How would you spend $25 million to improve the quality of life in Oklahoma City?

[Mesta Parker]

Surprised none of the local preservationists have suggested donating the money to Sandridge to upgrade the India Temple and KerMac buildings since we have been hearing for the last several months those buildings are vital to the quality of life in OKC.

[windowphobe]

If anyone's curious - and why should you be? - this is what I tweeted earlier:

Give $1 million to John Whetsel to go away and put the rest toward redesigning the bus routes.

[Spartan]

Surprised none of the local preservationists have suggested donating the money to Sandridge to upgrade the India Temple and KerMac buildings since we have been hearing for the last several months those buildings are vital to the quality of life in OKC.

Again, development loans. SR could put the buildings up for sell and let the free market turn that area of downtown into a vibrant, mixed-use district. The buildings could qualify for up to 50% in municipal loans, that would have to be paid back to the city in 8 years..and the city could then turn around and reissue the money once it is repaid. The gift that keeps on giving.

I agree with the development loans.

But, since all of Oklahoma City is always wishing for some upscale retail, I guess it could always be used to help lure some stores that Oklahoma does not have like:

Neiman Marcus
Nordstrom's
Ikea
etc....

This also is a good idea. Apparently somebody has been following the ULI report..

[OKCMallen]

Startup capital for best business venture proposals.

Great one!

[Easy180]

Voter approved sales tax. I promise to give more details later, but for now I am interested in hearing more ideas.

Btw, giving it back is a legitimate idea...

heck yeah...25 bucks per person would be life changing for sure

Spend it all making the area around I 40 and Bricktown look even nicer...We need that area to be our crown jewel for folks to stop off and spend

[TexaSooner]

Living in Houston I see a lot of similarities between Houston and OKC, obviously on a different proporotion. That said, my ideas come from many of the successful developments from Downtown Houston.

1) Subsidy to attract growing energy or engineering firms to downtown. (ie higher salaries, more jobs, more tax dollars)
2) Subsidy for convention center hotel
3) Entertainment - Downtown Aquarium would be a great addition to bricktown/ or riverfront
4) Retail/Entertainment - Subsidy for retail/entertainment development, with office/ residential incorporated. (Think Houston Pavilions)

I admire what OKC has accomplished in the last 10-15 years and look forward to the developments from the latest MAPS!

[Larry OKC]

mOKCie--what debt are you talking about? We don't have a municipal debt. And I know you wouldn't be suggesting that the objective of a community quality of life initiative should be to pay down the federal debt, I know that nobody would ever be that dense. ...

Do you want to explain what you mean by that?

[Larry OKC]

Again, development loans. SR could put the buildings up for sell and let the free market turn that area of downtown into a vibrant, mixed-use district. The buildings could qualify for up to 50% in municipal loans, that would have to be paid back to the city in 8 years..and the city could then turn around and reissue the money once it is repaid. The gift that keeps on giving.



This also is a good idea. Apparently somebody has been following the ULI report..

But I thought you were against corporate welfare? And IIRC correctly, the ULI folks said it will take $40M just to get ONE of the mentioned stores. Bass Pro anyone?

[Spartan]

Larry--going to assume you're about to bring up bond issues, which are indeed debt. However I view this differently because keeping up on our debt service is one of the first things that is always factored into our city budgets. That's why we have just about the highest credit rating out of cities in the country.

What I meant by the remark is that we don't have an operating deficit of any kind. (state law)

But I thought you were against corporate welfare? And IIRC correctly, the ULI folks said it will take $40M just to get ONE of the mentioned stores. Bass Pro anyone?

Good point, but I would hope that any kind of money thrown at a Nordstroms or Bloomingdale's comes with a great explanation of how we will get that money back in some form, and I would hope in more than just sales tax revenues. With development loans, the city would be repaid the money in total.

P.S. You just made a funny, you said "if I remember correctly correctly"

[JIMBO]

$25,000,000 in my bank account would definently improve my quality of life.

[Larry OKC]

Spartan, thanks for clarifying and am in agreement...my "funny" was unintentional but thank for noticing...LOL

[onthestrip]

But I thought you were against corporate welfare? And IIRC correctly, the ULI folks said it will take $40M just to get ONE of the mentioned stores. Bass Pro anyone?

I believe you are correct. At that particular ULI presentation I remember the number even being $45 million for what it would take to lure a Neiman or Nordstroms. Not money well spent.

[Spartan]

I believe you are correct. At that particular ULI presentation I remember the number even being $45 million for what it would take to lure a Neiman or Nordstroms. Not money well spent.

I think that what we need is more analysis on the issue. How many sales tax revenues would a Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's bring in? There is no way to tell right now what an elevated retail field would do here. There are no precedents.

We could be talking about getting shoppers from all new demographics..
--people at conventions
--people from OKC who shop in Dallas
--people from OK, KS, TX Pan, AR who would travel
--people driving through

If we could come close to breaking even, in my opinion, it would be worth it--as long as we could be guaranteed it would be a regular store, and that it wouldn't close for a very long time. The idea is that we'd be paying for the name recognition and what it would add to our city's profile, similar to how we subsidize the NBA because of how it elevates us as a community.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Use it in conjunction with the MAPS3 money targeted for trails and sidewalks to develop an alternative mobility network. Basically this would work to establish a pedestrian/bicycle links to centers of interest throughout the inner city. This area would be bounded by I-35 on the east, I-44 on the north and west, and I-240 on the south and would include connections across these interstate barriers (trying getting to Penn Square Mall on foot/bike from downtown).

The project would encourage the connectivity of urban neighborhoods, shopping districts, & public areas. This area could also be served with increased public transit density in the form of a improved bus system followed by an expansion of the new rail system in the future.

While I expect this in the far reaches of our city, I am consistently amazed at how pedestrian-unfriendly even our inner-city neighborhoods are.

[Kerry]

One thing I am noticing is the difference in people's ideas related to cause and effect. Money is best spent on the 'cause' side of the equation. The best ideas I have heard so far are 1) loans for in-fill development and 2) exansion of the street car system (and forget the link to WRWA - another poster was right - it needs to be something other than streetcar to WRWA).

As for in-fill loans - there would have to be some pretty strict guidelines on what is considered in-fill. I would hate to see SR take a $10 million tax payer funded loan to make the SR Commons project a reality.

[SkyWestOKC]

Kerry, reverse it around. What about a $10 million dollar grant to restore the buildings? Or at least one of them? Not trying to turn this into another SandRidge debate, just tossing out the idea. Keep everything not related to that question in the other thread.

[Platemaker]

ALL streetcar!

[Kerry]

Kerry, reverse it around. What about a $10 million dollar grant to restore the buildings? Or at least one of them? Not trying to turn this into another SandRidge debate, just tossing out the idea. Keep everything not related to that question in the other thread.

I had come up with an idea long ago to encourage high-rise development via a freeze in propery taxes. Something similar could be done here. Loan amounts would be based on the total sq footage of any redevelopment as long as the redevelopment replace at least 75% of existing sq footage (regardless of condition). For example. If you have a 100,000 sq foot building that is in some state of disrepair - you could tear it down to the ground as part of the redevelopment but you would have to build back 75,000 sq feet. The more you build the more you could borrow or get a better interest rate. If you have 100,000 sq feet and turn it into 150,000 sq feet then you could use the loan to cover a higher percentage of the development cost than someone only building 75,000 sq feet. I hope that makes sense.

[Spartan]

I had come up with an idea long ago to encourage high-rise development via a freeze in propery taxes. Something similar could be done here. Loan amounts would be based on the total sq footage of any redevelopment as long as the redevelopment replace at least 75% of existing sq footage (regardless of condition). For example. If you have a 100,000 sq foot building that is in some state of disrepair - you could tear it down to the ground as part of the redevelopment but you would have to build back 75,000 sq feet. The more you build the more you could borrow or get a better interest rate. If you have 100,000 sq feet and turn it into 150,000 sq feet then you could use the loan to cover a higher percentage of the development cost than someone only building 75,000 sq feet. I hope that makes sense.

Would you propose that with the $25 million?

To me, the point is that we just need to do something that can get some projects going WHILE we're working on this huge Project 180/Devon/MAPS 3/etc change that is causing so many developers to sit out. There is a real need to keep the momentum over, though, so that we aren't in the situation of "starting all over" with real estate development market that has been stagnant for a long period of time.

[OKCisOK4me]

I skipped over all the replies to make sure my idea was original. Kinda hard to do when you're looking for the end using only your peripheral vision!

Here's my idea: Put it toward fire & police/emergency services. That way all the anti Maps 3 whinos will quit griping and the rest of us can be comfortable knowing that we should be protected a little bit better from all the bad that happens.

[OKCisOK4me]

That could be cool. Would have to be very careful to not put Bricktown out of business while you do it. Make it a stress reliever/secondary option to The Brick, but don't make it better than Bricktown unless you want to see Bricktown fall on it's ass.

That's pretty easy to do. All you do is target the 30-40 year old crowd. This may be the land of young married couples but there area also plenty of still single or freshly divorced guys n' gals in this age range who are finding themselves again. Not to mention that this area is pretty much for well to do career oriented minds. Bricktown is aimed more as a touristy/family oriented entertainment district. I'm 32 and I don't go to Bricktown unless I absolutely have to. We just don't like dealing with all the 21-25 year olds (like we used to once be). Plus, Bricktown lost it's edge.

[OKCMallen]

That's pretty easy to do. All you do is target the 30-40 year old crowd. This may be the land of young married couples but there area also plenty of still single or freshly divorced guys n' gals in this age range who are finding themselves again. Not to mention that this area is pretty much for well to do career oriented minds. Bricktown is aimed more as a touristy/family oriented entertainment district. I'm 32 and I don't go to Bricktown unless I absolutely have to. We just don't like dealing with all the 21-25 year olds (like we used to once be). Plus, Bricktown lost it's edge.

Indeed. I'd take a couple of places and move them up to Midtown and be super happy.

[OKCisOK4me]

One thing I am noticing is the difference in people's ideas related to cause and effect. Money is best spent on the 'cause' side of the equation. The best ideas I have heard so far are 1) loans for in-fill development and 2) exansion of the street car system (and forget the link to WRWA - another poster was right - it needs to be something other than streetcar to WRWA).

As for in-fill loans - there would have to be some pretty strict guidelines on what is considered in-fill. I would hate to see SR take a $10 million tax payer funded loan to make the SR Commons project a reality.

Yes, I'm positive this was discussed in that long forgotten (thank God) Union Station thread. I proposed light rail heading south along the ROW of BNSF across the Oklahoma River then west along the Stillwater Central Rail line that as a previous poster mentioned (runs along Newcastle Road). I don't know how much it would cost to buy ROW property and lay new tracks but it would be a huge benefit because there will never be enough parking in front of WRWA. And if new tracks weren't laid, then they could do it how the new light rail system works down in Austin. Run light rail from 6am to 10pm and then run freight trains through the area overnight therefore eliminating any possible collisions.

[okcboy]

Outdoor Amphitheatre at the Downtown Airpark

[windowphobe]

It doesn't hurt that debt service is covered, not by sales-tax revenue, but by the city's small cut of the county property tax (usually in the vicinity of 16 mills). Property taxes aren't soaring, unless you just bought a house, but they didn't flatline the way sales taxes did.