Preftakes Block

[Pete]

Here is the general site plan. I've been told there will also be a skybridge across Hudson connecting the tower to the Devon complex.

[OKCRT]

Really wish they could build a little taller and make it the 2nd tallest in the city. That would generate more excitement and make more of an impact on the skyline. At 27 stories this will be shorter than the Cotter tower. Still should make an impact but taller would be better.

[hoya]

This is lame. There's no reason to tear down those buildings for this.

[OKCRT]

The Old Black Hotel seems like it would be worth saving for sure but then there could be no sky bridge to Devon. Seems a shame to knock down a perfectly good building when there are other sites they could build on. But,then again,they couldn't have their wonderful sky bridge. At least they should build taller,no excuse for not building taller if they are gonna tear the Black Hotel down to build their wonderful sky bridge. The Auto Hotel I can see bulldozing if they want to build a better garage. Fine do that but build your building at least 35-40 stories if you have to destroy the Black Hotel to build your sky bridge.

[Pete]

Just two years ago:

Union Bus Station in Oklahoma City has its first new owner since opening in 1940, and the buyer, Nicholas Preftakes, pledged Tuesday he will not raze the Art Deco structure as he seeks to redevelop the block.

Union Bus Station in Oklahoma City sells for $2 million | News OK

[Patrick]

I don't understand why they can't save Hotel Black and build the tower on the site of the old Carpenter Square theater. I realize that modernization removed some architectural elements from Hotel Black, but it's still very useable space....would've made a nice conversion back into a boutique hotel. Not sure why they couldn't save Hotel Black like they did with the Colcord. I guess there's money in parking structures. Still, I don't like a large parking garage fronting Main Street. Ridiculous.

[Pete]

Any or all of the buildings could be saved. One North Hudson / Hotel Black was occupied until they chased off the last tenants just months ago. The Auto Hotel is currently being used. All the others have been occupied in the recent past.

They just choose not to redevelop them.

The handwriting was on the wall years ago when 1) millions were invested in small, one or two story buildings; 2) absolutely zero money was put into them after purchase; and 3) they ran off tenants with no real attempt to replace them.

[Patrick]

Preftakes is clearly in this for the money and could give a rip less about preservation. Glad he never bought the Skirvin!

[Pete]

Preftakes has paid $16 million for 2.57 acres; that's $6.22 million per acre and most of that was bought 6 or 7 years ago.

Stage Center right across the street just sold for $1.35 million per acre.

He would have to sell for over $8 million an acre just to break even.


Obviously, there are other forces at work here and there always has been. How do you think he paid all this money then sat on all those properties without any real income while incurring a million a year in property taxes?

[Patrick]

Isn't Preftakes going to own the new parking garages and tower? Or is he selling the property to developers?

[Pete]

We'll never know the true nature of the Preftakes/Devon/Hines ownership interest just like we'll never know the true nature of the Rainey Williams/OG&E/Clacyo deal.

[mugofbeer]

This is lame. There's no reason to tear down those buildings for this.

I'm not intending this to come off blunt and insensitive but the "good" reason is that someone owns the property and they intend get a return on their investment and ownership. Owning and leasing 2 and 3 story buildings as well as old higher rises wasnt going to provide the rate of return for its highest and best use. Very few private individuals would sit on and maintain old buildings when builing a modern and much larger structure will result in far larger returns. That would have to be done by an histric preservation entity of some sort

[KayneMo]

Here is the general site plan. I've been told there will also be a skybridge across Hudson connecting the tower to the Devon complex.

Why can't the tower be built on top of either garage? How frustrating, my enthusiasm for this project has sunk immensely.

[jccouger]

Empty unused building do not = urban fabric

And by all means stop caring

They are empty because the tenants were forced out....

[jccouger]

Preftakes, just like Williams, is just a face and a scapegoat used to tear down buildings to not ruin reputations by major companies. They get paid under the table so they can be the bad guys who tore down our history. Money will make people do almost anything. Sad OKC has to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. Tearing down perfectly good buildings so people can make a quick buck on garages. We are going to be known as the city with a thousand parking garages in 50 years.

[catch22]

They are empty because the tenants were forced out....

Can't blame the dog for having an abusive owner.

[soondoc]

I agree with all who stated this should not be done as planned. To destroy a part of OKC and these historical buildings for such an underwhelming mid rise just can not happen. How do we make our voices heard? We need to do what Pete advised and have many people voice our concerns.

Can a tower even be built on top of these garages? I really don't know the answer to that. Can they not build this and still preserve 1 or 2 of the others? That needs to happen and maybe someone can do something cool with these buildings. The new tower can go up to about 35-40 stories with a smaller foot print. Come on BOK and Devon, if you all are reading this, do you not want to have a building that can be shown and actually seen from a distance and the TV exposure during the Thunder games? Give us a tower in the 550-600 foot range instead of destroying history and putting up a mid rise. This is totally unacceptable.

[RodH]

I bought a paper and read the articles. I also looked at the pictures. I like it. I think that the 690,000 square feet of leasable space (office and retail) will be a far better use than can be had with the current buildings on that block that will be lost.

[Motley]

Adequate parking in a downtown calls for between 2 and 3 spaces per 1000 sq ft of office space. If downtown has around 6,000,000 sq ft, the CBD needs around 12-18,000 spaces. What does the CBD have now?

[Motley]

Yet the building is 690,000 sq ft replacing a total of 257,000 sq ft (according to the list above). It will add a lot more people to downtown than in the current buildings to support new retail, restaurants, lunchtime activities, and residential demand.

[pickles]

Throw your bodies on the gears!!11!!!1

[Plutonic Panda]

It sucks that it's only 27 stories.

[ChrisHayes]

K I can understand people's feelings about parking garages but parking is still in short supply downtown and it's continuing to grow. Until most of the people who work downtown, live downtown, a place to park cars will be needed. I'd rather have garages than surface lots. As for the block, I'd like to see 1 North Hudson stay and the tallest of the buildings. I'm guessing that's the hotel. Aside from then two I really don't see the appeal in the other buildings. That being said, I too wish the new building would be taller. LacMeyer has a picture of the concept drawing on his Twitter page

[Snowman]

I am guessing that the slant is to give more views of MBG but that tends to cause for a huge amount of wasted space in all the offices if they mirror that in the rooms, alternatively some people to get all the wasted space in their offices. I hope they end up doing something different than the same pillars at the base like at Devon, that seems like the weakest aesthetics of the tower and with the 'primarily' occupant being a different company it seems really odd to not have any uniqueness of it's own.

[NWOKCGuy]

Just saw the rendering on Steve's twitter. I really don't mind it.