Originally Posted by
Karried
Excerpt From the Oklahoman today:
By Richard Mize
Greg Banta is waiting for some more pieces to fall into place before saying just exactly what all Banta Cos. has planned for the redevelopment area anchored by his Plaza Court building in Oklahoma City's MidTown.
But his MidTown Renaissance is taking shape and that's clear by looking whether he's ready to talk in detail or not.
Commercial Realtors got a quick look at "Bantaville" -- from Western Avenue to Broadway and from NW 10 to NW 13 -- Wednesday on the annual bus tour by the Commercial & Industrial Division of the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors.
"Bantaville" is my word, not his, and it won't stick -- nor should it. It just came to mind after the bus rumbled down enough streets and around enough corners and Banta pointed to enough buildings and lots -- about 45 in all, in various stages of acquisition, demolition, development and redevelopment -- to make up a small town.
Most recently, Banta picked up a couple of sow's ears he plans on turning into silk purses -- make that a couple of eyesore fleabag hotels, one long closed: Hotel Marion, 110 NW 10, and the Cline Hotel, 1018 N Harvey, both approaching 100 years old.
The plan is to turn them into office buildings or residences -- very carefully, since whatever he does, like most of what he is doing, has to be OK'd by the city's Urban Design Commission.
Good things are going on around the landmark Plaza Court, the 1920s-era shopping center that Banta acquired almost two months ago, even as some things are coming down -- including a small apartment house at 1000 NW 12, and duplexes at 1006 and 1008 NW 12 just this week -- to make room for improvements.
The two-story, 55,000-square-foot Plaza Court, which fronts the traffic circle at NW 10 and Walker Avenue, has already had its lower floor restored. A Subway sandwich shop is open and Banta said other tenants are lined up.
Funny. Most of us in the news business have filters to keep out marketing hyperbole. But this, from a company flier, got through mine because it rings true, not just hopeful:
"With both retail and dining spaces centrally located, Plaza Court is uniquely poised to benefit from this resurgence. The pulse of the city is about to change ... "
Make that "change again." The rest of the bus tour provided example after example of how the heart of Oklahoma City is beating stronger than -- well, maybe stronger than ever.
At least until Friday's news that Kerr-McGee Corp. was selling out to Anadarko Petroleum, based in Houston. The news stopped the heart of downtown cold.
Until then, the heart of the city wasn't racing, because more than funny money -- the kind with an oil derrick in place of the Eye of Providence -- was involved. "Real" capital was flowing, too. It made for a nice, steady, strong heartbeat.
Not news, but it bears repeating once in awhile -- and it helps to lay eyes on some of what it hath wrought, which was the point of the bus tour:
The Chesapeake Boathouse, more than another cool building by architect Rand Elliott, but an anchor (ha) for future development along the river.
Centennial on the Canal, still just a billboard right now, but an eventual 30 condominiums facing the Bricktown Canal, by developer Randy Hogan.
The Classen, Richard Tanenbaum's redo of the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired office building into a condo tower (with a just-opened model) and retail at 2200 Classen Blvd.
Brownstones at Maywood Park and Central Avenue Villas, just north of Deep Deuce, by Triangle Development.
Harvey Lofts, a redo of the old Wesley Hospital and nurses quarters by Bert Belanger and others, at NW 12 and Harvey.
Note all the housing projects. Signs of real life, not just night life. Signs of a steady, strong heart, not fibrillation.
Of course, those could be famous last words, in light of the Kerr-McGee news.
Midtown Then & Now
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