10th Street RFP

[Pete]

The City has issued an RFP for the 3 acres of vacant land along 10th west of Classen that was left over after they cleared out dozens of houses for a street widening project. This is at the very southern edge of the Classen Ten Penn neighborhood.

The RFP responses are due back June 30th and they will be designating the conditional developer(s) in September.

They hope for housing buy will accept mixed use; they also designate structures should be at least 2 stories

The City desires to see this property restored to useful life to support revitalization efforts already taking place in Classen Ten-Penn and the surrounding Plaza and Midtown neighborhoods. The City is offering this property for residential, commercial and/or mixed-use development. The City’s objectives for redevelopment are summarized as follows:
• Neighborhood Compatibility;
• High Quality Architecture and Design;
• Contiguous Development;
• Mixed-Income Housing.

Proposals for redevelopment on all four tracts is preferred but not required. Developers may submit proposals for single or multiple tracts as long as remaining tracts are not singularly isolated. Given this flexibility, The City reserves the right to accept and negotiate with several developers if it meets the objective of holistic development across all four tracts.

The parcels currently being offered constitute the eastern portion of surplus property not used in the roadway upgrade. If redevelopment succeeds on the lots, a second offering for additional tracts between Blackwelder and Virginia Avenue may be provided.

[Urbanized]

Hopefully this turns out better than last time. City staff worked very hard on getting quality developers interested, and received what at the time was almost unprecedented interest in an inner-city area, including upscale, urban residential. But CTP residents staged an uprising and demanded that instead the area get services (grocery, dentist, medical, pharmacy) that cannot be dictated and that even today's upscale downtown housing districts continue to lack and would envy. It was an unsophisticated and disappointing response by the neighborhood, but not surprising considering how economically disadvantaged, disconnected and marginalized most of the residents were at the time. It completely killed the proposals and left the lots empty and depressed for years.

Without question the neighborhood is now better-equipped to involve itself in the process, owing to the influx of a younger and more connected and influential demographic, thanks to the proximity of Plaza District. Pretty sure this is partly/largely driven by SNI..?

[Pete]

This is a very cool graphic showing the crazy amount of activity in the area:

[Teo9969]

Am I seeing that right: that they are going to narrow 10th down to 2 lanes and include the Westbound-Lane in the development area?

[Urbanized]

Am I seeing that right: that they are going to narrow 10th down to 2 lanes and include the Westbound-Lane in the development area?

Where did you see that indicated? Would be a remarkable reversal if so; those lots are vacant only because in the late 90s (early aughts?) Public Works demolished the housing and commercial stock that stood there so that they could widen 10th and connect the 4-lane at either end. That said it would be a good change.

Also, Pete, the same concentric circles appear in the graphic that appeared in the CC consultant's report., but this time are labeled "5 minute walk" and "10 minute walk". Supports my thought that walking distances was the purpose of those circles too. Glad to see walking distance clearly make it into planning documents.

[Spartan]

Hopefully this turns out better than last time. City staff worked very hard on getting quality developers interested, and received what at the time was almost unprecedented interest in an inner-city area, including upscale, urban residential. But CTP residents staged an uprising and demanded that instead the area get services (grocery, dentist, medical, pharmacy) that cannot be dictated and that even today's upscale downtown housing districts continue to lack and would envy. It was an unsophisticated and disappointing response by the neighborhood, but not surprising considering how economically disadvantaged, disconnected and marginalized most of the residents were at the time. It completely killed the proposals and left the lots empty and depressed for years.

Without question the neighborhood is now better-equipped to involve itself in the process, owing to the influx of a younger and more connected and influential demographic, thanks to the proximity of Plaza District. Pretty sure this is partly/largely driven by SNI..?

What is SNI's role?

[catch22]

Where did you see that indicated? Would be a remarkable reversal if so; those lots are vacant only because in the late 90s (early aughts?) Public Works demolished the housing and commercial stock that stood there so that they could widen 10th and connect the 4-lane at either end. That said it would be a good change.

Also, Pete, the same concentric circles appear in the graphic that appeared in the CC consultant's report., but this time are labeled "5 minute walk" and "10 minute walk". Supports my thought that walking distances was the purpose of those circles too. Glad to see walking distance clearly make it into planning documents.

I believe since the rectangles that mark the development tracts cross halfway into the roadway, he is assuming they are reducing the street width and using part of the ROW as the development.

(I don't know the answer)

[Pete]

They are not reducing 10th street -- the graphic showing the property encroaching on the existing roadway is incorrect (this was from the RFP - not made by me).

[Teo9969]

That's too bad. We had a conversation about these lots about a year and a half ago and I think it was determined that the relatively shallow nature of the lots will make them harder to address for any sort of commercial development. That extra 30 feet of roadway would make a big difference.

Unfortunately, due to this reality I expect to see surface parking and/or other designs that have notable flaws in terms of urban principles.

Has anybody gobbled up the housing on Park Place on any of those blocks?

[Teo9969]

http://www.okctalk.com/general-real-...Evirginia.html

[Canoe]

I thousand times yes. I hope this works. Eugene Fields is not that bad of an elementary school.

[AP]

I was going to post this on Friday after seeing CTP mention it in Steves chat Friday but forgot to. I'm very excited to see what comes from it.

[Spartan]

I'm still curious what SNI's role in this RFP is. I was encouraged to hear that SNI will start to expand OKC's capacity for community development (although what OKC really needs is a network of private community development corporations), and while I'm pretty ignorant on what SNI actually is and what they actually do, perhaps they could partner with the developer as a CHDO.

From the RFP, it looks like what they're looking for is a mixed-income development with a strong LIHTC component. I question if OKC developers are sophisticated enough to pull off a true mixed-income development, but if a partner were introduced to enhance subsidy flowing into this deal, it could work well and serve as a strong comp for future development.

[LakeEffect]

I'm still curious what SNI's role in this RFP is. I was encouraged to hear that SNI will start to expand OKC's capacity for community development (although what OKC really needs is a network of private community development corporations), and while I'm pretty ignorant on what SNI actually is and what they actually do, perhaps they could partner with the developer as a CHDO.

From the RFP, it looks like what they're looking for is a mixed-income development with a strong LIHTC component. I question if OKC developers are sophisticated enough to pull off a true mixed-income development, but if a partner were introduced to enhance subsidy flowing into this deal, it could work well and serve as a strong comp for future development.

The Strong Neighborhood Initiative was borne out of a Planning staff concern that community development funds were being spread far too thinly to make a difference. The program consolidates funding to target 2-3 marginal neighborhoods at one time, 'hoods that have bones and potential, but need help. http://www.okc.gov/planning/nbhood/index.html

Oklahoma City has some really bright staff currently - they really know what they're doing and they really care about the community.

As for a CHDO, you saying we need more then Positively Paseo and Jefferson Park? Positively Paseo has by far been the most successful. I think there are a couple more registered in OKC. SNI would not partner w/ a CHDO, but I think they'd provide assistance and direct funding to them if appropriate. Positively Paseo is listed as a "Partner" on the SNI webpage.

[Spartan]

Thanks for the background. I have a feeling that the overarching problem in OKC is probably not enough funding for community development in general (it should have been receiving ALL of the CDBG and then should have leveraged other sources to fill in as CDBG got cut to the trickle it is now), but certainly a lot of cities are guilty of trying to spread their resources like peanut butter over bread.

Introducing a CHDO into such a deal as this, as a limited partner (with a managing partner which would be the for-profit developer), can provide bonuses like community outreach (a friendlier face for whatever is developed) and more specifically scoring bonuses on a LIHTC application. The for-profit developer (say perhaps Tanenbaum) could bring the market rate to the table. I don't know that OK HFA's QAP looks like, but if it's like any other state, developers are heavily incentivized to bring in a CHDO with scoring bonuses and basis boosts (maybe 130% eligible basis, just a guess). I would really need to spend at least a year doing this in OKC to know how to get this deal done, but I'm sure that these are all under consideration by really bright people.

As you know, given what seems to be the ideal development that they are looking for, there are different ways to structure a deal depending on the type of development the city wants. The ball is in the city's court because they own the land.

[CarlessInOKC]

They are not reducing 10th street -- the graphic showing the property encroaching on the existing roadway is incorrect (this was from the RFP - not made by me).

The graphic is correct -- 10th St. was widened at one point without updating the right of way. That area is a mess.

[ljbab728]

Thanks for the background. I have a feeling that the overarching problem in OKC is probably not enough funding for community development in general (it should have been receiving ALL of the CDBG and then should have leveraged other sources to fill in as CDBG got cut to the trickle it is now), but certainly a lot of cities are guilty of trying to spread their resources like peanut butter over bread.

Introducing a CHDO into such a deal as this, as a limited partner (with a managing partner which would be the for-profit developer), can provide bonuses like community outreach (a friendlier face for whatever is developed) and more specifically scoring bonuses on a LIHTC application. The for-profit developer (say perhaps Tanenbaum) could bring the market rate to the table. I don't know that OK HFA's QAP looks like, but if it's like any other state, developers are heavily incentivized to bring in a CHDO with scoring bonuses and basis boosts (maybe 130% eligible basis, just a guess). I would really need to spend at least a year doing this in OKC to know how to get this deal done, but I'm sure that these are all under consideration by really bright people.

As you know, given what seems to be the ideal development that they are looking for, there are different ways to structure a deal depending on the type of development the city wants. The ball is in the city's court because they own the land.

Spartan, not everyone speaks your language. I'm sure I would be very interested in what you said if you could interpret it into something simpler.

[Spartan]

It would help if I wouldn't have autocorrect typos from my phone..

CDBG comminity dev block grant
CHDO community housing dev org
LIHTC low income housing tax credit
OHFA OK Housing Fin Authority
OKC Oklahoma City, OK

[Teo9969]

The graphic is correct -- 10th St. was widened at one point without updating the right of way. That area is a mess.

The graphic is actually self-contradictory. The total measurement of the lots between Ellison and Douglas is 140 x 347 which totals to 1.12 acres. The .668 acres aligns pretty well with how the property would actually sit on that land, as per my measurements on Google Maps (.668 acres is roughly 340 x 85)

[ljbab728]

It would help if I wouldn't have autocorrect typos from my phone..

CDBG comminity dev block grant
CHDO community housing dev org
LIHTC low income housing tax credit
OHFA OK Housing Fin Authority
OKC Oklahoma City, OK

Thanks for the OKC explanation. That was the one I was really wondering about. You did leave out this one though.

HFA's QAP

[CarlessInOKC]

The graphic is actually self-contradictory. The total measurement of the lots between Ellison and Douglas is 140 x 347 which totals to 1.12 acres. The .668 acres aligns pretty well with how the property would actually sit on that land, as per my measurements on Google Maps (.668 acres is roughly 340 x 85)

In the context of the RFP it makes sense. The acreage refers to the area of land that is to be developed, but the lot lines do go into the street. Those will likely be adjusted as part of the SPUD called for in the RFP. City-owned property adjacent to city-owned right-of-way apparently didn't warrant any urgency with fixing the lot boundaries when 10th Street was widened.

[Pete]

I've learned there was at least one response to this RFP which will feature 2- and 3-story for-sale residences.

Not sure if anyone else responded and will be interesting to see if the area has come up enough for people to pay $200K+ for homes on a somewhat busy street.

[Urbanized]

Dang, I wish there were an easy way to access the RFP responses from a number of years ago, which were quashed by the CTP neighbors because they wanted specific retail/services instead. It would be nice to compare.

[JRod1980]

I always thought this would be a cool area to build, OKC's own version of the San Francisco "Painted Ladies"

[Spartan]

I've learned there was at least one response to this RFP which will feature 2- and 3-story for-sale residences.

Not sure if anyone else responded and will be interesting to see if the area has come up enough for people to pay $200K+ for homes on a somewhat busy street.

Condos shouldn't be a tough sell. It sounds like the mixed income idea though is... Interesting.