Gulfport Energy

[LuccaBrasi]

It is odd that a contractor is not on board with this announcement. Van Hoose construction usually builds most of RBA's work as they are close buds. I suspect someone is on board but for some reason, like an unsigned contract, they chose not to make it public. PR like this is usually client led, but this article appears to be all architect led with no comment from Gulfport. Looks like GP wants to stay in the shadows and let RBA get some good PR and run point.

[OKCisOK4me]

Oh I agree, it's odd to say the least. OKCisOK4Me...can you shed some light?

Actually, I can't. My dad retired as the CEO from Gulfport back in February, but he was in that position for several years and their success in the industry came while he was at the helm. I told him that I saw the renderings for the new headquarters and I don't think he actually even knew of it. Probably trying to play it off though. Glad they are choosing to stay up north. This design definitely doesn't belong downtown.

[Architect2010]

According to a "Gulfport exec" on Steve's chats, the reason they are building so far out is a shorter commute for their employees. I don't mind that Gulfport is building so far out, but that's some hokey reasoning. Unless 100% of their employees live in N. OKC/Edmond, which I assume is highly unlikely, then you have people driving a longer commute due to the decentralized nature of the area.

Again, I don't mind that Gulfport is building on Memorial. Would it have been nice for another HQ downtown? Of course. I just don't understand the need to justify the location with flawed reasoning. Especially in a public chat, when we've yet to recieve any official comments or submitted plans.

[Rover]

According to a "Gulfport exec" on Steve's chats, the reason they are building so far out is a shorter commute for their employees. I don't mind that Gulfport is building so far out, but that's some hokey reasoning. Unless 100% of their employees live in N. OKC/Edmond, which I assume is highly unlikely, then you have people driving a longer commute due to the decentralized nature of the area.

Again, I don't mind that Gulfport is building on Memorial. Would it have been nice for another HQ downtown? Of course. I just don't understand the need to justify the location with flawed reasoning. Especially in a public chat, when we've yet to recieve any official comments or submitted plans.

So, where do you believe their employees live that you are calling him a liar?
Lots of upscale housing in the north and northwest. Why is that so hard for people on here to believe that that is attractive to well paid employees? Not everyone wants to live downtown.

[metro]

^

Right, but then why are they having a ground-breaking, releasing renderings and such?

There is something very weird about all this.

Maybe they took a page out of the TEEMCO playbook?

[metro]

and you know, it's comments like these that proves OKC is still a small time amateur market.



Anything really nice that gets proposed in the suburbs is met with people that are apparently unable to realize that in major cites, there are tons of huge suburban office parks that are world class and quite frankly better than downtown OKC. What a stupid comment by Steve. The majority of their parking is going to be underground and there are tons of restaurants around that you can even walk to. I accompanied a girl at the ATT office in the Quail Business Park and we walked to The Shack and had a great time walking there and did so without any worries what so ever. Seems to me the one complaining about that have a bias or are too afraid to walk beyond their concrete jungle. How's that for a fair statement.

Agreed, but then again look at the author........

[Snowman]

According to a "Gulfport exec" on Steve's chats, the reason they are building so far out is a shorter commute for their employees. I don't mind that Gulfport is building so far out, but that's some hokey reasoning. Unless 100% of their employees live in N. OKC/Edmond, which I assume is highly unlikely, then you have people driving a longer commute due to the decentralized nature of the area.

Again, I don't mind that Gulfport is building on Memorial. Would it have been nice for another HQ downtown? Of course. I just don't understand the need to justify the location with flawed reasoning. Especially in a public chat, when we've yet to recieve any official comments or submitted plans.

It looks like their current offices are along the Memorial corridor near the office park they are building the new building in, so their employee base probably does skew toward Edmond and NW OKC.

[Plutonic Panda]

According to a "Gulfport exec" on Steve's chats, the reason they are building so far out is a shorter commute for their employees. I don't mind that Gulfport is building so far out, but that's some hokey reasoning. Unless 100% of their employees live in N. OKC/Edmond, which I assume is highly unlikely, then you have people driving a longer commute due to the decentralized nature of the area.

Again, I don't mind that Gulfport is building on Memorial. Would it have been nice for another HQ downtown? Of course. I just don't understand the need to justify the location with flawed reasoning. Especially in a public chat, when we've yet to recieve any official comments or submitted plans.

I could be wrong on this, but I doubt a Gulfport exec was on Steve's chat defending this.

[Urbanized]

It looks like there old offices are along the Memorial corridor, so probably their employee base does skew toward Edmond or NW OKC.

I would believe that. I would also honestly expect a disproportionate number of DVN, CHK and Sand Ridge, Continental, et al employees to live in Edmond, Nichols Hills, NW and the far NW OKC metro, especially executive-level employees. That's the city we live in, and that was the status quo in this town for decades. I'll promise that didn't change just within the past few years.

However, I don't think it should be the overriding reason for a business to chose its HQ location - for instance I would want the ability to easily draw employees from the whole metro, give them flexibility to settle where/how they'd like AND I also feel like a downtown presence gives a company more gravitas - but nevertheless it was probably not an untrue statement.

[ChrisHayes]

A lot of the developments going on in Dallas and Austin are in business parks or business districts away from the core of the cities. I see no problem with it. It might spur more development around Memorial. Besides, we're on track to have at least a few high rises built in Downtown OKC.

[bchris02]

The N Memorial corridor is booming right now. I see no problem with them choosing that area. Like someone else said, it's better they choose there than somewhere like N Kelley and 122nd. The burbs are never going to go away and they are going to keep going, but I would really like to see a few prime business corridors develop rather than the endless sprawl that has been the norm in OKC for so long. It would be real nice to eventually see more mixed-use projects in the Memorial corridor to complement the business growth up there.

[Dustin]

All I know is traffic right now in that area is insufferable. If the boom continues (which it will), I don't even want to know how it's going to be in five years time.

[Snowman]

All I know is traffic right now in that area is insufferable. If the boom continues (which it will), I don't even want to know how it's going to be in five years time.

I never liked the way the exits were set up on Kirkpatrick & Memorial in that area since it make any traffic feel far worse than it actually is.

[Plutonic Panda]

I never liked the way the exits were set up on Kirkpatrick & Memorial in that area since it make any traffic feel far worse than it actually is.

Agreed. I would assume they should widen the service roads to three lanes each way, but even if they didn't do that and would just add dual left turn, dedicated right turn and texas turnaround at each signal, I would think that would go a long ways

[Snowman]

Agreed. I would assume they should widen the service roads to three lanes each way, but even if they didn't do that and would just add dual left turn, dedicated right turn and texas turnaround at each signal, I would think that would go a long ways

Widening the road though makes one of the more frustrating maneuvers (crossing all of Memorial's lanes to turn right after exiting the turnpike) worse, plus it already allows dual left turn lanes at multiple intersections on Memorial and some also have the u-turns that bypass the light in addition to that.

The problems I see the most I think just stems from how close the exists are to the stoplights, so unless people are plan on going either left or using dedicated u-turn there is little time to get out of the left turn only lane at the speed the road is signed and on top of that if any traffic is coming it will usually be a wave so if a person has bad luck on hitting a wave and they need to turn right one of the following scenarios happens; often people cutting other off unsafely (sometime does it to both lanes), often people maneuver into the left through lane of Memorial way under the speed limit, on occasions I have seen people fully stop on the exit ramp or left through lane of Memorial when all the lights are green as they are running out of room.

How short the zone for the people who just did a u-turn & people who want to enter the turnpike can sometimes slow the left lane of Memorial but that is not nearly as much an issue both from how few u-turn lanes there are and the percentage of people making them means that it happens less frequently .

[Bellaboo]

According to a "Gulfport exec" on Steve's chats, the reason they are building so far out is a shorter commute for their employees. I don't mind that Gulfport is building so far out, but that's some hokey reasoning. Unless 100% of their employees live in N. OKC/Edmond, which I assume is highly unlikely, then you have people driving a longer commute due to the decentralized nature of the area.

Again, I don't mind that Gulfport is building on Memorial. Would it have been nice for another HQ downtown? Of course. I just don't understand the need to justify the location with flawed reasoning. Especially in a public chat, when we've yet to recieve any official comments or submitted plans.

Not too sure I believe that, the poster didn't even spell Gulfport correctly.

[Plutonic Panda]

Widening the road though makes one of the more frustrating maneuvers (crossing all of Memorial's lanes to turn right after exiting the turnpike) worse, plus it already allows dual left turn lanes at multiple intersections on Memorial and some also have the u-turns that bypass the light in addition to that.

The problems I see the most I think just stems from how close the exists are to the stoplights, so unless people are plan on going either left or using dedicated u-turn there is little time to get out of the left turn only lane at the speed the road is signed and on top of that if any traffic is coming it will usually be a wave so if a person has bad luck on hitting a wave and they need to turn right one of the following scenarios happens; often people cutting other off unsafely (sometime does it to both lanes), often people maneuver into the left through lane of Memorial way under the speed limit, on occasions I have seen people fully stop on the exit ramp or left through lane of Memorial when all the lights are green as they are running out of room.

How short the zone for the people who just did a u-turn & people who want to enter the turnpike can sometimes slow the left lane of Memorial but that is not nearly as much an issue both from how few u-turn lanes there are and the percentage of people making them means that it happens less frequently .

They need to reverse the exits entries for the tollroad also.

[ultimatesooner]

I say good for Gulfport, maybe they surveyed their employees and this is actually where the majority preferred to work. Not everyone wants to work or live downtown, I for one would be willing to do the same job for less $$ on the outskirts of town to not have to deal with downtown everyday

[AP]

I, for one, would be willing to do the same job for less $$ downtown to not have to deal with driving everyday.

[Plutonic Panda]

11/15/2014

[Spartan]

Oooh that's the site. That's actually a pretty prime site that will build some density near the May site of the office park.

[metro]

I, for one, would be willing to do the same job for less $$ downtown to not have to deal with driving everyday.

Make that 2 of us

[Rover]

I, for one, would be willing to do the same job for less $$ downtown to not have to deal with driving everyday.

So, why aren't you?

[Rover]

Make that 2 of us

You too?

[gopokes88]

I thought it was a snarky and unnecessary shot by Steve at Gulfport. I really like Steve and have defended him but it was uncalled for. One size does not fit all and having suburban developments isn't the end of the world especially if their employee base is in edmond. That's less traffic heading in and out of downtown everyday.