OKC or TULSA? Which Metro Has The Most Long-Term Growth Potential?

[jbrown84]

Oklahoma Today is high quality, and doesn't show any bias toward either city, despite being published in OKC.

[Spartan]

Either way, OKC will leave Tulsa in the dust as far as sheer population goes. Its in the middle of the state, divided by 2 major trans-continental corridors. Not to mention the reason Tulsa is seeing slightly better numbers than OKC this year is because they are playing catch up. Look at OKC's numbers the last few years. As someone said, they are building things we already have. With the Hornets or whatever NBA team we might have and the new downtown boulevard and Oklahoma River potential, we'll be a whole new city before Tulsa lands one major league team. Oh and by the way, we are the Capitol City too.

Capitol Cities:

Michigan - Lansing
California - Sacramento
Washington - Olympia
Oregon - Salem
New Mexico - Santa Fe

and so on...

Arguably, OKC is the center of business and government for Oklahoma, while Tulsa is the indisputed center for culture in Oklahoma.

Tulsa has fallen behind on itself, obviously, but with job growth that is THROUGH the roof right now, and a downtown with more Art Deco buildings than ANY city in America save Miami, Tulsa has potential, and I don't think it's very diplomatic for a highly competant Okc Talk moderator such as yourself to come on here and blast Tulsa.

So tell us... what did Tulsa do to you?

[Spartan]

Soonerguru is right as far as Tulsa's internal problems are concerned. My relatives in Tulsa are even complaining the city's falling apart. And they've been in Tulsa for over 40 years.

Of course, the Old Guard are somewhat pissed off about the giant strides of progress being made. These are the same people that oppose TIFs for inspiring quality development and opposed the capitol improvement campaigns, and won that battle the first two times.

You can thank yer rellies for the state Tulsa has fallen into, do it for me at least.

[jbrown84]

while Tulsa is the indisputed center for culture in Oklahoma.

eh...

Oklahoma City Museum of Art
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art
International Photography Hall of Fame
Untitled: Art Space
IAO Gallery
The Land Run Monument
The Paseo Arts District
Festival of the Arts
The Noble Theatre at OKCMOA
Dead Center Film Festival
Lyric Theatre
Ballet Oklahoma
Canterbury Choral Society
OKC Philharmonic
Oklahoma City Theatre Company
Carpenter Square Theatre
The Pollard Theatre
The Sooner Theatre
Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre
Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park
Oklahoma City University's renown arts programs


we are so starved for culture here...



I'll leave it to mranderson to correct your spelling.

[Swake2]

Tulsa, since Vision2025 has passed a city sales tax issue, a city bond issue, and a county sales tax issue. Look for a river bond package in Tulsa to be voted in February. It won't include "The Channels" but will have at least the rest of the funding for 2-3 more low water dams, shoreline improvements and seed money for development projects at 21st St (the west bank) and next to the Aquarium in Jenks.

So Vision 2025 is hardly all that is going on.

Bricktown is an asset for OKC, downtown development there is at least 10 years ahead of Tulsa. I think that getting a NBA team will be a big deal for getting OKC (and Tulsa) on the map more nationally. But Tulsa’s downtown office market is better than OKCs and much larger.

But outside of downtown, your advantages as an urban city fade. Tulsa’s river is decades ahead of yours, even without all the new development. And Uptown/Midtown Tulsa is another world from Midtown OKC. It’s just not comparable. You are making good strides in midtown. But it’s no Utica Square or Brookside, and the gap is widening with Brookside going more and more upscale all the time with new developments. The Utica area is nearing completion on it’s second residential high-rise.

Oklahoma City has nothing like Riverparks, The Oklahoma River is a pale comparison and that gap is about to get a lot wider with current proposals and the upcoming vote on river improvements. For example, the proposal currently for the 21st St site on the river is from the Springfield based developer of Branson Landing and some Tulsa developers have purchased the land south of the Aquarium for a project call Water Walk. Each of these would dwarf all the development dollars that have been spent or are proposed to be spent on the Oklahoma River and each would be completed before I-40 is moved. And these are on top of The Aquarium, Riverwalk Crossing, King’s Landing and the massive half billion dollar Creek Casino project, all on the river.

And downtown Tulsa is closing the gap. For example, the East End project is progressing downtown. Washington DC based developers Global Development is going to close on the land for the bulk of the development in the next month or so and are close to signing a deal for the Drillers to move into a baseball stadium that is part of the proposal. The End End is going to need a TIFF, but that's going to be a no-brainer for development with 700 housing units, three hotels, a baseball stadium and 400,000 square feet of retail downtown.

And closer to the arena that is going up, the City is about to condemn the last parcel of land needed for a convention hotel next to the arena. The city wants a hotel open by the time the arena opens. A Current proposal for a Westin Hotel and 100 condos has problems with the developers demands that a city bus terminal be moved. Reportedly the city is talking to another developer for the site.

Tulsa’s convention center already dwarfs anything in Oklahoma City and while it is a little worn today, as soon as the arena is completed, the current arena will be converted to even more convention space and the current space with be upgraded. The city is also looking into buying Wiltel’s very high-tech 4 year old 15 story headquarters building downtown as a new city hall and leveling the city offices next to the arena and convention center as new land for development. A great city needs a great city hall, and right now Tulsa does NOT have that.

Hundreds of lofts from 2025 are started/about to start downtown in four buildings and the conversion of the top floors of the Philtower just completed.

And Tulsa’s universities are spending hundreds of millions in upgrades, much of it downtown at OSU-Tulsa, TCC and now the OSU Medical Center. But OU-Tulsa, TU, the non-downtown TCC campuses and NSU-BA are all undergoing massive construction campaigns.

Tulsa is keeping up with Oklahoma City right now, creating even more jobs over the last three years than Oklahoma City has, and all of this is still to come. And I didn’t even mention Stonewood/Bass Pro in BA, Tulsa Hills in west Tulsa, Smith Farm et all in Owasso or all the infill developments through midtown.

It’s all cyclical and we should want both cities to do well, but right now, Tulsa is the one that is booming and 2025 really has yet to make much of an impact at all, but it’s going to.
.

[Swake2]

eh...

Oklahoma City Museum of Art
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art
International Photography Hall of Fame
Untitled: Art Space
IAO Gallery
The Land Run Monument
The Paseo Arts District
Festival of the Arts
The Noble Theatre at OKCMOA
Dead Center Film Festival
Lyric Theatre
Ballet Oklahoma
Canterbury Choral Society
OKC Philharmonic
Oklahoma City Theatre Company
Carpenter Square Theatre
The Pollard Theatre
The Sooner Theatre
Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre
Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park
Oklahoma City University's renown arts programs


we are so starved for culture here...



I'll leave it to mranderson to correct your spelling.

Philbrook and Gilcrease are far beyond anything in Oklahoma City, they truly are world class art centers. The Cowboy Hall of Fame is not and the OKCMOA is too new.

Tulsa Opera is a top regional opera and Tulsa Ballet is one the of top Ballet Companies in the world. American Theatre Company is the oldest professional theater company west of the Mississippi, and the Drunkard at the Spotlight Theater is the nations longest running play. And that’s just a start. Please, visit Philbrook or see Tulsa Ballet and then come back.

I never said that OKC was starved for the arts, but, you don’t have what Tulsa has. An example:

From the Tulsa Ballet Website:
In its first international tour in 2002, Tulsa Ballet was declared by the Portuguese national magazine Semanario “One of the best in the world.” The company has received two feature articles in Dance Magazine during the past seven years, has been featured in the New York Times , Pointe Magazine and Dance Europe among others.

Tulsa Ballet Golden Anniversary, 50 year anniversary, 1956-2006

[soonerguru]

As I said earlier in the thread, I sincerely hope Tulsa gets it together. We need both cities to improve remarkably.

Allow me to echo what was said about the East End area. It's still fledgling, but the young people in Tulsa who are remaking that area are great and have a solid vision.

I know many of them personally, and my fear (shared by them, too) is that the focus on the Channels project will overwhelm the positive developments in East Downtown Tulsa.

Were I mayor, I would be doing something significant to get housing in the east side of downtown. There already is a nucleus for development there, and it's truly organic and homegrown (unlike the corporate Disneyland feel of Bricktown).

Still, Tulsa has a LONG way to go, and its city government is dominated by sprawl advocates who live in the 71st and further south corridor of suburbia, which is dominated by chain restaurants and SUV drivers.

OKC is still an open canvas, but I like what I'm seeing from our city leadership -- which is miles ahead of Tulsa's -- and I'm loving the emphasis on serious in-fill projects.

OKC just feels more wide open than Tulsa -- and more welcoming to newcomers. Tulsa is like an inbred country club in many ways. For such a self-styled "cultural" city, there is a lot of exclusionary, backward thinking there. There's almost a small-town mentality, and there is a lot of negativity from the citizens. I hear it all the time from merchants, corporate people, government officials, etc.

I would love it if OKC had as many trees as Tulsa, but that's about it. Sure, a Utica-type place would be great, too. But I could do without the haughty arrogance of many of Tulsa's "leaders." Also, downtown Tulsa is as dead as a doornail right now and these same leaders don't seem to care much.

[jbrown84]

Please, visit Philbrook or see Tulsa Ballet and then come back.

I've been to the Philbrook, thank you. Have you been to the OKCMOA? It's probably a lot better than you imagine.

[Swake2]

It's a fine place, very nice, just still on the small side with a sparce permanent collection. Give it time, and a ton of money it could someday be the equal. It does have the potential to be world class, it's not there yet.

[Swake2]

As I said earlier in the thread, I sincerely hope Tulsa gets it together. We need both cities to improve remarkably.

Allow me to echo what was said about the East End area. It's still fledgling, but the young people in Tulsa who are remaking that area are great and have a solid vision.

I know many of them personally, and my fear (shared by them, too) is that the focus on the Channels project will overwhelm the positive developments in East Downtown Tulsa.

Were I mayor, I would be doing something significant to get housing in the east side of downtown. There already is a nucleus for development there, and it's truly organic and homegrown (unlike the corporate Disneyland feel of Bricktown).

Still, Tulsa has a LONG way to go, and its city government is dominated by sprawl advocates who live in the 71st and further south corridor of suburbia, which is dominated by chain restaurants and SUV drivers.

OKC is still an open canvas, but I like what I'm seeing from our city leadership -- which is miles ahead of Tulsa's -- and I'm loving the emphasis on serious in-fill projects.

OKC just feels more wide open than Tulsa -- and more welcoming to newcomers. Tulsa is like an inbred country club in many ways. For such a self-styled "cultural" city, there is a lot of exclusionary, backward thinking there. There's almost a small-town mentality, and there is a lot of negativity from the citizens. I hear it all the time from merchants, corporate people, government officials, etc.

I would love it if OKC had as many trees as Tulsa, but that's about it. Sure, a Utica-type place would be great, too. But I could do without the haughty arrogance of many of Tulsa's "leaders." Also, downtown Tulsa is as dead as a doornail right now and these same leaders don't seem to care much.

Tulsa’s leadership has changed, Tulsa had a disaster of a Mayor and two disastrous city councilors that fought constantly and pointlessly with that mayor. All are gone now and Kathy Taylor is a whole new game as mayor.

[metro]

Capitol Cities:

Michigan - Lansing
California - Sacramento
Washington - Olympia
Oregon - Salem
New Mexico - Santa Fe

and so on...

Arguably, OKC is the center of business and government for Oklahoma, while Tulsa is the indisputed center for culture in Oklahoma.

Tulsa has fallen behind on itself, obviously, but with job growth that is THROUGH the roof right now, and a downtown with more Art Deco buildings than ANY city in America save Miami, Tulsa has potential, and I don't think it's very diplomatic for a highly competant Okc Talk moderator such as yourself to come on here and blast Tulsa.

So tell us... what did Tulsa do to you?

If you're going to quote me, at least get your facts straight. I'm not a moderator of this website nor ever have been. As far as the capitols listed above. Not sure what your point is, you never made it. Yes, some states have capitol cities that are smaller than OKC and a less thriving city in their state, look at Sacramento you mentioned though, very comparable to OKC. Yes, LA is a major port city in the world, of course it will be bigger and more thriving. Not sure what Art Deco has to do with anything. It's not going to cause people to move there and your economy to boom. And as far as culture goes, I'd beg to differ that Tulsa is the winner there. At best case scenario, it is very debatable. The OKC MOA has an exhibit from the Louvre' in Paris that only 3 art museums in the US landed, Seattle, Indy, and OKC! That speaks volumes. The civic center hosts a wide variety of world class events. We have the regions largest Asian District. We have a thriving downtown with nightlife which can't be said of Tulsa for either of those. We have Lebanese festival, Greek festivals, African American festivals (both OKC and Tulsa), Deep Deuce, Jazz festivals, St. Pattys festivals, Czech festival, and so on and so on. I know I'm biased living in OKC but even looking at it unbiased, OKC is the clear winner. Perhaps Tulsa has been the winner historically in the past, but you have to give it up for OKC on the culture front right now. And that's not even including the "currently under construction" Native American Cultural Center which will be a part of the Smithsonian.

[jbrown84]

It's a fine place, very nice, just still on the small side with a sparce permanent collection. Give it time, and a ton of money it could someday be the equal. It does have the potential to be world class, it's not there yet.

It's no smaller than the Philbrook, excluding the gardens, which are nice, but not part of the art.

[Swake2]

Tulsa has one of the top Oktoberfests in the world according to Bon Appetit magazine and USA Today.

Tulsa’s Greek holiday at nearly 50 years old is the states oldest ethic festival

Tulsa has the Jazz Hall of Fame along with a Jazz festival called Jazz on Greenwood. There’s Juneteenth, Mayfest, Diversafest and Shalomfest. There’s The Sherwin Miller Musuem with the largest collection of Judica in the Southwest. The Oklahoma Blues Festival, Cherrybrook Art Festival, Blue Dome Art Festival, Festival Hispano, Tulsa has the largest Scottish Games in the southwest. Tulsa has the largest percentage of Native Americans of any city in the nation, and a booming Hispanic population with three Hispanic regions of the city.

Gilcrease and Philbrook have the kind of collections where they send their art on national tours.

Along with the top 10 regional opera and one of the best ballet companies in the world.

[Swake2]

It's no smaller than the Philbrook, excluding the gardens, which are nice, but not part of the art.

Then you have not been there recently, the house is only a small part of the facility any longer.

[jbrown84]

Um, Yeah, I Have.

[metro]

then swake, your only further proving our point that which city is more "cultural" (if that can be proven) is arguable at best. both cities have lots to offer.

[jbrown84]

Besides, if we want to go back to momentum, just look at how far the OKCMOA has come in 5 or 6 years.

It was housed on the fairgrounds and didn't even have room for all of it's permanent collection. I had never even heard of it. They raised millions privately to build a new downtown facility that is now arguably one of the top 2 or 3 attraction in the city. Just a couple years later they raised more millions to purchase the Chihuly exhibit permanently, and now we have the most comprehensive collection of his work in the world. The have a large space for traveling exhibits and have just finished hosting Egyptian art from the British Museum and will host Roman art from the Lourve for several months in 2008. And they also house a strong art film program in the Noble Theatre, showing films most cities our size never get on the big screen.

And the Fred Jones in Norman has expanded significantly in the last couple years to house the largest gift of art ever given to a public university.


That's what I call momentum.

[okcitian]

Both OKC and Tulsa are very different from each other in terms with the culture scene, nightlife, etc. Both cities are currently growing well. I think long term growth is headed for OKC, yet Tulsa has a potential to grow ahead of OKC. This is based on the fact that Maps has progessed OKC's quality of life. And there has been tremendous growth of business in OKC. Tulsa has gone ahead in the early 2000s in the high-tech telecom businesses yet that faded with the tech bubble bust. And OKC is doing well with the biotech reasearch. Tulsa has a much more "mature" entrepreneur character than OKC. Although with the negativity surrounding the Channels development, seems like there are still Tulsans who want to look out of the box when it comes to attracting young professionals. OKC did this was MAPS back in the 90s, yet the difference with this and MAPS is that the Channels is more oriented to these young professionals then to cutting the pie to everyone in the OKC metro area. Some of the issues with downtown development in Tulsa is that thier downtown isn't exactly in the center of the city proper, it's more further northwest and most people live on the southeast side including broken arrow. Lets see what happens once thier East End, Arena, and the promising OSU-Tulsa reaches thier goals. For now OKC is growing well, well see what MAPS III could do for this city.

[HOT ROD]

The Daily Oklahoman IS Oklahoma City's Major Metro paper. I would think OKC would have even LESS Tulsa materials in its major metro paper than the Daily has.

In fact, for every OKC story you can find a Tulsa story as well, one for one (online edition, I dont know about print). So I think it is fair to say that the Daily Oklahoman IS Oklahoma's state newspaper (and largest, of course).

I wish there was a paper which focused only on OKC, much like the OKC Times used to.

Oh, and those lists of state capitols::: what about,,,

Denver Colorado
Boston Massachussetts
Atlanta Georgia
Salt Lake Utah
Phoenix Arizona
Little Rock Arkansas
Columbus Ohio
Honolulu, Hawaii
Boise Idaho
Columbia South Carolina
Bizmark North Dakota
Charleston West Virginia
Nashville Tennessee (neck and neck with Memphis now)
Des Moines Iowa
Richmond, Virginia
Cheyenne Wyoming
Indianapolis, Indiana
Providence Rhode Island

All of these cities, like Oklahoma City, are the dominant city in their respective state who also just so happen to be the capital city as well. So why wouldn't the "state newspaper" claim be from the largest city? Why would it not be weird for a magazine claiming to represent the state not include the largest city on a regular basis?

I would imagine, in every state - any paper, magazine, advertisement, so on .. would have most information about the largest city, especially if it is also the capital and just so happened to be a major regional city as well.

Even in states where the capital is not the largest city, there is still mention of the capital even tho the majority would be about the largest city (you mentioned Olympia, Washington and Salem, Oregon = I can attest that even though Seattle and Portland RULE their states we still mention our capital in addition to Tacoma and Spokane, in our ads, papers, and magazines). Sure Seattle Times claims to be the State's Largest paper - that is because it IS. And most of the stories are about Seattle. Same for Illinois/Chicago and New York/New York, Pennsylvania/Phila, California/Los Angeles.

I feel that OKC should take the posture Tulsan's use and just promote OKC as the state. If OKC was to take all of the Oklahoma names and ONLY write about things to do in OKC or what's happening in OKC - IM POSITIVE, OKC would have a much higher self image!!!

Oh, and Tulsa does not dominate the state for culture. I can not name a single thing from Tulsa that Oklahoma is known for. The Tulsa things are TULSAN. Why can't OKC do it? We are a city too and we're the largest, so why wouldn't OKC things be OKC???

The name Daily Oklahoman is just a name and it is the largest major metro in the state (which is why its in Tulsa newstands and the World is NOT in OKC).

[In_Tulsa]

Hey Hot Rod have you ever been to Tulsa? You seem to be full of and more

[Swake2]

Sorry, Columbus sits behind Cleveland and Cinci in Ohio, Columbia is not the dominant city in South Carolina nor is Bismark in North Dakota. Rhode Island and Providence are basically the same thing. The same is true of Boston and Mass.

And if Tulsa is not known for the same things as Oklahoma, well, considering the image of this state nationally, well, that’s a good thing.

And, for the record, What exists in Oklahoma City IS promoted as being Oklahoma. Here in Tulsa we don’t have red dirt, we don’t have a lot of cowboys, we actually have hills, trees and rivers. We are not located on the plains. No dust bowl. There was no land run here. All of these things are heavily promoted as being fundamental to Oklahoma, and just simply aren’t true here.

Oh. Jobs data, Tulsa Metro again leads the state in job creation with more than half of all state jobs added in the last year being added in Tulsa Metro. Tulsa has added more than 10,000 jobs this year and more than 35,000 jobs in the last three years. And the outlook is for more of the same in 2007. Statewide unemployment is up slightly, Metro OKC and Lawton both see small increases in unemployment.

Area Job Numbers Booming

[In_Tulsa]

Thanks to swake2 it has been answered Tulsa WILL take over the state. And will be bigger than OKC in 10 years. All I have to say is GO TULSA say it with me GO TULSA GO TULSA GO TULSA and on and on and on and on.

to Tulsa

[bombermwc]

So the point is, people from each town hate each other like always and both think their town is better like always. I have a personal hatred of Tulsa, but I'm from OKC so it figures. So why waste time listening to people rant on each other...just go experience each other's towns and go on with your life.

[Swake2]

I think all the hate is on the Oklahoma City side on this debate, find a single negative (non-fact based) comment about Oklahoma City on this threat, find one inflammatory remark about OKC? Can you. I can find dozens about Tulsa. Many accusations have been made but nothing has been posted to back anything up other than there are not enough articles in a Tulsa magazine about OKC and that magazine dares to use the work "Oklahoma" in it's name. You are all so full of crap, it's your bias and hate that's coming through.

Why exactly do you hate Tulsa Bomber? What is the issue? Could be you are just jealous.

As for growth, here's some evidence of momentum for you, from the already growing faster smaller sister city. These are all just projects in downtown/midtown and on the river:

Arkansas River:

South Riverfront, 81st to 106th in Tulsa and Jenks:

Water Walk, a 200 acre upscale lifestyle center in Jenks south of the Aquarium on the Arkansas River has been announced. The land transaction is complete and details will be announced in January.

The 160,000 sq ft phase two of The Riverwalk Crossing in Jenks is supposed to start construction soon, included are a hotel, bookstore and more office and retail space on the river. A third phase could include residential living on the river.

King’s Landing, a small lifestyle center at 96th and Riverside on the river is nearing completion, some shops are already open.

The $120 million phase one of the new Creek Casino on the river at 83rd and Riverside is under construction. The total project will reportedly be in the $500 million range.

Downtown/Midtown Riverfront, 11th St to 31st in Tulsa:

There is a proposed “Branson Landing” type multi-use project (by the developer of Branson Landing in Branson and the developer of the Cross Timbers on Lake Skiatook) that would be on the west bank of the river at 21st St. The developers have stated they want to build a larger project in Tulsa than the $470 million Branson Landing project.

The Tudors, an urban infill project of half-million dollar town homes is being built overlooking the river at 21st.

Right next door, the Tudor Lofts is about to start construction on a five floor mixed use condo/office retail building.

McBirney Mansion, now a upscale bed and breakfast overlooking the river in Uptown: The owner is proposing to add a series of four story buildings with underground parking to be connected to the mansion to convert the property to a 5-star 80 room boutique hotel.

Land has been cleared and construction should start soon on a Route 66 museum on the river right outside of downtown. Also included is work on the conversion of the old 11th Street bridge into a pedestrian bridge called “The Cyrus Avery” bridge after the Tulsan that was behind the creation of Route 66. This is another 2025 project.

Included in the money from 2025 and the 3rd Penny is a newly reconstructed floating amphitheater stage and seating. This project is on hold pending decisions on other river projects for the upcoming river vote.

General River projects:

In the next couple of month Tulsa billionaire George Kaiser will announce how his $10 million dollar donation for river projects will be spent.

County Commissioner Randi Miller has promised a vote probably in February on a mix of river improvements including more dams and shoreline improvements. This is in addition to some $40 million in funds already approved for river projects in Tulsa county including new low water dams at Sand Springs and at 106th and Riverside and work to stop silting at the current low water dam at 31st and Riverside.

Downtown:

West Downtown, Mayo Place/Arena District

Tulsa’s iconic $240 million Cesar Pelli designed 18,000 seat arena is now well under construction.

The City of Tulsa is considering purchasing the four year old 15 story Williams Technology Center has a new city hall so that the city can have improved and consolidated facilities. The city would then sell the current civic center area for private development around the new arena and convention center.

The city is about to condemn the Towerview apartments which has been a stumbling block on getting a convention hotel built on city land across the street from the arena. One proposal for the site is a multi-use Westin Hotel with retail and condos.

The Mayo building and the Mayo hotel are about to start construction for conversion of a large part of each building into lofts.

The Coney Island building is being converted into a small hotel.

Central Downtown, Business District:

The McFarlin Building is nearing completion of a complete renovation

Main St has been completely renovated with brick sidewalks, trees and decorative lighting.

The Crowne Plaza hotel is undergoing major renovations, the Crowne Plaza will be adding a Starbucks location and a Skybar and a new upscale restaurant. Total project cost is $12.5 million.

Boston Avenue is in middle of a similar reconstruction to main, brick sidewalks, new outdoor furniture and lighting. New Trees.

Two large downtown Churches, Trinity Episcopal and First Baptist of Tulsa are nearing completion of major renovations/expansions of each of the Churches (that are right across the street from each other)

The Philtower has just finished converting it’s upper floors into lofts.

The TransOk building will soon be converted to loft space as part of 2025.

A large new park will start construction soon at 6th and Main, this is part of 2025 as well.

The Centennial Walk sidewalk replacement, wayfinding and historical markers has complete the design phase and is about to start construction throughout downtown. This is a 2025 project.

The Jazz hall of fame has started construction on converting the Union Depot into a new home for the hall.

North Downtown, Brady District/Greenwood District:

The Creek Nation is looking into building a casino/hotel in the Brady District with businessman David Sharpe (who owns most of the Brady District).

OSU Tulsa is nearing completion of it’s $90 million Advanced Research Lab just north of downtown at it’s Greenwood District campus. About two blocks west of Campus the school is about to build it first student housing and is also planning a new student center that would start construction in about two years.

There have been several conversions of warehouse space into upscale office space across downtown recently, the most prominent being the recent completion of the Wallace building in the Brady District.

East Downtown, East End/Blue Dome District/Pearl District:

Global Development’s East End project: A huge multi-use project encompassing much of the eastern end of downtown should close on the sale of the bulk of the land needed for the project in the next month or so. Included in the project are up to three hotels, hundreds of housing units, office space, and 400,000 square feet of retail. The center piece of the project is a new baseball stadium. The owner of the Tulsa Drillers says he is close to a deal to move the team from Expo Square.

The 1st Street lofts are under construction in the Blue Dome area.

A new boutique hotel is being done on 6th street in the Pearl District.

Also in the Pearl District Centennial Park has just been completed.

Next to the park The Village at Central Park continues to build urban town homes.

South Downtown

The Tulsa community foundation (with over $2 billion in assets) has a number of projects they looking at doing in Tulsa. The highlight being a new $80 million research library downtown

The DoubleTree hotel is undergoing renovations similar to The Crowne Plaza’s renovations.

The OSU College of Medicine has purchased the former Tulsa Regional Medical Center (Now the OSU Medical Center) downtown and is about to spend $40 million on hospital upgrades.

Tulsa Community Colleges downtown campus is about to start a huge new building that will encompass an entire city block just south of the current buildings.

Midtown:

Midtown Central, Brookside/Cherry St/Utica Square Area:

St John Medical Center is nearing completion of a years long renovation and expansion of it’s campus across the street from Utica Square. Included were a major hospital expansion and a new 14 floor doctors building.

The 10 Floor Utica Place condo/office building also next door to Utica Square is nearing completion.

Half a mile north of St John, Hillcrest Hospital continues its own years long building campaign with a big new women’s health center.

Peoria Ave through the heart of Brookside is nearly done on construction that rebuilt the street, built new sidewalks and new lighting for the district.

Also in Brookside, Center One, the new very upscale retail center is adding on a new building.

A new building for Pei Wei and Starbucks was just completed on Brookside

There are lot of new infill town home sites throughout Cherry Street and Brookside, most are very modern in appearance.

A new infill office complex is about to start construction at 41st and Rockford in Brookside.

East Midtown, Expo and TU areas:

Expo Square is nearing completion of a complete remodel of the entire facility. Tulsa may well now have the best fairgrounds facilities in the nation.

Bell’s is leaving Expo Square for an as yet undermined suburb.

The University of Tulsa continues it’s massive building campaign with a new sports building and skyboxes in the north end zone of Skelly Stadium. Also, TU is building a massive new entrance and lawn along 11th St. More student housing is also going to be constructed.

South Midtown:

Promenade Mall has just completed a major renovation

OU Tulsa’s Midtown campus has several major construction projects underway

I-44 on midtowns south side is finally being widened, construction is well underway at Yale and house buy-outs have begun at Peoria.

[bombermwc]

Jaleous no. I have my opinions and I don't feel the need to explain them to you at all. I just get tired of seeing threads like this on boards on the net. They're so stupid and such a waste of time. They just get people all tensed up and defensive because someone always turns it into a bash fest for the other town.