First National Center

[Urbanized]

Walkability is a more complex topic than it sounds like on the surface. There are many ingredients besides a serviceable sidewalk. If anyone is interested In reading Jeff Speck's 2009 walkability analysis and recommendations for downtown Oklahoma City (a major driver of P180's design initiatives) you may read the PDF in its entirety here. Speck is widely considered America's foremost expert on the subject. You can watch his TED talk here.

There are many other experts in that field, and they all agree on the same principles in this regard. But of course OKC has a proud history of paying for advice from experts and then promptly ignoring it.

[Urban Pioneer]

Urbanized, I totally agree with your sentiments about how this development and Park Ave in general could be a great shopping street. It has some real potential to be an "urban mall" with "real" shopping.

[Urbanized]

Heck, it's not only you and me...the City's own Park Avenue retail study - released only a couple of months ago - say the same thing and stress preserving/enhancing the pedestrian nature of that block: Park Avenue retail study recommends making street more inviting to pedestrians | News OK

I'm not saying ingress/egress for a garage couldn't be thoughtfully integrated at street level with the rest of the frontage developed as retail, but question the impact that traffic from such a large garage would have on the street itself, and by extension the walkability of Park. It's super-important that this be very well thought out.

[Laramie]

Is there something to all of this mad rush to increase parking downtown? Think about it...

[dankrutka]

Maybe the best thing OKC has done recently in my opinion is get rid of its one way streets.

[hoya]

Who owns the Main Street Garage right now?

[OSUMom]

Yes. The vast majority of those who fill the office buildings. I share your hope the new downtown housing and offices changes this.

Didn't we used to have a 'like' button? Because I want to 'like' the hell out of this post.

[Snowman]

Didn't we used to have a 'like' button? Because I want to 'like' the hell out of this post.

It depends on the type of thread if it has a like button or not, basic threads still do but the ones like this for developments with the extended info at the top of all thread pages do not.

[Urbanized]

Who owns the Main Street Garage right now?

I'm not 100% certain, but as far as I know it is still Kennedy and Samis. In the mid-nineties they paid around $3 million for it. At the same time they paid $872K (!!!) for FNC. That's less than one dollar per square foot.

[Pete]

I'm not 100% certain, but as far as I know it is still Kennedy and Samis. In the mid-nineties they paid around $3 million for it. At the same time they paid $872K (!!!) for FNC. That's less than one dollar per square foot.

Yes, still owned by Irish Realty (John Kennedy).

The group ultimately donated the FNC to charity then kept the parking garage.

[Urbanized]

Yep, gave it to Feed the Children, took the tax write off, kept the profitable part (the garage), and doomed the tower to continued financial failure and years wandering in the wilderness. And apparently set in motion events that would lead to demolition of renovation-capable office space in favor of a parking garage which will interrupt the fabric of downtown's best remaining street. I'm not saying that they knew for a fact that it would work that way, but that has been the end result.

[HOT ROD]

does the parking not connect to FNC?

Im failing to understand why the Main Street Garage can't be used for FNC. Does it need to be owned by FNC in order to connect to FNC? Does it even need to be connected to FNC in order to be used by FNC tenants?

I honestly, honestly don't understand what the deal is. The garage already exists, what will change if the ownership became in tandem?

[Urbanized]

It's all about leasing. If i am going to lease 10,000 sq ft of office space to someone, the reality in a market like OKC is that I need to be able to offer X number of dedicated parking spaces with the lease. If I don't control X number of spaces, I can't offer them.

[Mr. Cotter]

Counterpoint: Chase and Continental buildings have (virtually) no dedicated parking, and Leadership's garage is only large enough for the most senior employees in the building. But, please note Leadership's garage was somehow able to be built under the office building.

Parking is important, but easy access to a city owned or otherwise publicly available garage.

[OklahomaNick]

The Main Street Parking Garage is basically FULL of monthly downtown employee parking.. and that is with a 80% empty First National Center right next door!
There is a HUGE lack of parking in and around downtown.

That portion they are taking about tearing down to build the garage is not good space, and I trust that the city and the downtown design review committee will make them incorporate retail into the street level to make it interactive.

[GaryOKC6]

I park in Main Street Garage and have noticed a lot more empty spaces lately. I come and go during the day and have not really had to "hunt" for a spot in a while. I thing the new Garage a couple of blocks west took some of the pressure off of main street garage. If they convert the center part of FNC to parking they will not tear it down. The floors are made to hold much more weight than cars. Cars are also evenly distributed weight. Remember that the Oklahoma Geological society used to be in there with tens of thousands of pounds of files in their office.

[adaniel]

^
Summer vacation season.

Wait until mid-August and all those spots will be full again.

[baralheia]

Back to the new ownership of this building... Do we know anything new about this guy that might illustrate his commitment to a proper restoration of this building? Last thing I've seen is that he either is or was being sued by former business partners over his development in Cleveland...

[C_M_25]

What's the deal with the old beacon tower? This thing is an eye sore. The upper third of the building has boarded up Windows, broken windows, and plastic covering holes were the windows are completely gone. The rest of the building looks nothing short of abandoned. Granted, the architectural style of this tower is really quite neat, but it just looks trashy. Why?? Wouldn't it be easier to demo the building and open up real estate??

[ljbab728]

What's the deal with the old beacon tower? This thing is an eye sore. The upper third of the building has boarded up Windows, broken windows, and plastic covering holes were the windows are completely gone. The rest of the building looks nothing short of abandoned. Granted, the architectural style of this tower is really quite neat, but it just looks trashy. Why?? Wouldn't it be easier to demo the building and open up real estate??

I'm assuming your post must be a joke. Please see the thread about the First National Building for more information if it isn't.

[ChowRunner]

Do you mean the first National Center? If so you will be pleased to find out what is in store.. First National Center - OKCTalk

[C_M_25]

I'm assuming your post must be a joke. Please see the thread about the First National Building for more information if it isn't.

No need to be a jerk about it. I didn't know there was an existing thread.

[ljbab728]

No need to be a jerk about it. I didn't know there was an existing thread.

My intention was absolutely not to be a jerk. I really wondered if your post was a joke since so many here have made previous jokes about demolition of that iconic building.

[Bullbear]

I kind of thought it was a joke as well. as it makes me cringe when someone says it should be demolished to open up real estate.. eeeeeeks

[Urbanized]

I've said before that this drumbeat will start at some point. To some people, no building is sacred, old = bad, and trying to saving an old building is the same thing as fighting progress.