The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Other features of the governor’s budget proposal include:

• Transfer of the Kerr-Edmondson state office complex in downtown Tulsa to the Oklahoma State University Regents for use as a veterans clinic. The proposal also includes almost $5 million for the OSU Medical Authority for equipment, recruitment and residency positions.

I wonder where the workers' comp courts and other state offices will go. Would there be room in the new county building across from the courthouse to lease to the state?

The Commissioners of the Land Office approved five land transactions Thursday designed to help fund an office building in Tulsa.

The commissioners voted Oct. 8 to authorize Commissioners of the Land Office  Secretary Elliot Chambers to spend up to $9 million — or the appraised value, whichever is lower for the purchase of 201 W. Fifth St. and/or 419 S. Denver Ave. in Tulsa, along with any associated acquisition costs, exchange properties and cash, if necessary.

The West Fifth Street property, also known as the 201 Executive Center, is listed as 82,354 square feet with 138 parking spaces.

First announced in February 2020 as part of the Fiscal Year 2021 President’s Budget submitted to Congress, the $120 million federal appropriation to build a new veterans hospital in Tulsa was approved by Congress on Dec. 21 and signed into law by President Trump yesterday. The project, Veterans Hospital in Tulsa (VHiT), is the work of a collaboration among the federal government, state of Oklahoma, city of Tulsa, private philanthropy, and Oklahoma State University.
 
The new veterans hospital will be located in downtown Tulsa at 7th and Houston on the expanded OSU Medical Center Campus. The effort will convert the existing Kerr-Edmondson Buildings on the site into a modern 275,000 square-foot, 58-bed medical-surgical hospital for veterans. The partially occupied Kerr-Edmondson Buildings have been owned​ by the state of Oklahoma and are being transferred to OSU/A&M Regents by the state for the purpose of the hospital project.
 
Dr. Kayse Shrum, president of the OSU Center for Health Sciences, said making sure our veterans receive the very best care is the least that can be done to honor them for their service.
 
"Our Veterans in northeast Oklahoma deserve a much-needed, easily accessible modern medical center where they can receive quality, compassionate care in a timely manner. For OSU-CHS, it’s been a great privilege to be part of this visionary project,” she said. "While caring for veterans is a top priority, the affiliation with the Veteran Affairs Hospital near our Tulsa campus will benefit our students and residents tremendously and further enhance our medical school nationally. Many physicians in practice today benefited from training at a Veteran Affairs hospital. After years of hard work and relentless determination by many civic leaders in Tulsa and local, state, and federal elected officials, we have achieved one of the most significant milestones, the funding for this project. We look forward to the start of construction and the completion of the project."
 
This is a unique opportunity to secure a large and important veteran resource, operated by the VA, but developed by and for the local community. The proximity to OSU’s academic healthcare facilities will support a number of opportunities for collaboration, joint physician appointments, increased medical residencies, and shared services, all of which will improve ease and efficiency for veterans.
 
Oklahoma’s United States Senators James Inhofe and James Lankford along with U.S. Representatives Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern, each strongly supported the original application for the new veterans hospital project and led the effort to prioritize this project for Oklahoma’s veterans.
 
“This project is special to Oklahoma State University,” said Burns Hargis, president of OSU. “We have great respect for the women and men who have served and are serving our country in defense of liberty and the pursuit of peace. We enjoy a longstanding relationship with the military, proudly graduating many students who become leaders in our armed forces. The approval of the federal funding for this project represents a significant achievement and step forward in reaching our shared goal to provide our veterans in northeast Oklahoma with an exceptional medical facility to care for them. We also appreciate the generosity of The Zarrow Family Foundations.  Without their unwavering support, this project would never have proceeded. Lastly, I recognize the leadership of Dr. Kayse Shrum, president of the OSU-Center for Health Sciences, for her visionary leadership in bringing this project forward.” 
 
More than two-thirds of the 47,000 veterans who receive services at the current Jack C. Montgomery Medical Center in Muskogee come from the Tulsa metro area. Of the 115,400-plus veterans in the Eastern Oklahoma VA area, approximately 68% are closer to Tulsa than to Muskogee, leading planners to estimate the new hospital could serve up to 30% (or 14,000) more veterans annually.
 
The Eastern Oklahoma VA Healthcare System has initiated plans to convert the Jack C. Montgomery Medical Center in Muskogee ​into a much-needed regional facility for behavioral health, rehabilitation, and potentially long-term care for veterans in Oklahoma and surrounding states.
 
The total cost of construction for the Veterans Hospital in Tulsa is estimated at $130 million, funded by the $120 million appropriation and $10 million in philanthropic support. The state of Oklahoma has finalized transfer of the Kerr-Edmondson property valued at $35 million, and the city of Tulsa has committed $8 million toward a parking garage for the veterans hospital. 
 
The collaborative, community-driven project is made possible by the Congressional CHIP-IN for Veterans Act of 2016 (Communities Helping Invest through Properties and Improvements Needed for Veterans). The act allows local communities to serve as developers for healthcare facilities that are stated VA priorities.
 
The strategic CHIP-IN partnerships such as the one formed in Tulsa allows the Veteran Administration a pathway to build facilities more efficiently and quickly than traditional approaches. Local communities are in a better position to identify the most advantageous site, ensure service collaboration, and better oversee construction costs and deadlines in their local markets.
 
Construction is slated to be completed and turned over to the VA for outfitting by late 2023 and open to patients in late 2024.

Hopefully the beginning of a medical district that can continue to expand in this part of downtown.

There are some pretty good sized tress on the southern side of that property. Between the state building and OSU. I hope they are able to keep them. For as many trees as they are showing in the area it would suck to tear out the three largest tress along that block.

“This is Tulsa’s opportunity to grow a true university medical campus engine here,” said Judy Zarrow Kishner, president of The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation. “There is no question that Tulsa County needs additional mental health beds and expanded services, and the State has been committed to helping us get there over the next few years.”

Chairman of the OSU Medical Center Trust, Jay Helm, welcomed the county commissioners to the local, state and federal partnerships that have made the expansion possible.

“This will be the largest development in downtown Tulsa since the Williams Center was built more than 40 years ago,” Helm said. “This will allow the OSU Medical Center to expand and train the physicians that Tulsa County and the state of Oklahoma will need in the future.”

Very cool project for downtown Tulsa.  A couple of questions:

Is the 436 space parking garage intended to serve more than just the VA hospital? It seems kinda large for a rather small hospital (total of 128 beds, at most, including 70 in the psychiatric unit).

Have we ever seen where the state offices relocated to (or are going to relocate)?

This is an expansion of the overall OSU Medical Center, the psychiatric unit will be a separate hospital from the VA Hospital at the complex in a new building. I would assume the parking garage will serve all of the Medical Center, but I haven't seen any renderings of it and nothing really about it other than size and that it will be at 7th and Houston.

No idea on where the state employees are going.

I would assume the parking garage will serve all of the Medical Center, but I haven't seen any renderings of it and nothing really about it other than size and that it will be at 7th and Houston.

You can see a part of it in the rendering of the VA.  I'm not sure where the psychiatric hospital will be located on the OSU Med campus though.  

I wonder if the state would build a new office building downtown?  

I found this document that has much more information on where and what all is being built:
https://medicine.okstate.edu/site-files/documents/about/osuma_minutes_july_21_2020.pdf

(https://imgshare.io/images/2021/10/21/Screen-Shot-2021-10-21-at-8.18.54-PM.png)

Thanks this clarifies what they have planned.  So the orange building at 7th & Houston in the rendering is a research building and the parking garage is south of it.  Looks like OSU plans to build additional buildings along Houston south of 7th with the VA expanding to the north along with the psychiatric hospital closer to 3rd.

You can see a part of it in the rendering of the VA.  I'm not sure where the psychiatric hospital will be located on the OSU Med campus though. 

I wonder if the state would build a new office building downtown? 

Yes, this is a huge expansion of the whole OSU complex. That end of downtown behind the convention center is going to be completely transformed. Also, the 1300 new continuing jobs.

The State bought the building at 202 W 5th Street (think it was called the Exec Center) if I'm not mistaken to move several of the groups that was here there. I don't think that was everyone but I think it was enough to relocated 30-40% of the people. I have no idea where the rest will end up if they'll just lease space downtown or elsewhere.

There was an RFP out sometime last year for office space but never heard a word about it again - they were looking to lease or buy and the lease rate was very low, low enough I'd be shocked if they were able to find anything downtown. It seemed more like they might end up somewhere like Cityplex (even here might have been too expensive) or Verizon or maybe Eastgate type places that have some large holes to fill still and aren't super expensive.

I had run across an item where the state had proposed to buy 202 [SIC, it's actually 201] W 5th St, but could never find anything as to whether that purchase had ever been completed. Just now looked it up on the County Assessor site and it is indeed owned by the state.  The World reported that they 201 W 5th building has about 81,000 square feet.  According to this document https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/omes/documents/TulsaTenantSpaceRequirements.pdf (https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/omes/documents/TulsaTenantSpaceRequirements.pdf), the agencies that were in Kerr-Edmondson requested 85,000 square feet of space, so maybe they squeezed, or are going to squeeze, all of them in to 201 W. 5th?

Does the state own the adjacent parking garage on Cheyenne and parking lot on Denver?  Seems like that location could easily be expanded if they needed more space

News article today in the Tulsa World. $$ from the infrastructure bill (I think, don't have the article pulled up) approved to go towards this. Really excited to see what OSU does in this area.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/legislative-panel-advances-arpa-funds-for-tulsa-mental-hospital/article_7ccb05b2-23c0-11ed-92ac-2fa0c3a06b3c.html

Here is a small update on this: https://www.newson6.com/story/63ec163f0e3fce1378aff595/new-mental-health-hospital-coming-to-downtown-tulsa

There are some new renderings in the video. Looks like the design has been simplified/value-engineered just a tad. Still looks good, just slightly less flashy which is perfectly fine for this building.

Here is a small update on this: https://www.newson6.com/story/63ec163f0e3fce1378aff595/new-mental-health-hospital-coming-to-downtown-tulsa

There are some new renderings in the video. Looks like the design has been simplified/value-engineered just a tad. Still looks good, just slightly less flashy which is perfectly fine for this building.

This will be located on 3rd St, correct?