.

The discussion was a general one about boosting sales tax revenue during a general meeting. The council also approved allowing the city to hire an auditing company to further guarantee businesses and companies who do business in Nichols Hills were both paying appropriate sales tax and paying that tax to Nichols Hills and not Oklahoma City.

The blip in a loss of sales tax revenue from the closing of Crescent Market - estimated in the thousands of dollars weekly - should be temporary. Chesapeake Energy, which owns the property, plans to open a revamped market in the space in the coming months.

The council will meet again Nov. 7 to continue discussions.

[MikeOKC]

Wow, you called that one. I'm not the least bit surprised though. This is business as usual for Chesapeake. On any other planet, it's called extortion. But leadership begins at the top and, frankly, this is pure Aubrey McClendon on display. To use an old cliché, if you look up "entitled" in the dictionary, there is a smiling picture of Aubrey Kerr McClendon.

[Pete]

At least there now seems like there will be movement with redeveloping the plaza, although it sounds like the City of NH is going to insist they do it little by little, no doubt due to fear of losing a big chunk of sales tax revenue at any given time. As I pointed out earlier, I believe the tenants at NH Plaza are their only sources of sales tax and I'm sure this is a big chunk of their city-wide revenue. Property taxes go to the county, not the city.

Hard to imagine what they are going to do here, especially because they seem to have stopped trying to acquire all the surrounding condos. They bought all the units at Kings Court (along 63rd and demolished them). But, here's what the assessor currently shows:

Complex: own/don't own (last purchase)
NH Manor: 2/9 (2007)
Sherwood Arms: 29/2 (2009)
Grandmark: 17/6 (2009)

Just with these three developments, they have about $13 million invested and I believe all those units are just sitting empty. They certainly can't do much until they acquire all the remaining units but they seemed to have stopped that effort a couple of years ago.

What they may do is clear out most of the SE corner of this area, including the old Crescent Market, NH Drug, NH City Hall, the rug shop... Everything to the corner. But they really can't do much but remodel the remainder of the plaza unless they finish acquiring the surrounding properties.

Also, they own all but three of the homes on Cumberland Drive and have paid another small fortune ($10 million or so) for them. Again, unless they can completely scrape the north section and integrate that area into the development, I'm not sure what the heck they are going to do with those houses.

Just in purchases alone they've already spent $80 million on the properties on this corner and only $27 million of that was for NH Plaza itself. This all equates to more than $3 million per acre and that's not including any redevelopment costs.

Yellow is what they own and green is what they have been trying to acquire: