Strawberry Fields west, but not wild
By: Brian Brus The Journal Record December 1, 2017
OKLAHOMA CITY – Patricia Salame laughed when asked if the Core to Shore area between downtown and the Oklahoma River is at risk of growing into the Wild West of development.
Salame had just spoken with other business partners and advisers about plans for what Salame Real Estate Investments is calling the Strawberry Fields residential mixed-use project, directly west of the MAPS 3 Scissortail Park on Walker Avenue. The specific details of those plans will be released within a few weeks, she said, and will include targets for retail, office space and multifamily, block by block.
In preparation for the big revelation, Salame recently spoke with all the other property owners in the area to confirm as much agreement of intent as possible, she said.
“We are hoping to control parkside over to Shartel (Avenue). … We’ve got close to 80 percent of the total area, but there are still a few patches left,” she said, of unacquired parcels in Strawberry Fields. “I was just at GSB’s office (a local architectural firm) with a site plan that we’ve been working on for three months.”
“I hope it’s not a Wild West development. I put a lot of time, money and effort into it,” Salame said.
Cathy O’Connor, director of the Urban Renewal Authority, said she’s interested in Salame’s plans, but not particularly worried about developers in the area running amok. City leaders have sturdy outlines in place. The area is under downtown design guidelines and Scenic River Overlay Design District rules that include six sub-districts along the Oklahoma River corridor between S. Meridian Avenue and S. Eastern Avenue.
“As part of the process to create the Core to Shore tax increment financing districts, City Council adopted a policy document outlining the criteria for handling TIF projects,” she said. “And that document requires a higher level of density and design considerations than what is in the basic downtown framework.
“We think we’ve got some pretty good rules in place, although the city will be working to refine those over the next few years,” O’Connor said.
On the other side of the coin, city planners and elected officials have also left room for flexibility in creative design and construction materials, she said.
Construction is now underway on the 40-acre section of the Scissortail Park on the north side of Interstate 40 with scheduled completion in spring 2019. The 30-acre south section is scheduled for completion in 2021. When finished, it will be the city’s largest park, easily dwarfing the Myriad Botanical Gardens just a few blocks away at one-tenth the size.
The park is one of several projects planned and funded by the $777 million temporary sales tax plan referred to as MAPS 3.
And a good shot of the streetcar maintenance barn, too!
A work colleague stumbled on this fun fact, and I figured I would share it.
A portion of Strawberry Fields in being foreclosed on (Case No. CJ-2017-6730). Strawberry Fields purchased Blumenthal's in March of 2017 for $3,667,000. They borrowed $3,600,000 from Accord Interests, L.L.C. which is a commercial real estate development firm in Austin, TX (Accord owns Isola Bella on N.W. 63rd between MacArthur and Rockwell, but the rest of their investments appear to be in California and Texas). According to the petition, Strawberry Fields, L.L.C. defaulted in October 2017. The court hasn't awarded a judgement, but this may be interesting if it goes to the Sheriff's Sale. I recommend reading the Petition and First Amended Petition if you're interested in that kind of stuff.
Strawberry Fields Foreclosure.jpg
Strawberry Fields Foreclosure Motion for Summary Judgement.jpg
Strong start!
Has anyone else read this weird blog from Strawberry Fields’ spiritual director?
http://www.strawberryfieldsok.com/blog/2018/2/6/imagine
i heard newly elected okc mayor david holt speak about his intentions to bring a major league soccer franchise to the city because it is the type of investment that fosters a different quality of life for the city...and cited as backdrop the efforts behind bringing the thunder to okc and the city seeing a transformation into what he labeled on his book "big league city"; anyways, i think the strawberry fields area would make perfect sense for a pro stadium accross the street from the new park, convention center, hotel, the chesapeake area, streetcar, new okc blvd. and two blocks from the central business district. so with the new mayor and his ideas of the value of pro sports teams in the city, this idea could or should pick up some momentum.
Ambitious to say the least! I figured they would go a different direction with this. Maybe single family housing-type neighborhoods with a little retail thrown in. I love their vision if it comes to fruition.
I don't know about having the stadium in Strawberry Fields. I like the idea of it being part of the grander development that's going to reshape the downtown area, but at the same time it would swallow up most of Strawberry Fields. I think I'd rather SF develop into another mixed use district and try to find a spot along the river for the stadium.
The land in Strawberry Fields is way, way too expensive for a big stadium.
If they couldn't make it work on the Coop site, no way it would make monetary sense here.
From Strawberry Fields Twitter feed:
SF.jpg
I would consider that a good start to the development!
The Strawberry Fields group paid the mortgage in full and thus completely stopped the foreclosure on the old Blumenthal properties.
Would be interesting to know where all that money ($3.6 million) came from so quickly and how the relationship with the previous lender had become so contentious.
I could have sworn this thread was about the pond restaurant in Norman off Ed Noble Pkwy. Wasn't that named the same before the developer threw in the towel?
Yeah it was Strawberry Lake..... http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.ph...ght=strawberry
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/6...3q9g56eq1_xpn1
It looks like this guy is trying to FSBO a house that is right in the middle of one of the planned residential buildings of this development. How does that work? Would the purchaser be making the purchase in hopes that the developer would pay an even more inflated price? Could the purchaser just hold on the the tiny house which would look out of place? What if the purchaser built a new residence before the develoment occurred?
Sorry, probably simple questions but this isn't something I know much about.
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