ParcFirst (formerly Karchmer Garage)

[Pete]

BTW, I just looked at the agenda for the last city council meeting.

There were almost 150 items.

[Jersey Boss]

Sorry Jersey Boss I wasn't ignoring this post; I was rushing off to get my ears lowered and didn't have time to give it a worthwhile response.

I think I would need to answer your first question conditionally. That is, do I think the City is perfect and does everything in a way that I agree with? If that is they question I would say absolutely not. I am very much on record and outspoken here, on social media, in meetings both public and private, via communications with City Staff, Council representatives and even the Mayor taking issue with the City's approach to issues such as our land use, automobile prioritization, accessibility issues, streetlights, and sidewalk closures, willingness to require historic preservation and adaptive reuse of certain buildings, among many other things. I think at this point plenty of people probably think I'm half a crackpot (or maybe even full-crackpot) and dread hearing from me on some of these topics.

I stay very involved with these and other issues, and I won't lie; I routinely get frustrated by inertia, silo effect, turf battles and bureaucracy. I think this probably exists to some extent in every major city's government, so I just grit my teeth and try to remain dogged. This has resulted in plenty of successes, but of course also continual frustration.

If your question is, do I think that OKC's level of transparency, openness and respect for the interests of taxpayers is a rough approximation or better than most cities of its size or larger? In this case my answer is a definite yes. I believe the way things are handled here is very typical of most cities, and this applies to respect for and overall compliance with meeting laws in both letter and spirit, the creation of and application of incentives, and a litany of other areas of governance. I've also sat through many, many meetings where City Legal was in attendance, and I believe them to be VERY conservative and quick to speak up and advise staff or elected officials if they are treading in an area that is questionable from a legal or procedural standpoint. I don't believe for a second that the people I have seen would be complicit in demonstrably corrupt behavior.

I think if there is an area where our city is perhaps unusual it is that there is generally a very close alliance in purpose between the business community and city officials, which leads to very little public squabbling and/or dissent. This can be very powerful and accomplish great things, and you only have to take in the overall successes of MAPS and many other public/private efforts over the past 25 years to see this. I think much of this is cultural and can be traced back to bootstraps-based bust recoveries and even the bombing recovery, which serve to remind us that we are only one bad turn away from disaster and at the same time that we can accomplish most anything here by pulling together. At the same time it can leave dissenters feeling steamrolled. So I do believe that we need to always pay attention to the needs and desires of the entire community and make sure every voice is being heard and considered. I also think it is valuable to have cranky contrarians sifting through our business with a watchful eye.

Finally, if you are asking if I believe that overall our public officials are acting in what they believe is the best interest of the community they serve rather than in self interest or the interest of the few, I believe wholeheartedly the answer is yes. I've sat through way too many meetings, had way too many private conversations with the people involved in the running of our community to believe anything different. I think we are pretty blessed with a lot of highly qualified people who deeply believe in OKC and its potential, and the gravity of the roles they themselves play. I think bad actors, when they occur, are very much outliers.

Regarding your question addressing Mayor Holt's tweet, I must have missed that. Where can I find it?

Post # 68
If i misconstrued what was said or misunderstood what was posted I extend apologies.

"This is what Mayor Holt posted on Twitter when someone tagged him my my article post, asking why the city was selling:

"Well, first of all, “the city” doesn’t “want” to do anything yet. This story is just reporting preliminary conversations. All of this would have its day in front of the Council should it advance. "

That is simply not true.

There is a negotiated Memorandum of Understanding for the Santa Fe Garage that the coucil will be voting on next Tuesday. These are absolutely not "preliminary conversations" and Holt knows that because he has been briefed as well."

Thank you for the well thought out response.
There seems to be a tug of war between those who want more openness and transparency and those who feel that the openness and transparency is there and the fact that we have elected reps who conduct business in the best interest of the citizens.
I would like to ask you, Pete, and others who care to comment on this. Do you feel that the current form of governance of a part time weak mayor-city council form of government has been outgrown by the population and mult-million dollar budgets? Should OKC, Tulsa, Norman and any other cities with a pop of at least 100k be granted home rule? Is home rule something the state reps be championing or should the citizens petition for a constitutional amendment for this issue? Do you feel home rule is something that should be sought?
Thanks again.

[catch22]

Maybe the city needs a policy where any possible land transaction between the city and a private party over say $10 million must be presented at council for public comments, and then voted on a week or two later.

[Pete]

Introductory memo for the Karchmer agreement headed to city council on Tuesday.

Note that the city would bear the cost of a pedestrian connection (underground or overhead) to span the RR tracks:

************

Memorandum of Agreement with Bricktown Parking Investors, LLC and BancFirst Corporation to set
forth terms and conditions for the sale of the Bricktown Parking Lot, located east of the Burlington
Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks between NE 2nd Street and East Main Street, $2,400,000. Ward 7.

Background
The City of Oklahoma City owns a parcel of land in west Bricktown
located between the BNSF railroad tracks on the west, Walnut St. Bridge
on the east, NE 2nd Street to the north and East Main Street on the South.
This property, through the OCPPA, is leased to Bricktown Parking
Investors, LLC, on which Bricktown Parking Investors have developed a
surface parking.

In 2014, a study lead by COTPA, ACOG and The City of Oklahoma City
with URS consultants (now AECOM), examined the property described
above that is leased to Bricktown Parking Investors to identify the areas
of the property that should be permanently preserved as a future railroad
right of way in anticipation of future potential train service to the Santa
Fe Intermodal Hub, specifically commuter rail and high speed rail
approaching the hub from the east using existing ROW and curving to the
south to serve future platforms at the Santa Fe Hub.

The Agreement sets forth the framework and terms under which a to-be
formed limited liability company will be formed, and which company
will be owned in part by Bricktown Parking Investors, LLC, and in part
by BancFirst Corporation or its designated affiliate, and in part by
BancFirst Corporation or its designated affiliate. The limited liability
company would like to purchase the land where the existing surface
parking lot is located to build an 800-900 space structured parking garage
in an area on the parcel that would not obstruct or be located in the future
rail road right of way. The impetus for the construction of a new parking
garage is BancFirst’s proposed purchase of the Cotter Tower. Although
BancFirst is committed to jointly purchase the Santa Fe parking garage
with Continental Resources, Inc. additional parking beyond what is
available in the Santa Fe parking garage to BancFirst is needed to address
the Tower’s full potential. BancFirst intends to satisfy its full parking
needs by occupying a significant portion of the new garage. It is
anticipated that other users of the garage will be surrounding hotels,
downtown business and the public.

BancFirst’s due diligence period for purchasing the Cotter Tower has
begun and an important part of their due diligence is to secure a
permanent parking solution for the building, they, in partnership with
Bricktown Parking Investors, LLC, have requested the City Council
approve a Memorandum of Agreement outlining the terms of a sales
transaction to be negotiated between the City and the to-be formed
limited liability company. The Memorandum of Agreement includes a
sales price of $1.4 million, or the current appraised value, as well as the
obligation to create a permanent easement to The City of Oklahoma City
to protect the future railroad right of way, and a potential commitment
from the City to construct a pedestrian connection from the west side of
the BNSF railroad tracks to the Santa Fe parking garage for access to the
underground system.

[HOT ROD]

im honestly SICK of these pedestrian bridges.

Goodness sakes, does EVERY single garage in downtown OKC need to have a bridge to another building/garage? Can't people walk outside already???

Even though it may be costly, I say the city ONLY accept this if it is to build a tunnel. NO MORE SKY BRIDGES in DOWNTOWN OKC!!!!!

[Urban Pioneer]

This would be a great time to re-do EK Gaylord to make it more pedestrian friendly. I say that half-jokingly because 30 years ago would have been a great time. Regardless, the street level pedestrian connections in this are should be made safe and more friendly.

[Pete]

This would be a great time to re-do EK Gaylord to make it more pedestrian friendly. I say that half-jokingly because 30 years ago would have been a great time. Regardless, the street level pedestrian connections in this are should be made safe and more friendly.

That was to be part of Project 180 and it was cut, apart from the section in front of Santa Fe Station.

There are no plans to do this now.

[GoldFire]

That was to be part of Project 180 and it was cut, apart from the section in front of Santa Fe Station.

There are no plans to do this now.

That is frustrating considering that was one of the stretches that really needed it the most, considering a total lack of sidewalk on a huge stretch of the street.

[Pete]

That is frustrating considering that was one of the stretches that really needed it the most, considering a total lack of sidewalk on a huge stretch of the street.

It's my biggest gripe about P180 other than going way over budget and only completing about 60% of what was promised.

The city did a bunch of streets in west downtown before telling city council they were close to exhausting the budget. By the time this came out, there wasn't enough money left in the budget to do any of EKG so it was completely dropped.

The only reason the SF stretch was done was due to a federal grant that was tied into the station being a transit hub.

[Urban Pioneer]

That was to be part of Project 180 and it was cut, apart from the section in front of Santa Fe Station.

There are no plans to do this now.

Yes. I am aware of that. I just thought we could assign funding from the MAPS short term extension to rectify this. Correct me if I am wrong, but there aren’t specific assignments for all of those Street and sidewalk goals yet.

[Pete]

Yes. I am aware of that. I just thought we could assign funding from the MAPS short term extension to rectify this. Correct me if I am wrong, but there aren’t specific assignments for all of those Street and sidewalk goals yet.

Wasn't arguing your point, just saying it was once planned, then it was cut, now I'm not aware of any plans.

Could always be done down the line but there doesn't seem to be anything in the works.

[baralheia]

im honestly SICK of these pedestrian bridges.

Goodness sakes, does EVERY single garage in downtown OKC need to have a bridge to another building/garage? Can't people walk outside already???

Even though it may be costly, I say the city ONLY accept this if it is to build a tunnel. NO MORE SKY BRIDGES in DOWNTOWN OKC!!!!!

There would be one relatively minor benefit if there was a skybridge here connecting the Karchmer Garage to the Santa Fe Garage... Railfans would love it! It would be pretty awesome to have a bird's eye view of trains on the BNSF viaduct.

I'm not saying that the skybridge should be built - I'd prefer it if it wasn't - but still, that would be one cool thing about it.

[T. Jamison]

I saw this question in Steve's chat. I thought I would answer the question and prevent any additional confusion. The question also sounds like may have been asked by an OKC Talk user.

1) Valuation consists of three interdependent approaches that are utilized to value real estate: the Cost Approach, the Sales Comparison Approach and the Income Capitalization Approach. The methodology utilized is typical and as I'll explain, probably the most reliable indicator of value in this situation. Appraisers value property rights. Value is derived from the utility provided by the rights conveyed. It's very important to consider the rights conveyed when discussing this transaction. This is not a typical sale due to the City retaining an easement for the rail right-of-way.

The Sales Comparison Approach would be applicable if the sale included all of the rights to the property. Because the city is retaining the rights to the rail right-of-way, an appraiser would be hard pressed to find sales of properties with similar characteristic to provide a reliable indication of value. In addition, if an appraiser utilized land sales in Bricktown, the most recent sales would be from 2014 and 2015 and most of those sales, (with the exception of the Steelyard Hotels) have seen little to no movement since they were purchased. The Sales Comparison Approach is the most commonly utilized approach, but in this situation looking at sales may not produce the most reliable opinion of value.

The Cost Approach doesn't tell you anything in this situation. You need a land value (typically utilizing the Sales Comparison Approach), and then add the cost to replace the improvements. That doesn't really help, so you can throw that approach out. The Cost Approach is typically useful if the property is proposed, under construction, or relatively new.

The Income Capitalization Approach is applicable because regardless of the rail right-of-way the most likely use is an income producing parking lot until sufficient demand for a higher and better use. An appraiser can capitalize the income stream utilizing typical rates of return on similar properties. It's the only option that can produce a reliable indication of value in this situation. The Income Approach is typically used for leased properties and probably the second most utilized approach.

2) I think there is a simple economic explanation and the idea that Cotter Tower has the City over a barrel is flawed.

My theory is that the value some assume the property is worth includes full right and title, but the City is only selling some of the rights and title. The City is retaining an easement for the future commuter rail right-of-way which has value. I think some people are underestimating the value of those rights, and the costs they impose on the rights conveyed to Karchmer.

[Pete]

Lackmeyer also said this:

It's easy - and lazy - to portray this as "is this the best sales price for the city?" when these matters are really far more complicated.

What is easy and lazy is to merely repeat the pitch the city is making for selling a property for a very low price and to state binary assertions like he makes here:

You have an aging Cotter tower and we have a chance for BancFirst to buy it and save it from what would be a free-fall if it fell into the wrong hands.

There were many buyers who bid on Cotter Tower, not just BancFirst. And as a reporter it's your job to present the full story by doing some actual homework instead of waiting for other outlets (such as OKCTalk) to tip you off that this deal was going down in the first place -- completely in secret -- not do any real research or legwork, but still feel entitled to use a huge platform to make strong statements on the entire subject.

And it's particularly bad for the community when someone with that type of exposure uses his influence to insult the idea of asking highly relevant questions and instead merely advances the public relations of government bodies you are supposed to be covering in an objective way.


In many ways the Oklahoman's relationship with City Hall is completely inappropriate. They are often fed information and stories in advance in what is an unethical practice called Access Journalism. And it shows in many of the stories they 'report', including this one.

[Geographer]

*mic drop GIF*

[sroberts24]

Um another great example why OKCTalk needs a “like” button.

[Pete]

Century-old Bricktown warehouses to be demolished

Yesterday, the Bricktown Urban Design Committee voted to approve the demolition of two abandoned century-old warehouses.

The structures owned by Don Karchmer are located at 1 E Main and have not been occupied for several decades.

When the application was filed last month, Karchmer told OKCTalk that the buildings were unsound and very difficult to secure. He also mentioned that the property was in the path of a future rail line and would need to eventually come down.

Karchmer operates the surface parking directly to the north on behalf of the city of Oklahoma City and has an agreement with the city and BancFirst to develop that lot into 800 to 900 space parking structure which would likely be connected via a skywalk or lower level tunnel to the Santa Fe Garage on the other side of the BNSF railroad tracks.

The parking development agreement was forged in conjunction with the BancFirst purchasing the 36-story former Cotter Ranch Tower last summer. At the same time, the bank and Continental Resources negotiated the purchase of the Santa Fe Garage from the city.

Karchmer indicated he had no plans to develop the soon to be vacant warehouse property and that there is no set timetable for the parking structure.

[Pete]

Looks like they are getting close to demo:

[Ross MacLochness]

It's great that we're building so much more parking. Did you know that during peak times there are 101 football fields worth of unused parking spaces in Downtown OKC? (according to the parking study recently completed by the city)

[Pete]

It's great that we're building so much more parking. Did you know that during peak times there are 101 football fields worth of unused parking spaces in Downtown OKC? (according to the parking study recently completed by the city)

This was the deal the city struck with BancFirst and Harold Hamm and our mayor was very much in the middle of it. This in addition to selling them the massive Santa Fe Garage at a bargain price.

What big corporations want in this town, they get.

[Pete]

The buildings on this site have been demolished.

[Plutonic Panda]

I wouldn’t be as mad about this if it weren’t for the fact there was a massive fu€king parking lot behind it. I don’t understand why we must tear down every old building before we utilize vacant and parking lots first.

[HangryHippo]

I wouldn’t be as mad about this if it weren’t for the fact there was a massive fu€king parking lot behind it. I don’t understand why we must tear down every old building before we utilize vacant and parking lots first.

This.

[amocore]

I wouldn’t be as mad about this if it weren’t for the fact there was a massive fu€king parking lot behind it. I don’t understand why we must tear down every old building before we utilize vacant and parking lots first.

If I understand correctly, the parking wont be built where the warehouse was but north of it, where it is surface parking for now.
This warehouse needed to go and was on the owner of the parking land.

[dankrutka]

I've long thought the massive, sprawling parking lot between Bricktown and Deep Deuce offers such an incredible opportunity for residential and to connect the two districts. At least if they're going to build garages then I'd love to see the surface parking turned into developments...