Heritage (formerly Journal Record Building)

[warreng88]

A new story for an old building: Sixth floor of The Heritage to be all glass

By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record May 19, 2016

OKLAHOMA CITY – Heritage Trust is planning about $40 million in renovations to the former Journal Record Building, now called The Heritage, at NW Sixth Street and N. Robinson Avenue, including the addition of an all-glass sixth floor. Robyn Zurfluh with Smith Dalia Architecture presented the addition at Thursday’s Downtown Design Review Committee meeting.

She said the addition is needed to make the building’s finance structure work.

The sixth floor will not be centered on top of the building because the unusual structural grid makes that impossible.

Built in 1923, it served as a Masonic Lodge, then the Home State Theatre, and later the office for the Journal Record Publishing Co. In 1995, it was in the backdrop of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing coverage.

Additionally, Zurfluh said, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum leaders didn’t want the addition to disrupt the site line from the memorial grounds. Therefore, the addition was set farther to the north, making it asymmetrical on the front.

The glass addition will provide light to the fifth-floor offices. Closed-off windows on the south and north sides will be reopened, and the front doors are being removed and replaced with doors more in keeping with the historic building.

“I’m very appreciative of the effort to bring the main entry back to the historical entry,” said Cory Baitz, DDRC member.

The Planning Department’s historic preservation officer, Katie Friddle, said she did not have any objection to the addition. She said her only concern was its size and how it fit in proportion to the existing building.

Although the plan calls for nothing but office space, DDRC Chairperson Betsy Brunsteter said the addition reminded her of additions to historic buildings in Washington, D.C., which are used as restaurants. She said she appreciated that it did not match the historic façade because then it was clear it was an addition.

Heritage Trust Co. co-chairman Bond Payne said construction on the new floor will start in July, and he expects it to be finished by early 2017. He said the building is 30 percent occupied, with tenants including his company and Saxum public relations firm. He said he expects occupancy to be at 50 percent by the time construction starts.

[Pete]

Work has finally started on this project.

[John]

Did they really take up the entire sidewalk with the construction fence?

[sooner88]

Did they really take up the entire sidewalk with the construction fence?

Yep. I typically run down that sidewalk and they have the entire sidewalk blocked

[Pete]

Yep. I typically run down that sidewalk and they have the entire sidewalk blocked

Were you running in this area Sunday around 10:30AM?

[sooner88]

Were you running in this area Sunday around 10:30AM?

Nope, not this weekend.

[Pete]

Renovation work has revealed the original sign:

[Pete]

Parking garage planned for Journal Record building

Plans have been submitted to construct a 420-space parking garage across the street from the Journal Record building which is currently under renovation.



Now dubbed The Heritage, the remodeled structure will add a glass top floor and be fully redone inside and out.

The $33.2 million project received $4.75 million in tax increment financing part of which to go towards the parking structure, which will be located on the northeast corner of NW 5th and Robinson and adjacent to the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

Smith Dalia Architects of Atlanta is the designer for the garage and the building.

[Anonymous.]

So not only is the garage completely different, they are keeping the prime corner as a surface lot for "future" building? Is there an indication of what the future building would be?

[Pete]

This was an earlier image and seems to show an office building on that remaining surface lot.

It also seems to closely mimic the new garage design.

[Ross MacLochness]

So no retail component? Really baffles me considering the amount of people that visit the area daily and the fact that there will be a streetcar stop a block away. Here's hoping the future development on the surface lot incorporates at least some sore of street level interaction.

[Eddie1]

As far as parking garages go that's very nice; love the sandstone and black offset.

[HangryHippo]

As far as parking garages go that's very nice; love the sandstone and black offset.

Agreed. It's too bad there's no retail component. I'd love to see the building from Pete's post (#110) built!

[dankrutka]

Yep, the lack of any retail or street level presence makes this a failure in my opinion.

[Spartan]

I don't think other cities would allow this fronting the National Memorial without retail, but it all goes back to whatever the zoning/code requires on this site.

If 100% parking is allowed by the zoning, then this is it. If not, then there's a lot of wiggle room, and somebody is going to get that wiggle room (either the city or the developer)

[Laramie]

My question, how well do we support our downtown street level stores? The metro concourse captures its share of OKC's downtown retail.

[Spartan]

OKC isn't even trying to make CBD retail work. That said, we have some pretty decent locally-based retail in Plaza, A-Alley, and other ancillary districts that make up for it, but as far as the CBD goes, nobody can really argue OKC is even trying. The promoted highest-and-best use is SandRidge Commons and Devon garages.

Even Chicago's Magnificent Mile has parking garages here and there. You don't even notice them because they're screened and there's a ribbon of consistent ground floor retail with critical mass that you're more focused on. They didn't always have "magnificent" retail on Michigan Ave, but they started from somewhere, made a plan, and stuck to it.

[HOT ROD]

excellent points ^^.

I've always suggested that OKC develop and stick to master plans WRT downtown development. ....

[Spartan]

I'd also point out that this garage is incredibly ugly and value engineered. On one exterior side it looks like they have no screening. Even "temporary" facades (I assume they hope the corner will develop) should have decent screening.

It's little details like this that don't actually save a lot, but bring down the quality of the physical environment, and consequently constrain the investment potential of CBD real estate. That's also why Brockton/Deep Deuce/A-Alley/Midtown are more interesting and profitable than the CBD. The market has a scarcity of urban real estate that hasn't been marred by ugly parking garages. That's why there's a wasteland surrounding all the transportation land uses around Hudson//Harvey/RSK/3rd/4th/etc in the northwest corner of the CBD. There would be another dead zone in the southeast corner of the CBD if it weren't for the BNSF tracks.

I've said this before but other cities just don't tolerate bad parking garages. They have had to strictly enforce tough standards to slightly elevate the design quality. A parking garage makes so much revenue that it can't incorporate other (even profitable) uses. Said other uses are only "money losers" to the extent that you can't just park cars in the storefronts. That's why the city has to enact AND ENFORCE strong design standards for them, or else they will be built to absolutely maximize profits. Nobody goes into the parking business because they think it's beautiful or cool.

[Ross MacLochness]

The garage will be up for review at the Downtown Design Review Committee meeting this Thursday at 10:00 am. If you aren't happy with the design of the garage please attend the and let your voice be heard.

[BoulderSooner]

A few things. This garage won't front the memorial.

This is not in the CBD.

This is imho an attractive garage.

This is not someone going into the "parking business". This is to support an office building.

[warreng88]

Parking garage owners favor increased capacity downtown

By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record October 17, 2016

OKLAHOMA CITY – The parking capacity in downtown may have increased a bit, but garage operators say the area needs to prepare for growth.

Oklahoma City’s municipal parking garages are at 95 percent of capacity.

The Century Center garage is 136 percent occupied. The Cox Center garage is at 128 percent of capacity, and the Santa Fe parking garage is at 106 percent.

The new Arts District Garage is only at 50 percent of capacity; there are 376 monthly parking spaces still available.

Embark OKC Marketing Coordinator Megan White said that when the city started work on the garage, the economy was different. Since then, some companies have laid off employees. The city government has been under a hiring freeze since November 2015.

“We are actively trying to increase the usage of that garage,” White said. “On the east side of the central business district, we’re a lot fuller. We’re trying to shift those parkers around if we can.”

She said the city is considering some social media campaigns to direct people who attend a downtown event to consider the Arts District Garage.

The parking saturation at the downtown garages could further decline as two more structures are under construction, connected to the Bank of Oklahoma Tower. Those garages have 757,000 square feet of parking and 1,800 parking places.

When the Bank of Oklahoma Tower project was being considered, city committees criticized the parking space. But the city was assured that tenants in the OGE Energy Plaza tower would use those spaces. The OGE Energy Plaza building was put on hold earlier this year.

Another parking garage is being considered this week by the Downtown Design Review Committee. The 113 NW Fifth St. garage is five stories tall and measures 133,360 square feet. It will serve as The Heritage Building’s parking facility. Atlanta-based Smith Dalia Architects designed the building.

Irish Realty founder John Kennedy has owned the Main Street Parking Garage for 22 years. He said he supports more parking structures downtown because he wants people to have a good experience when they come to the area, and part of that experience is being able to find parking. The Main Street Parking Garage is at capacity, and has been for the last 20 years, he said.

“We’re currently watching our capacity closely because of the First National (Center) rebirth,” Kennedy said. “(Developer) Gary Brooks and I are discussing what space he may need on our top level to stage some redevelopment work. We want to be supportive of First National. But that (staging work) won’t affect any of our current parkers.”

He said he thinks downtown Oklahoma City will continue to need more parking, and the time is now to build it.

“Oklahoma City shouldn’t wait until its parking is severely tight to plan and construct new spaces,” he said. “The development of each new parking structure takes a lot of time.”

Newmark Grubb Levy Strange Beffort CEO of Investments Mark Beffort said the firm’s two garages have a waiting list for reserved spaces. The firm owns City Center East and Leadership Square, totaling about 1,000 spots.

The City Center East garage is between Oklahoma Tower and the Devon Energy Center

“I do think we have a little bit of capacity within our parking garages, but not a lot,” Beffort said. “We’ve had a little settling out. We can oversell by more than that, but we don’t want to overtax our garage too much. We also want to have capacity to offer for businesses interested in the vacant space in our office buildings.”

[Pete]

[Pete]

The garage design was approved today by the DDRC.

[kevinpate]

Oklahoma City’s municipal parking garages are at 95 percent of capacity.

The Century Center garage is 136 percent occupied. The Cox Center garage is at 128 percent of capacity, and the Santa Fe parking garage is at 106 percent.

The new Arts District Garage is only at 50 percent of capacity; there are 376 monthly parking spaces still available.

Seems like some folks might jump at the chance to switch garage locations.