The Plaza District is coming along...
We've often talked about a trolley connecting interesting commercial neighborhoods like Paseo, Capitol Hill, Little Saigon, Stockyards City, and N. Western's restaurant row. Well, let's add another stop to that list: the arts & international-oriented Plaza District. I believe it's located on NW 16th.
Plaza sweet: Prosperity is just around the corner for the Plaza District
By Shelly Hickman
writers@okcbusiness.com
You would have to be living under a rock not to know a Renaissance has occurred downtown.
Yet you wouldn’t be in solitary company if you didn’t know this rebirth has spawned a somewhat miraculous resurgence in the city’s “Plaza District,” as well.
Just in the last year, the district’s massive streetscape program has been completed and the vacancy rate for the district -- which is situated west of Classen Boulevard and east of Pennsylvania Avenue, between N.W. 23rd and 10th streets -- has been cut in half.
The rate stands now at 16 percent, which is impressive considering it was more than 50 percent about five years ago, according to Susan Hogan, executive director of the Plaza District Association.
The streetscape program - which was made possible with $2.5 million in public funds - has expanded sidewalks and added several plaza areas. The heart of the area is between northwest Indiana Avenue and Blackwelder Avenue and features sidewalks 20 to 25 feet wide, Hogan said.
About $1.5 million has been invested in renovating the area’s buildings and the district’s largest property owner, Lyric Theatre, is in the process of preparing for a more than $2 million capital campaign to renovate the former Plaza Movie Theater into a performing arts venue, she said.
Since this spring, new business owners to the district have included Everything Goes Dance Studios and Boutique, Marcos and El Tenampa restaurants, P&M Hair Salon. Lyric’s new production center also has been completed.
In addition, a gas station and convenience store will soon open at N.W. 16th Street and Gatewood Avenue and the former ice house building on the northwest corner of 16th Street and Blackwelder Avenue has been purchased.
The building will house an estate sales business and also will have studio apartments with features such as a patio on the building’s roof, Hogan said.
Everything Goes owner Shannon Calderon said she moved her studio to the Plaza District from a strip mall at 36th Street and north May Avenue in March.
In just six months, her business has experienced significant growth, while the per square foot lease rate she pays compared to that of her May Avenue studio has been reduced dramatically, she said.
“My building now is practically four times bigger than my other studio and I’m getting more and more students by the day,” she said. “I couldn't ask for a better area. I’m only a few blocks away from the Classen School of Advanced Studies. I’m not even three minutes away from OCU and I’m next to Lyric Theatre. I’ve literally got people walking off the street and coming in and asking about classes.”
Hogan said Calderon’s studio is just one example of why the Plaza District is so unique. The studio offers everything from flamenco and salsa dancing to belly dancing, ballet and modern dance and serves a clientele which includes Vietnamese, African American, Latino and Caucasian students.
“What we envision for the future is to create a district that has a fairly eclectic mix of unusual, artistic, urban offerings,” she said.
“Within the last two years, probably about a third of our properties have had new enterprises coming in and new investors. We’ve made considerable progress in building good synergy in the businesses that are developing and we are seeking a mix of international businesses…and a mix of arts businesses.”
Hogan and the association would like to attract an upscale restaurant to the “Picasso’s” property at the northeast corner of 16th Street and Gatewood Avenue as well as a piano-type bar for the area by 2005.
The Picasso property was renovated for the purpose of a fine restaurant and its owner has been extremely supportive of the association by rejecting prospective tenants who didn’t intend to use the property for that purpose, Hogan said.
“He’s holding it for us with the hopes of trying to get a nice restaurant in there,” she said.
She said the popularity of Tom & Jerry’s and Cheever’s in the area make the association confident something similar for the Plaza District would be a success.
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I like the way the writer uses Renaissance to describe downtown, because there seems to be a Renaissance of thinking when it comes to neighborhood development. No longer will just any business do. In order to make places out of these districts, their leaders are deliberate in choosing tenants. They are going for themes, and recruit businesses that complement that theme, or fill a void to make that district work.
A presentation made by Councilwoman Ann Simank at the Mayor's Development Roundtable shows pictures of the Plaza District past and present. It's accessible via http://www.okc.gov/ in the planning department's section.
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