OG&E Tower

[musg8411]

Nearly 300 ft tower in Midtown? This will be as tall as most the buildings currently in downtown. There is still plenty of empty or usable space for new towers.

[sgt. pepper]

Ok, my two cents, not that anybody cares. A beautiful design, looks really, really nice. But to those of us who thinks our skyline looks stupid with our one skyscraper....the height is very, very disappointing. Lets hope these other projects supposedly on the drawing board will get us away from being the laughing stock of downtown skylines.

[Just the facts]

So much for balancing out the skyline...wake me up when a real office tower is proposed...this could have went on NW Expressway.

What makes this funny is there are a lot of people who wished the low and mid-rise towers along NWExp had all been built downtown to begin with.

[Pete]

I would estimate the total height to be around 300 feet, which would be very close to Regency Tower or Leadership Square North.

[Spartan]

Love the street interaction.

I'm with Sid here. I know a lot of you will be bummed at the height or lack thereof.

For me though, I love this. This is a development we want around the park, much more so than a prototypical corporate tower.

[ErnestA]

From what I see so far - I love it. I was hoping they could re-open California so as to provide a nice terminal view as California Ave is re-urbanized, but they did appear to put some sort of architectural feature at the current terminus so hopefully that will suffice. Lots of retail will be facing the MBG, and dare I ask, could it be a CityTarget?

If that retail section includes a CityTarget, that's worth 20 stories in additional height, IMHO.

[Spartan]

Note that the festival plaza will be left in tact, with a new stage, play area, etc.

Really love the way this project relates to everything around it.

We would all love more height but street-level stuff is really much more important to downtown life.

I love that the development doesn't encroach on the festival plaza. Leaves it to hopefully be reopened as a street someday and for now the Botanical Tube sight lines are preserved which I think can become am important, unique asset for the Film Row neighborhood.

We dont need another super block and we averted one here. This is a huge victory.

[Richard at Remax]

Only reason I am disappointed is that he said "world class". I do like design just wish it were taller.

[Spartan]

Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc!

[bchris02]

Ok, my two cents, not that anybody cares. A beautiful design, looks really, really nice. But to those of us who thinks our skyline looks stupid with our one skyscraper....the height is very, very disappointing. Lets hope these other projects supposedly on the drawing board will get us away from being the laughing stock of downtown skylines.

I would hardly call OKC the laughingstock of downtown skylines. I too wish there were more taller buildings but it really isn't that bad. I think the stock skyline photos most media publications use of OKC prior to the Devon tower look far worse.

[Urbanized]

Since when are people not entitled to their own opinion? I don't like it...that is my opinion of the project.

Who was trying to deny you a right to your opinion?

[Urbanized]

Love the street interaction.

Figured you'd hate all of the curb cuts..?

[Pete]

All this makes me wonder what changed from the time Rainey was first interviewed by Steve until now...

At first he said "at least 20 stories" and both Steve and I had heard that number was going to be close to 30.

Seems like he was either hoping to land another tenant besides OG&E or he couldn't get the funding necessary to build spec space.


I wonder -- other than the retail -- if there will be any spec space at all? Or will this merely be an OG&E building?

They are calling OG&E the "anchor" tenant but I wonder if they will be taking the entire building.

[catch22]

This building will look really slick with the streetcar going in front of it.

I'm very enthusiastic about this development, having had a little more time to digest the info and look at the plans better.

[s.hoff]

I wonder if OG&E will be the sole occupant of the main building and the office space in the second tower would be spec space.

[warreng88]

All this makes me wonder what changed from the time Rainey was first interviewed by Steve until now...

At first he said "at least 20 stories" and both Steve and I had heard that number was going to be close to 30.

Seems like he was either hoping to land another tenant besides OG&E or he couldn't get the funding necessary to build spec space.

I wonder -- other than the retail -- if there will be any spec space at all? Or will this merely be an OG&E building?

They are calling OG&E the "anchor" tenant but I wonder if they will be taking the entire building.

Maybe the plan was to add the housing/hotel on top and just couldn't make it work?

[DammitDan]

Well, now that the big reveal is overwith, can we rename this thread anything other than "Stage Center Tower"?

[Pete]

Well, now that the big reveal is overwith, can we rename this thread anything other than "Stage Center Tower"?

We will when it is given an official name.

[Pete]

BTW, ADG does seem like an odd choice for an architect.

Smaller (40 people) local firm, only real office building experience is Dobson Communications out near Quail Springs:

our work | adg

[Bellaboo]

Larry Nichols made the comment that he thought this was just the beginning of new development.

[Just the facts]

I suspect the new OG&E spinoff and Enogex decided they wanted their own space.

[Pete]

Oh I think "anchor" is key. I expect diversity in this building for sure.

Do you have any specifics or is this just conjecture due to the use of "anchor"?


I had heard from even before the sale of the property this was always going to be OG&E. Also, we know they had hired someone to scout a new downtown building location.

I hypothesized that Rainey Williams' involvement was mainly due to the touchy nature of the Stage Center site and I'm still not convinced that isn't true.

I was also told that OG&E would need about 14 floors of office space, so if there is any spec space included it would be small.

I wouldn't be surprised if every bit of the main tower is OG&E and that effectively this will be their corporate tower, just spun a different way.

[dankrutka]

So much for balancing out the skyline...wake me up when a real office tower is proposed...this could have went on NW Expressway.

Lol. The street interaction is great... Why would it fit on NW Expressway? It fits very well downtown.

[Pete]

Here are the two references to "anchor":

OGE Energy Corp. to anchor new tower development

With OGE Energy as our anchor tenant, we are confident our development will be something that Oklahoma City will be proud to have downtown.

Both of these are in the context of the development, not the tower.


I bet OG&E takes that whole building and that that has always been the plan.

[catch22]

Sid, it looks like there will be 2 floors below the surface that will be for parking. So a 6 story parking garage with 4 floors above the surface.