Scissortail Park

[catch22]

That's the part that really bothers me.

I definitely have a beef over this.

[jonny d]

Why couldn't the city obtain that lot that is causing so much heartburn by the people on this board?

[d-usa]

I don’t have a bone in this, but I think it is used by the business to move trucks around and no matter how they sliced it they just couldn’t get a well done deal that left everybody feeling tender hearted.

[catch22]

Why couldn't the city obtain that lot that is causing so much heartburn by the people on this board?

While I don’t have the exact figures in front of me, the city offered, let’s say $5 for the lot since it is undeveloped and that is the market cost of the land. The meat company needs that lot to back trailers into its facility, and thus feels the lot is worth $15. Neither party is budging.

[Pete]

[PaddyShack]

From this angle our skyline looks rather bland... Like the progress on the cafe building though

[Johnb911]

While I don’t have the exact figures in front of me, the city offered, let’s say $5 for the lot since it is undeveloped and that is the market cost of the land. The meat company needs that lot to back trailers into its facility, and thus feels the lot is worth $15. Neither party is budging.

IIRC they said if the lot goes, they have to go, which means they would need a new building and would have to bring it up to all sorts of code that they're grandfathered around in their current location/setup. So to build new would be a lot more expensive and they want the city to fund it in exchange for the lot.

[Romulack]

I don’t have a bone in this, but I think it is used by the business to move trucks around and no matter how they sliced it they just couldn’t get a well done deal that left everybody feeling tender hearted.

I don't see why the meat company couldn't have figured out another way to get their meat in and out of there.

[jonny d]

I don't see why the meat company couldn't have figured out another way to get their meat in and out of there.

If it ain't broke" seems to apply.

[Pete]

I don't see why the meat company couldn't have figured out another way to get their meat in and out of there.

They could have but the new work would have triggered necessary compliance with a bunch of new regulations in their industry so what seemed simple was going to cost them tons, which is why they were asking for so much money.

[David]

Even with being legally grandfathered in, the idea of a meat company intentionally operating outside of modern regulations for their industry makes me hope I never end up eating 'meat' sourced from them.

[T. Jamison]

Scissortail Park, neighbors working out growing pains
By: Brian Brus The Journal Record August 29, 2018 0

OKLAHOMA CITY – Cusack Meats is about to become the best-positioned steak-cutting business in Oklahoma City.

From a bird’s-eye view, the meat-processing company is one of the more easily defined elements of the southern side of Scissortail Park, the 70-acre signature project of the MAPS 3 sales tax issue. One strip of the lower park will run east-west along Interstate 40 from S. Robinson Avenue to S. Walker Avenue; the other strip will run north-south between S. Robinson Avenue and S. Harvey Avenue. As it stands now, the Cusack property looks like a chunk missing from the leg of an inverted letter L on the map.

It’s a position Cusack didn’t want, but he’s willing to roll with the punches.

“Yes, we had our eyes set on relocating to some property farther south, and we went to the extent of drawing up plans and looking at the land,” Cusack said. “But, then, I don’t know. The city decided they didn’t need this land after all.

“So here we are. And that’s fine by us,” he said. “We’re going to be cutting steaks and making hams and smoking turkeys and doing the same thing we’ve been doing for 85 years.”

When voters approved a temporary penny sales tax at the end of 2009, a large central park was one of the projects promised. The park would be broken into two chunks: 40 acres on the north side of the interstate, referred to as the upper park, and 30 acres running from I-40 south to the Oklahoma River, the lower park. The entire park will cost $132 million.

The park project, which was formally named following a social media contest, also fits into a larger plan of redeveloping the city’s core. Years earlier, the state Department of Transportation moved I-40 several miles closer to the river and helped Oklahoma City convert the previous route to a new main street into downtown, Oklahoma Boulevard. The Core-to-Shore properties in the lower park area are mostly auto salvage, repair and storage businesses.

Cathy O’Connor, president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, said the intent of identifying the Core-to-Shore reinvestment area is to create a series of active, high-density and high-quality, mixed-use, urban districts as under a framework adopted by the Oklahoma City Council in 2008 and supported by tax increment finance districts, or TIFs. The Alliance is the managing agency of the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority, which acts on City Hall’s behalf.

City Hall broke ground on the upper park a year ago. According to Oklahoma County Assessor records, Oklahoma City OCURA has also acquired the parcels necessary to move ahead with the lower park, although online mapping information still shows old company names for those sites – Bethany Import Auto Salvage Yard at Robinson and SW 13th Street, for example, and Leonard’s Salvage across the street.

On Tuesday, City Council members received an update on upper park design elements and progress. Amenities such as ponds, trails, performance stages and large sports fields will be set within a mosaic of a native woodland, wetlands and prairies. The upper park is closer to downtown, so it will have a more formal design and intensive programming, officials said.

In the lower park, the Hargreaves Design team issued a statement saying, “Dispersed program nodes strengthen the connection between downtown and river, while acting as neighborhood park to the surrounding established communities. The lower park is characterized by more naturalistic landscapes evoking Oklahoma’s distinctive regional context and, while it includes some recreational facilities, it is intended to be more passive.”

William Poe, owner of A&A Auto Salvage, 1300 S. Robinson Ave., directly to the east of the park, said he’s looking forward to seeing the park built out and hasn’t had any buyout offers yet. He simply wants the work finished so business can continue.

Jerry Jay, who owns and operates Jerry’s Auto Body & Paint, 1112 S. Robinson Ave., said he’s received several unacceptable offers from private parties to buy his property. Jay, who has operated in the area for 46 years, said he’s going to patiently wait to see what develops as the park gets closer to opening, as he expects the value of his business will become more obvious.

“Until park construction begins, we probably won’t see much,” O’Connor said of plays by land developers in the area.

Cusack said that over the last eight years, City Hall representatives have never made an overt offer for his business. City Manager Jim Couch said the city was only interested in part of Cusack’s property – empty parking lot space used for turning semi-trucks around for dock loading – and buying the rest of the business made no sense, particularly since the plant’s price tag exceeded $7 million.

Couch said Wednesday the missing piece isn’t really missing at all; city officials are not bemoaning what can’t be.

“I think it’s going to be a fabulous park as designed,” Couch said. “It isn’t as we originally envisioned, but because of the circumstances – and I can’t say that I totally agreed with (Cusack) about giving up part of the parcel – we designed around it. It’s not incomplete.”

And Cusack, although frustrated for lack of a deal to help the park, said he has nothing in mind other than to continue business as usual. He’s open to alternatives.

“Just less than two weeks ago, I talked with Jim Couch to see if the city had any interests before I carried on with some developers,” Cusack said. “I wanted the city to have the last shot. He said, ‘No, sir, it’s your property; do with it what you will.’”

The project timeline estimates the start of the lower park construction by end of 2019 and a grand opening toward the end of 2021.

[TheTravellers]

Even with being legally grandfathered in, the idea of a meat company intentionally operating outside of modern regulations for their industry makes me hope I never end up eating 'meat' sourced from them.

Fantastic point. I assume they pass whatever kind of inspections are done nowadays (which is probably way less intensive than it has been in the past with all the budget cuts to the USDA and self-policing now being done), but it still makes me uncomfortable. I looked at their printed catalog and don't think I eat anything by them, but not totally sure who they sell to. Does anybody know their customer list - is it grocery stores, restaurants, mail-order, ...?

[hoya]

If I was the city, I'd go full Project 180 on Harvey Street near the southern part of the park. Rip it all up, make sure it gets replaced sometime around 2025.

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

^^ Then dig it up again for street car construction ��

[GoldFire]

[Heysloth]

Scissortail Park, neighbors working out growing pains
By: Brian Brus The Journal Record August 29, 2018 0

OKLAHOMA CITY – Cusack Meats is about to become the best-positioned steak-cutting business in Oklahoma City.

From a bird’s-eye view, the meat-processing company is one of the more easily defined elements of the southern side of Scissortail Park, the 70-acre signature project of the MAPS 3 sales tax issue. One strip of the lower park will run east-west along Interstate 40 from S. Robinson Avenue to S. Walker Avenue; the other strip will run north-south between S. Robinson Avenue and S. Harvey Avenue. As it stands now, the Cusack property looks like a chunk missing from the leg of an inverted letter L on the map.

It’s a position Cusack didn’t want, but he’s willing to roll with the punches.

“Yes, we had our eyes set on relocating to some property farther south, and we went to the extent of drawing up plans and looking at the land,” Cusack said. “But, then, I don’t know. The city decided they didn’t need this land after all.

“So here we are. And that’s fine by us,” he said. “We’re going to be cutting steaks and making hams and smoking turkeys and doing the same thing we’ve been doing for 85 years.”

When voters approved a temporary penny sales tax at the end of 2009, a large central park was one of the projects promised. The park would be broken into two chunks: 40 acres on the north side of the interstate, referred to as the upper park, and 30 acres running from I-40 south to the Oklahoma River, the lower park. The entire park will cost $132 million.

The park project, which was formally named following a social media contest, also fits into a larger plan of redeveloping the city’s core. Years earlier, the state Department of Transportation moved I-40 several miles closer to the river and helped Oklahoma City convert the previous route to a new main street into downtown, Oklahoma Boulevard. The Core-to-Shore properties in the lower park area are mostly auto salvage, repair and storage businesses.

Cathy O’Connor, president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, said the intent of identifying the Core-to-Shore reinvestment area is to create a series of active, high-density and high-quality, mixed-use, urban districts as under a framework adopted by the Oklahoma City Council in 2008 and supported by tax increment finance districts, or TIFs. The Alliance is the managing agency of the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority, which acts on City Hall’s behalf.

City Hall broke ground on the upper park a year ago. According to Oklahoma County Assessor records, Oklahoma City OCURA has also acquired the parcels necessary to move ahead with the lower park, although online mapping information still shows old company names for those sites – Bethany Import Auto Salvage Yard at Robinson and SW 13th Street, for example, and Leonard’s Salvage across the street.

On Tuesday, City Council members received an update on upper park design elements and progress. Amenities such as ponds, trails, performance stages and large sports fields will be set within a mosaic of a native woodland, wetlands and prairies. The upper park is closer to downtown, so it will have a more formal design and intensive programming, officials said.

In the lower park, the Hargreaves Design team issued a statement saying, “Dispersed program nodes strengthen the connection between downtown and river, while acting as neighborhood park to the surrounding established communities. The lower park is characterized by more naturalistic landscapes evoking Oklahoma’s distinctive regional context and, while it includes some recreational facilities, it is intended to be more passive.”

William Poe, owner of A&A Auto Salvage, 1300 S. Robinson Ave., directly to the east of the park, said he’s looking forward to seeing the park built out and hasn’t had any buyout offers yet. He simply wants the work finished so business can continue.

Jerry Jay, who owns and operates Jerry’s Auto Body & Paint, 1112 S. Robinson Ave., said he’s received several unacceptable offers from private parties to buy his property. Jay, who has operated in the area for 46 years, said he’s going to patiently wait to see what develops as the park gets closer to opening, as he expects the value of his business will become more obvious.

“Until park construction begins, we probably won’t see much,” O’Connor said of plays by land developers in the area.

Cusack said that over the last eight years, City Hall representatives have never made an overt offer for his business. City Manager Jim Couch said the city was only interested in part of Cusack’s property – empty parking lot space used for turning semi-trucks around for dock loading – and buying the rest of the business made no sense, particularly since the plant’s price tag exceeded $7 million.

Couch said Wednesday the missing piece isn’t really missing at all; city officials are not bemoaning what can’t be.

“I think it’s going to be a fabulous park as designed,” Couch said. “It isn’t as we originally envisioned, but because of the circumstances – and I can’t say that I totally agreed with (Cusack) about giving up part of the parcel – we designed around it. It’s not incomplete.”

And Cusack, although frustrated for lack of a deal to help the park, said he has nothing in mind other than to continue business as usual. He’s open to alternatives.

“Just less than two weeks ago, I talked with Jim Couch to see if the city had any interests before I carried on with some developers,” Cusack said. “I wanted the city to have the last shot. He said, ‘No, sir, it’s your property; do with it what you will.’”

The project timeline estimates the start of the lower park construction by end of 2019 and a grand opening toward the end of 2021.

I bet he holds out and sells to a private developer. Imagine your apartment building or resturant/brewery at that location. Will be able to get 7 million once everything around them develops. Really cant blame either side. The property is worth much more to Cusak than the city. I agree though that an obvious issue is that for 80 years these guys have avoided updates so they wouldn't have to comply with modern safety standards.

[Dustin]

It's amazing how many people are left out of the loop.

https://twitter.com/ryanaustindunn/s...372114438?s=19

[shawnw]

You have to not only be not trying but completely ignoring information all around you to be that "left out".

[Anonymous.]

I would bet a huge number of people have no clue about the Scissortail, Convention Center, even Omni coming here. I am constantly having to explain to people what MAPS is (specifically the streetcar project) and how MAPS is giving us these projects. The whole "we are building X, but can't pay our teachers" sentence is basically like nails on a chalkboard and triggers me.

[Pete]

I had a well-known journalist ask me if the Fairfield Inn under construction on Shields was the Omni.

And I have lots of friends that go out frequently in the core and still have no idea about the convention center, streetcar, etc.

[Zuplar]

I had a well-known journalist ask me if the Fairfield Inn under construction on Shields was the Omni.

And I have lots of friends that go out frequently in the core and still have no idea about the convention center, streetcar, etc.

Baffling to me honestly.

[mugofbeer]

You have to not only be not trying but completely ignoring information all around you to be that "left out".

Thats what happens when you do little but play video games wearing a headset, watch binge watching shows, You Tube and think reading is scrolling through the memes on your social media. lts not just younger people, though. My 60 year old brother only gets news from PBS and Steven Colbert. He doesn't have a clue what's going on locally.

[GoldFire]

Thats what happens when you do little but play video games wearing a headset, watch binge watching shows, You Tube and think reading is scrolling through the memes on your social media. lts not just younger people, though. My 60 year old brother only gets news from PBS and Steven Colbert. He doesn't have a clue what's going on locally.

No need to drag video games into this (I'm a game developer).

[Pete]