OG&E Energy Center

[Pete]

Reminder that the Board of Adjustment will hear the appeal to save the bus station today at 1:30PM in the council chambers at City Hall.

Not too optimistic they will overturn the DDRC's decision, but they came pretty darn close on Stage Center and this seems to be a stronger case.

There is at least some hope.

[Just the facts]

I don't remember if it was the Clayco or the 499 proposal (or maybe even both), but parking revenue was singled out as being a significant portion of the operating income and I am sure they thought the Convention Center was going to be a big part of the revenue stream. If so, they will need to reassess that assumption.

[Pete]

Clayco would be close enough that their parking could be used at certain times, but the allocated parking spaces for both the north and south parcels (each would have a separate, similar parking structure) were based on the needs of their development and their RFP response demonstrated they would be needing all of it for their own use.

Now, due to the proximity, I'm sure general public parking would have brought in revenue in the evenings and weekend, but that revenue stream was never specifically discussed or addressed in their proposal; they merely included what they felt they could charge for monthly parking to their office and apartment tenants.

[ourulz2000]

Been out for a few months. Can someone give me the general overview of where this project stands?

[Pete]

Clayco has submitted a request for $60 million in TIF funds and they are in negotiations with the City.

However, those funds would have come from a newly proposed South CBD TIF district and its primary purpose was to fund the convention center and hotel, along with Clayco.

Now the the cc is not going to the original location and may not even fall within that proposed TIF district, they probably can't move forward with Clacyo.

However, there is an existing TIF and my recommendation would be to negotiate Clayco way down and give them funds from that.

[bchris02]

Pete, do you foresee Clayco at least moving forward with the north parcel, or do you think there may be a more radical change in plans as a result of this?

[Pete]

They are moving forward. More details from the application to the DDRC which will be heard next week:

[jccouger]

This building is honestly amazing. Really glad they aren't going majority glass, this look is WAY more timeless.

I'd even call, if I may, world class....

[AP]

Yeah, I agree. I just think that building is so beautiful.

[bchris02]

This project has received a lot of criticism which I can understand, such as residential not fronting the park, but I feel this is a very high quality project and I cannot wait to see it in the skyline.

[jccouger]

This project has received a lot of criticism which I can understand, such as residential not fronting the park, but I feel this is a very high quality project and I cannot wait to see it in the skyline.

It had the benefit of 499 being announced around the same time. This building blows 499 completely out of the water, and even though losing the Stage Center sucks it doesn't even compare to everything we are losing on the preftakes block.

Even without that though this building looks spectacular & the materials they are using are outstanding. I'm a little worried they didn't include even a rough drawing of the residential tower though, and I'm still worried about the south half of this block. This building alone though was worth the Stage Center going away, and I was one of the loudest people on here against it. (that was also when the only concept we had was of the mini devon tower proposal which was horrible)

[Pete]

It's beautiful, no doubt. Really like the detail on the parking garage as well.

However, don't like the big plaza on the corner of Sheridan & Hudson, especially with 499 Hines having a similar setup.

[Just the facts]

The tower is great; it just needs to be moved 30 feet east and 30 feet north, and find a different parking solution.

[betts]

I still miss the Stage Center, but this is a beautiful building. I wish they'd built it elsewhere, that's all.

[Teo9969]

The Hudson & Sheridan intersection is going to be completely dead. The city needs to start considering how they are going to draw people in this direction, because at this point, Film Row is essentially completely cut off from Sheridan & Robinson/Broadway…home of a majority of our full service hotels.

[Just the facts]

The Hudson & Sheridan intersection is going to be completely dead. The city needs to start considering how they are going to draw people in this direction, because at this point, Film Row is essentially completely cut off from Sheridan & Robinson/Broadway…home of a majority of our full service hotels.

Yep. The City better decide quickly what they want MBG to be like after 5pm.

[Teo9969]

I think the MBG will be relatively fine no matter what. The problem, for me, is that MBG gives the surrounding blocks tons of opportunity to build extremely successful retail/restaurant/entertainment development, so it's enormous lost opportunity.

That being said, if the REHCO site and the Cox site are built out to have those things, and the SW block of Hudson/Reno focuses people to the corner development (would likely be the best spot for a home run restaurant…Maybe Russell Westbrook's :-P). Then I think we'll be more than okay.

[Just the facts]

If you think it will be fine, then once again I refer people to Love Park and Rittenhouse Square. Long term success rarely just happens by chance.

[dankrutka]

If you think it will be fine, then once again I refer people to Love Patk and Rittenhouse Square.

I refer you to the Myriad Gardens. It doesn't have anything there now and is pretty active. Just saying...

[Stickman]

OKC is definitely growing but..............do you think we can support one more entertainment district? If you include Paseo and the Plaza, it makes eight. This is just a question not a statement.

also: its been a while since I messed with ABLE, but can you put in a bar or restaurant next to a school or police station?

Anybody kept up with the ABLE laws?

[bchris02]

JTF has some good points.

It's active because of programming. If it wasn't for that, it could be in trouble. At the very least, it won't live up to the potential that it could see if people were actually living next to it. Hopefully some kind of residential is proposed for the old CC site. That should help it out.

[Teo9969]

OKC is definitely growing but..............do you think we can support one more entertainment district? If you include Paseo and the Plaza, it makes eight. This is just a question not a statement.

also: its been a while since I messed with ABLE, but can you put in a bar or restaurant next to a school or police station?

Anybody kept up with the ABLE laws?

ABC-1 (3.2% ABW only) and ABC-2 (>3.2% ABW accounts for <50% of total revenue) are allowed right next door to anything. ABC-3 (>3.2% ABW accounts for >50% of total revenue) is not allowed within 300 feet of School or Church.

It's not about entertainment districts, of which OKC has less than 5 (I can only think of Bricktown and the Adventure District). Deep Deuce, Midtown, Plaza, Paseo+Uptown, Arts District…these are neighborhoods, not entertainment districts. Even Bricktown is pushing toward being more of a neighborhood and less of an entertainment district, even though it will likely maintain a bent toward entertainment.

[David]

Wow, did we really just wrap all the way back around to "the Myriad Gardens is dead after 5"? That's as ludicrous now as it was the last time we went over this.

[Teo9969]

MBG will always be a big draw due to proximity to Bricktown, the lack of green space downtown, and its programming.

You're wrong on this one JTF.

(That doesn't mean I support the current development practices on the surrounding blocks)

[Stickman]

Well I'm counting eating and drinking neighborhoods.
Deep D
M-town
Plaza
23rd
Paseo
Film Row
Brick-T
Auto-Alley
I did not count Western as I consider to far away.