Randy Hogan is a joke

[TheImmortal]

Does he say if he plans to do anything about it?

[Patrick]

What part are you referring to? The surface parking, the 5 story building?

[TheImmortal]

Any of it, mainly the surface parking though.

[Patrick]

I guess I'll just answer the questions I threw out above.

1. Parking: He feels that he owes his tenants parking. Obviously, he says structured parking is expensive, and they'd have to charge for that. Charging for it wouldn't be providing free parking for his tenants. It's more of a cost issue. He's basically run out of land to move surface parking anywhere else.

2. 5 Story Building: He says adding brick would be too expensive. He doesn't feel he could lease more units at the present time.

3. Leasing surface parking lots to pay for structured parking....he still doesn't think he'd come out money-ahead. When I mentioned Penn Square to them, and their structured parking garage, he pointed out that Penn Square was owned by a national corporation that had the money to do that. Make me wonder....doesn't he have the financial backing of Stonegate?

[Jack]

But this is the dude with the backing of the Fortune 500 Company, Torchmark. Remember?

[Midtowner]

At least he doesn't have unnamed foriegn investors...

[Patrick]

At least he doesn't have unnamed foriegn investors...

Those unnamed foreign investors could've had lots of money, especially since they were supposedly from Israel, Tal's native country.

[Moondog]

I fail to see how emailing Hogan will do any good. He seems to be close to having the entire Lower Bricktown area completely built. What's he gonna do? Tear everything down just because a group of people send him angry emails? LOL...

It was a mistake to hand him control of Lower Bricktown. Chalk it up as a lesson learned. We should realize that OKC is much more than Bricktown. It's only one small part of the city.

I think it's time for us to turn our attentions elsewhere in this city. Arts Quarter, Midtown, NW 23rd, Paseo, Western Ave. Those areas have a lot of potential to be the urban/funky/eclectic/exciting areas that we all hoped Bricktown would be.

[BDP]

he says structured parking is expensive

Building the canal, the arena, the river, etc. were all expensive, too, but we paid for it so that downtown would motivate investors to build developments that added to life in Oklahoma City. If he doesn't have the money to do that then 1) we screwed up and 2) he's basically giving OKC the finger after the people spent a lot of their own money to make his developments worth anything in the first place.

I think it's time for us to turn our attentions elsewhere in this city. Arts Quarter, Midtown, NW 23rd, Paseo, Western Ave. Those areas have a lot of potential to be the urban/funky/eclectic/exciting areas that we all hoped Bricktown would be.

Very true.

[BDP]

Here's the latest email I sent Randy:

Why don't you just e-mail him a link to this thread? Then he'll know that you're not just some lone harasser, but that several people share your feelings.

[SoonerDave]

I've been perusing this thread, and obviously don't have the depth of knowledge on these issues that some of the rest of you have. But I do remember a few years ago Hogan was involved in a bit of a stink in that the big theater project he promised was supposed to include an IMAX theater that, once approved, was magically scuttled - and that was just about the time they built the "pretend" IMAX at the Omniplex.

The frustrating thing is that I think we were stuck with Hogan developing Bricktown primarily because of Moshe Tal's abrasive attitude and, shall we say, specious sources. I recall the city council being understandably cautious about Tal's plans; the unfortunate downside of that caution was that we ended up with Hogan and the mishmash of stuff going in lower bricktown. That big mall project just sounded fabulous -- I had never heard that before. It makes me want to cry retroactively. And I hate that Bass Pro eyesore down there.

Alas, all we can hope for is that ol' Ava Scaramucci (sp) on the Bricktown planning committee that just wrestled with one hotel developer for more brick will do war with Hogan on this residential development...

-SoonerDave

[okclee]

We need to send supportive emails to those that have the power such as Mrs. Scaramucci and any others that we believe have the right interests for downtown. I don't think Hogan cares as long as he is making the money, he will do what he wants not what is best for downtown.

[Patrick]

Alas, all we can hope for is that ol' Ava Scaramucci (sp) on the Bricktown planning committee that just wrestled with one hotel developer for more brick will do war with Hogan on this residential development...

-SoonerDave

Unfortunately Lower Bricktown is not part of Bricktown, so the Bricktown Planning Committee has no say what goes on in Lower bricktown. Hogan is free to create any development he pleases. He only answers to OCURA.

I think our best bet is to wait until Hogan finishes up development and gets out of the picture. Hopefully others will come along and develop other areas as well.

Don't forget, we still have regular Bricktown to focus on as well. Not all is lost.

[SoonerDave]

Patrick

I didn't realize that division of authority existed. My bad.

BTW, on the subject of Ms. Scaramucci, anyone know how Painted Door is doing downtown? Heard lots of scuttlebutt about delays in opening, not getting the business expected, whatever. She closed down the S. OKC location and was going to use it for storage, but now its for sale...my wife always liked the small neighborhood area (but it was %*#*%# expensive), but she's never been to the downtown version...

Just wondering..

-SoonerDave

[Patrick]

We need to send supportive emails to those that have the power such as Mrs. Scaramucci and any others that we believe have the right interests for downtown. I don't think Hogan cares as long as he is making the money, he will do what he wants not what is best for downtown.

I agree completely.

[Patrick]

Patrick

I didn't realize that division of authority existed. My bad.

BTW, on the subject of Ms. Scaramucci, anyone know how Painted Door is doing downtown? Heard lots of scuttlebutt about delays in opening, not getting the business expected, whatever. She closed down the S. OKC location and was going to use it for storage, but now its for sale...my wife always liked the small neighborhood area (but it was %*#*%# expensive), but she's never been to the downtown version...

Just wondering..

My wife worked there for awhile and still keeps in touch. Both the gift shop and the restaurant are exceeding the business she had at the southside location. Doesn't appear to be any problems. I will say though I still think they need to improve service. That's my only complaint about the restaurant. Isn't that the servers are rude or anything, it's that it takes forever to get served, waited on, etc.

[metro]

SoonerDave,

The painted door and Nonna's has been open for quite some time and doing well. My person opinion of the place is not so high but others feel indifferently. I usually eat there at least once a month on business though. There are several threads with good and bad comments about this place. You may want to do a search to read up more about Nonna's