Bricktown Shakeup

[Bellaboo]

Given recent history, people in OKC have a right to be paranoid when hick oilies start hiring architects.

Heee'ssss Back !

Great post Edgar. Not quite post of the year but close.

[warreng88]

Look, I love birthday cake too. But as a grown up I realize that too much birthday cake has consequences. If you're diabetic, if you have heart problems, you understand that you have to cut back on the birthday cake. When you are a grown up, you realize that it is a terrible idea to live on JUST birthday cake. Nightclubs are Bricktown's birthday cake. We need to cut back on the cake.

Would that make bars pie?

[Urbanized]

Yes. Delicious, tasty pie.

[Plutonic Panda]

Given recent history, people in OKC have a right to be paranoid when hick oilies start hiring architects.

What?

[warreng88]

Yes. Delicious, tasty pie.

Mmmmm, homemade pie... (cue Homer Simpson gargle noise)

[warreng88]

What?

Basically my response to every Edgar response ever...

[Just the facts]

No need to panic about Tapstone unless the term "sightlines" is used. Anyhow, that won't be a problem here since the build is already built to the sidewalk which provides the ultimate sightlines - and IS the solution which should have been employed at Sandridge instead of the approach they took.

[Drake]

Funny how some have morphed this into a Tom Ward buying up Bricktown discussion. Tom Ward has joined an established group and no more power than others in the group.

I would assume that Tom Ward is going to be quite busy doing what he does. That is the energy business.

Usually people don't start a new company from scratch and then dive head first in real estate development. Both are full time jobs

[HangryHippo]

Funny how some have morphed this into a Tom Ward buying up Bricktown discussion. Tom Ward has joined an established group and no more power than others in the group.

I would assume that Tom Ward is going to be quite busy doing what he does. That is the energy business.

Usually people don't start a new company from scratch and then dive head first in real estate development. Both are full time jobs

Odd because it seems to have been exactly what he did at SandRidge.

[Drake]

Odd because it seems to have been exactly what he did at SandRidge.

You don't see the difference in buying a building for his company and buying multiple speculative properties in Bricktown?

Actually that is not even true, because I don't believe Ward personally had any interest in the SandRidge building, just the company.

My main point is I would think Tom Ward has plenty on his plate with TapStone and is only part of an established group of investors.

[PhiAlpha]

You don't see the difference in buying a building for his company and buying multiple speculative properties in Bricktown?

Actually that is not even true, because I don't believe Ward personally had any interest in the SandRidge building, just the company.

My main point is I would think Tom Ward has plenty on his plate with TapStone and is only part of an established group of investors.

Upon re-reading your post, I realized that I misread it, making my post below pointless, but it took awhile to type so I'm leaving it lol.

.........

Ward owned the Sandridge building and all the property around it, some of which he knocked down, hence the concern from some here.

There are several differences though in each companies' situation at the times they decided to move to and expand their office space downtown. Ward did not start Sandridge from the ground up, he bought Riata Energy out of Amarillo which was already an established/publicly funded company of 50-100 people. He moved it here, changed the name, and began growing it. Aubrey McClendon purchased the Kerr-McGee properties and flipped them to Ward. So when Ward was planning the campus at Sandridge a few years after that, the company was already decently well established and growing.

In this case, he is building Tapstone from the ground up and financing it mostly by himself with help from a few private investors including George Kaiser. They didn't start out with much in the way of producing properties as a revenue stream, like sandridge did, even after the shell Kansas acreage acquisition (only a few producing wells and a bunch of acreage that is likely about to expire and will need to be extended or renewed), so they are going to have their hands full for a while.

Another difference is that Ward/Sandridge was the only owner of the old Kerr-McGee properties where as it sounds like Tom Ward is only a part owner in a group that is Acquiring the Bricktown properties. I'm sure in this case he just wanted some say in how the property would be developed around him and was willing to invest in its future for that right. Hopefully only having a part ownership of the group and historic preservation standards set forth in Bricktown will keep him in check here (assuming of course that he actually wants to demo anything which is a major assumption at this point).


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[dankrutka]

I ran by Club One15 yesterday and the sign clearly has removed the "restaurant" part of the subheading under their signs. I was pretty sure they tried to be a restaurant initially also, but I'm guessing it wasn't profitable and they abandoned it. What does that say for other clubs trying to be more diverse in their hours and offerings?

[David]

One individual example failing is not a condemnation of the entire idea.

[Pete]

Funny how some have morphed this into a Tom Ward buying up Bricktown discussion. Tom Ward has joined an established group and no more power than others in the group.

I would assume that Tom Ward is going to be quite busy doing what he does. That is the energy business.

Usually people don't start a new company from scratch and then dive head first in real estate development. Both are full time jobs

It's my fault for mentioning his name so prominently.

Whatever his involvement, I think it's minor.


Given what happened with the SandRidge properties, his name is always going to be a lightening rod.

[Pete]

One other thing that is different about this situation with Ward as compared to SandRidge...

SandRidge basically acquired all those properties in one big lump from Chesapeake, who had taken them on until they could find a good shepherd.

The only property that was acquired apart from that was the property at 4th & EK Gaylord.



Now, having said all that, they had very ambitious development plans that looked to be well beyond their own corporate needs, and this was all in the course of Ward having his hands full with SandRidge:

[bchris02]

One individual example failing is not a condemnation of the entire idea.

True. As more people are living in Bricktown and as more people are down there during the day, nightclubs doubling as restaurants during the day is much more likely to be successful.

[UnFrSaKn]

Developers set to buy and redevelop original Bricktown ?core? | News OK

[bchris02]

It looks to be pretty much what was reported here before, with the exception its not all being bought up by Tom Ward.

[Pete]

Martin said he and Burnett are the lead partners in a separate limited partnership that has a contract to buy the Karchmer and Tolbert properties next month and that it is not tied to the group that bought the Mideke Building. No demolitions or tenant changes are planned as part of the transaction.

This doesn't say who else is the the group led by Burnett & Martin.

More recently, the pair, along with partners Jeff Johnson and Tom Ward, purchased the district’s Mideke Building, 100 E Main

First time I've seen that Ward is part of the Mideke ownership group.

This is something new:

Martin said the TapWerks building, 121 E Sheridan Ave., will undergo an extensive upgrade to allow for development of a possible “speakeasy” style bar in the building’s basement and conversion of the rarely used third floor into event space.

[Urbanized]

Wait...I thought there was a temperance movement and a war on bars? Oh, actually that explains the speakeasy.

Seriously though, I've always thought that basement would make a cool spot.

[Pete]

Wait...I thought there was a temperance movement and a war on bars? Oh, actually that explains the speakeasy..

When/where did anyone say there was a war on bars??

The only thing that was discussed was getting rid of Club One15, which Steve himself wrote about previously.

[Urbanized]

There was some obvious concern in the club discussion that Tom Ward's influence was tipping Bricktown in a direction away from nightlife and entertainment and toward "office park" and "family friendly." Don't tell me you didn't read the same alarmist posts that I did.

[Pete]

There was some obvious concern in the club discussion that Tom Ward's influence was tipping Bricktown in a direction away from nightlife and entertainment and toward "office park" and "family friendly." Don't tell me you didn't read the same alarmist posts that I did.

I did but I don't tend to color entire discussions (now at close to 150 posts) by a few alarmist comments.

[Urbanized]

How about the very first post in this thread, Pete?

It looks like this may be a bigger shift than realized. This may be the end for Bricktown as OKC's entertainment district. I wonder if Tapwerks is also going to be shut down?

[Urbanized]

I did but I don't tend to color entire discussions (now at close to 150 posts) by a few alarmist comments.

I agree. I was joking, evidenced by my next statement that started "seriously though..."