The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

A five-story, mixed-use development is in the works for the Greenwood District.

Attorney Kajeer Yar of GreenArch, LLC, updated the project Thursday at a regular meeting of the Tulsa Development Authority.

Plans call for multiple levels of office space above a ground-floor, retail/office component at the southeast corner of North Greenwood Avenue and East Archer Street, Yar said by phone after the meeting. The project also will feature structured parking with up to 150 slots.

Construction on the roughly 70,000-square-foot development is scheduled to start by the end of 2018 and be completed in 2020, Yar said.

“We’re optimistic about Greenwood,” Yar said. “We feel like the future of the district is not only just residential and existing retail but also (about) bringing in an office component to effectively bring in activity from morning till night.”

The new project is across Greenwood Avenue from another GreenArch development that includes 70 apartments, the pub Lefty’s on Greenwood, a Subway restaurant and StudioPop, an indoor cycling and yoga facility. That roughly $10 million project was completed in 2013.

GH2 Architects is designing the new building, and Patrick Fox of Fox + Allen is handling the pre-leasing.

Designated as America’s “Black Wall Street” by Booker T. Washington, the 35-block Greenwood District became a prosperous center for black commerce in the early 1900s, housing more than 300 black-owned businesses that included hotels, theaters and restaurants.

The loggia on the building is wonderful. That really helps the pedestrian nature of an area.

Kudos to whoever decided to add that!

The loggia on the building is wonderful. That really helps the pedestrian nature of an area.

Kudos to whoever decided to add that!

I agree, great building. But that parking garage. Ew.

I agree, great building. But that parking garage. Ew.

So many renderings on this project. This last one looks the most comprehensive. The roof deck is going to be nice and hot in the summer with the overhang stripped away, but whatever. I'm just ready to see earth moving on this one. I'm guessing they might be waiting on the greenwood building up the street to finish and fill up before getting too far ahead on this.

This is starting to get closer to completion finally. The street has been closed way too long. Not sure why the city has allowed this.

As more urban development takes place in Tulsa the city should absolutely take a harder stance on street/sidewalk closures in the downtown area and also in any other walkable districts like Cherry Street.  Thinking specifically about the apartment building on Cherry Street that had the sidewalk closed for what seemed like years.

The windows have a pretty harsh glare in the afternoon I noticed. Hopefully they'll coat them.

The trees up top and the balconies make this building interesting, but it's such an odd design. Definitely feels like this project was pulled in too many different directions.

This building has some nice lights that make the street feel pretty lively. Looking forward to seeing the "This Is GreenWood" sign powered up.

Too bad it was made by white people - should have given the commission and work to black artists. Seems like a missed opportunity and frankly feels odd given what has happened here to have a white developer build a big sign saying 'this is greenwood' that was built by white people. It's a cool idea don't get me wrong, just not done right.

I get that us old white guys cannot fully understand the Black experience. Does that mean that we shouldn't even try?  Not saying this is the case in this instance though.

Definitely not - just for this particular thing it feels odd to me that the sign was built by a bunch of white people, designed by white people, commissioned by a white developer that says "this is greenwood"

There's a lot of talented black artists locally that could have designed and built the same thing, just don't understand why they weren't given the opportunity to do so in such a special location and saying that. Just feels odd to me.

The historical context of white developers wanting Greenwood for their own, especially after the massacre, to have a white developer place a sign like that feels inappropriate even with good intentions. Because that development isn't what Greenwood was, it's the white people's idea of 'this is greenwood' now.

I'd feel different if the developer had utilized either black artists or craftspeople to design, build, and install it