"The Pearl" an area that will go down in History as a turning point in Tulsa

[JCnOwasso]

And I can pass along that the business that will be co-located with the Creative Room will be Made: The Indie Emporium Shop. 

[46hudson]

Congrats JC, from the renderings I've seen on TN your location should be truly unique if/when the canal is built. There has been a lot of back and forth regarding this area but ultimately the success of the pearl will come down to folks like JC and others willing to make the investment. Best of luck.

[JCnOwasso]

Congrats JC, from the renderings I've seen on TN your location should be truly unique if/when the canal is built. There has been a lot of back and forth regarding this area but ultimately the success of the pearl will come down to folks like JC and others willing to make the investment. Best of luck.

Thank you, but it is all the wife.  I am just the free manual labor... my office working hands have never seen this type of abuse haha.  But I agree, it is going to be the work of people like Blake, the great people at Made, the guys at Clean Hands, the awesome person behind Lot 6 and my wife that are willing to see this area and push it where it needs to be... not to mention the other folks who I know are working to open more and more things along this street.  I believe this is one area where the actions of these people will put the CoT in a position where they have no choice but to do the right thing. 

And hopefully this will force the other property owners into doing something other than letting their places go further and further into disrepair.

[RecycleMichael]

Nice press about Indie Emporium.

I look forward to reading the whole story tomorrow morning.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=298&articleid=20121103_297_0_ThomCr379696

Thom Crowe and his wife, Christine Sharp-Crowe, considered opening a shop in the Pearl District long before their downtown The Indie Emporium store.

They bided their time while exhibiting at regional art shows for the past seven years as property owners in the area near South Sixth Street and Peoria Avenue organized their efforts to attract tenants in order to turn a neglected district with its Depression-era buildings into the region’s next business success story.

 Then last fall the Crowes participated in the holiday “pop-up shops” concept downtown where property owners host small retailers in high-profile storefront spaces. It was so successful they became a permanent tenant at Fifth Street and Boston Avenue and again put their Pearl District vision on hold.

 But after signing a lease on a new property on Sixth Street recently and following the lead of some ambitious new neighbors, the Crowes hope to open a second store — this one newer and bigger — before the end of the year, selling wares from local crafters and artists and even offering art classes in nearby studio space.

 Their Pearl District vision is back on.

 “We were waiting for the right opportunity, and with this building and the other stuff that’s going in there, it gives us a great opportunity,” Thom Crowe said. “One of the biggest reasons we chose here is the charm and the appeal. It’s a real cool older area that’s been neglected, and we see a lot of potential.”

 Groups have been talking about the Sixth Street corridor for years, and investors have swooped in to purchase many of the most attractive buildings.

 After high-profile turnarounds in the Brady and Blue Dome districts, the Sixth Street corridor is one of the city’s few remaining collections of historic, undeveloped buildings.

 Read more in Sunday's World.

[Townsend]

Renovating Tulsa Ice Co.: Architecture firm to move into quirky Pearl District building

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=46&articleid=20121104_46_E4_CUTLIN749102

Architects Bob Schaefer and Janet Selser thought long and hard about where to locate their steadily growing design firm, Selser Schaefer Architects.

With their penthouse high-rise office on South Boulder Avenue running out of space for 42 employees, they still wanted to be close to the downtown core that had fostered their 20-year-old business.

"We looked primarily at older buildings with a lot of character," said Schaefer, one of the firm's principal owners.

After finding that most buildings in the fast-growing Brady and Blue Dome districts were bought years ago by investors, they discovered the old Tulsa Ice Co. building on the corner of East Sixth Street and Xanthus Avenue, several blocks east of Peoria.

Like many older vacant buildings, the 18,000-square foot-space had plenty of troublesome quirks, such as corkboard on the roof used to keep the facility and ice at cool temperatures.

But it was just a few blocks from downtown and in a business district set to gain a handful of new tenants in the coming months.

The company, whose work includes the Tulsa Community College's Center for Creativity adjacent to the downtown campus, has started work renovating the former industrial property into a fully functioning office space.

"We want our office to be one big space without walls so that our architects can work together," Selser said. "And so many of our employees are close to downtown. We really are Tulsa people."

Selser and Schaefer hope to move into the facility sometime in early 2013. They are working with a local construction company to put a new ceiling on one section of the building, construct a patio in the place of an old loading dock and tear down a few small buildings on the site to build a parking lot.

Schaefer said he hopes the building will soon be just a piece of the revitalization of the Pearl District and Sixth Street neighborhoods, which include a handful of new shops, businesses and a cafe slated to open this fall.

"It's a great neighborhood with a lot of character," Schaefer said. "It's really just what we were looking for."

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=46&articleid=20121104_46_E4_CUTLIN749102

[carltonplace]

Techincally this building is not in the Pearl District...it's in Kendall-Whittier two blocks east of Marshall's Brewery.


They have done a phenomenal job on this building...it's beautiful.

[davideinstein]

What type of development are we going to see on the northern edge of the Pearl along 11th Street?

[JCnOwasso]

What type of development are we going to see on the northern edge of the Pearl along 11th Street?

I have been curious of that myself.  It looks like they are about to start work on one of the buildings.  All the openings have been plywooded, though I haven't been driving that way very often, so it may have been like that for a while.

[patric]

I feel so bad about this.  I could have shredded that guy today.  (all that philosophy logic training would have paid off)  I didn't know how or where to sign up to speak today and I should have asked.  His reasoning was VERY deeply flawed but the commision bought it.  I really could have just embarssed westervelt and helped the thing along.  I think I'm going to be guilty about this the rest of my days.

You may have another chance in a few weeks, from the Whirled:


City planners not done with Pearl District form-based code expansion idea


The new year is expected to bring a new chance at life for the Pearl District form-based code.
After months of discussion, the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission is expected early next year to take up a compromise proposal that reduces the area in which the new code would be applied within the district.

The Planning Commission in September rejected a proposal to expand use of the code to the entire district.
Since then, commission members have worked with Planning Commission personnel and the city to come up with a proposal that would cover a smaller portion of the district.

"In a nutshell, it (the new boundary) is the Sixth Street corridor from Peoria Avenue to Utica Avenue, and then running north-south it is basically the corner of Peoria Avenue to Sixth Street north to Interstate 244," said city Planning Director Dawn Warrick.
The latest proposal also includes properties north and east of the area in which the form-based code now applies, she said.

Unlike the traditional, use-based zoning code, which separates properties by use, the form-based code focuses more on a property's form and placement on a lot.  The intent is to help create more pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods such as one might see in a large city.

Planning Commission members have been generally supportive of the new code but balked at expanding its use to the entire Pearl District.
Among their concerns was that the new code would not work in industrial or automobile-oriented areas of the district; that the proposed expansion plan conflicted with what was envisioned in the Sixth Street Infill Plan; and that residents of the area were not properly notified of the proposed expansion.

"We are revisiting it (the expansion proposal) because it has been reduced down to a manageable size," said Planning Commission Chairman Joshua Walker, "and now what they are going to do is go to every other property owner that this would affect, and they didn't do that the first time around."

Beginning in late January, the city will host a series of workshops on the proposed new boundaries.

[carltonplace]

I noticed that the apartment buildings on the north side of 6th Street are being rehabbed: New coat of paint and windows. I think this street will be as popular a destination as Cherry Street in a couple of years.

[JCnOwasso]

I noticed that the apartment buildings on the north side of 6th Street are being rehabbed: New coat of paint and windows. I think this street will be as popular a destination as Cherry Street in a couple of years.

Since I have spent pretty much everyday for the last 3 months hanging out on 6th, I have noticed quite a bit happening... and I have found more stuff going on in the area than I knew about.  Since the opening of the Phoenix, 6th and peoria has stayed pretty active.  I did have the "pleasure" of meeting the infamous landlord that I have heard so much about here.  Seems nice enough, but I have no business dealings with him, so that probably helps.  I am willing to say that this portion of the pearl (6th and peoria and a couple of blocks in any direction) will rival portions of Cherry street before the end 2013... as long as the planned development continues to happen and as long as the city gets the heck out of the way of development (i.e. cut the red tape crap and put small businesses in a position to succeed, not get bogged down).   

[TheArtist]

Since I have spent pretty much everyday for the last 3 months hanging out on 6th, I have noticed quite a bit happening... and I have found more stuff going on in the area than I knew about.  Since the opening of the Phoenix, 6th and peoria has stayed pretty active.  I did have the "pleasure" of meeting the infamous landlord that I have heard so much about here.  Seems nice enough, but I have no business dealings with him, so that probably helps.  I am willing to say that this portion of the pearl (6th and peoria and a couple of blocks in any direction) will rival portions of Cherry street before the end 2013... as long as the planned development continues to happen and as long as the city gets the heck out of the way of development (i.e. cut the red tape crap and put small businesses in a position to succeed, not get bogged down).    

The city could also cut out laws that make it illegal to build new pedestrian and transtit friendly developments in the area but instead encourage car oriented developments.  Not even talking about Form Based Codes and the like, simply get rid of minimum parking requirements would be a big start and help.  All the old stuff that's there now and that's being refurbished would be illegal to build today.  At best it would cost lots more and or would require you to rip out half the rest of the neighborhood in the process.  Do the same thing for Cherry Street and Brookside.  Also allow mixed use developments (like living above, shop below), also accessory dwelling units (small rental apartment in back yard or over a garage), etc.  Why in this conservative, get the government off our backs let the free market decide, city and state we don't hear more calls for getting rid of these unfair and restrictive laws I don't know?  I guess most just don't realize that the Idyllic "Mayberry" type places they wish existed (Aunt Bee grabbing her purse to walk down to the corner store to grab some pie makings, Opie and his friends walking to the soda shop and dime store, etc.), can't because we make it illegal to even build those kinds of places.

I remember a while back hearing about a kid being run over and killed in Owasso as he was trying to cross the highway.  I was floored when I heard the Mayor say in a frustrated tone something like " Why was that kid trying to cross the road anyway!".  I and my little sisters lived in Owasso for a time.  If you wanted to go do anything outside of one of those massive, drab neighborhoods... you had to walk a loooong way and cross a large road or two (or white highway fence). Otherwise your stuck there waiting for your parents to drive you places and then rush you to hurry up so they can drive you back.

[JCnOwasso]

The city could also cut out laws that make it illegal to build new pedestrian and transtit friendly developments in the area but instead encourage car oriented developments.  Not even talking about Form Based Codes and the like, simply get rid of minimum parking requirements would be a big start and help.  

I remember a while back hearing about a kid being run over and killed in Owasso as he was trying to cross the highway.  I was floored when I heard the Mayor say in a frustrated tone something like " Why was that kid trying to cross the road anyway!".  I and my little sisters lived in Owasso for a time.  If you wanted to go do anything outside of one of those massive, drab neighborhoods... you had to walk a loooong way and cross a large road or two (or white highway fence). Otherwise your stuck there waiting for your parents to drive you places and then rush you to hurry up so they can drive you back.

This has been a huge part of my frustration.  And I am just a bystander.  I am absolutely positive that there is a place for "minimum parking requirements", Malls, 20 screen movie theaters, etc.  Requiring a parking variance to be filed for everything is ridiculous.  Especially when you have absolutely no control over parking...  Now, there has been a little give and take on this in regards to the wifes place (and the places around her), so I can atleast see that they have identified the problem and want to work it out.

I can't agree more about the owasso thing.  Heck, when I was a kid I crossed 169 on foot on several occasions.  When you have a friend that is less than 2 blocks away (as the bird flies) but requires a car to get there.  It isn't feasible.

[AquaMan]

Here's the problem with having no minimum parking requirements. I live near a few of those Mayberry type businesses designed for walkability and mass trans. Years back a Denturist located in a building that was originally a 1920's walk up retail store a block away. He provided two spaces for his employees which numbered around 8. He took one. The others parked all day in front of our houses and snarled at us if we complained. Said their taxes paid for them. Eventually we secured no parking signs from 8-4 but then even we couldn't park there. The problem was later compounded when local bars became popular without enough spaces. Then we had drunks parking all night and beer cans in our yards. We are long term owners who maintain the property while the businessmen come and go.

I'm rooting for the Pearl to replace what we used to have on Cherry. I like the look so far but the answer to your parking problems isn't likely to be waiving minimum parking requirements. I think the answer is more in the manner of eliminating street parking altogether, promoting mass transportation and availability of nearby lots.

[TheArtist]

Here's the problem with having no minimum parking requirements. I live near a few of those Mayberry type businesses designed for walkability and mass trans. Years back a Denturist located in a building that was originally a 1920's walk up retail store a block away. He provided two spaces for his employees which numbered around 8. He took one. The others parked all day in front of our houses and snarled at us if we complained. Said their taxes paid for them. Eventually we secured no parking signs from 8-4 but then even we couldn't park there. The problem was later compounded when local bars became popular without enough spaces. Then we had drunks parking all night and beer cans in our yards. We are long term owners who maintain the property while the businessmen come and go.

I'm rooting for the Pearl to replace what we used to have on Cherry. I like the look so far but the answer to your parking problems isn't likely to be waiving minimum parking requirements. I think the answer is more in the manner of eliminating street parking altogether, promoting mass transportation and availability of nearby lots.

 Trick is, you can't have affordable and workable mass transit without pedestrian/transit friendly development.  

I don't much mind people parking on my street in front of my house, and often they do, and would mind even less if we had sidewalks in my neighborhood.  Sorry about the bar thing, but it's partly a factor of our current state of development.  The few "trendy areas" that are somewhat pedestrian friendly tend to attract the bar and restaurant crowd.  If more areas were to be pedestrian friendly, you would see more of them be "regular" areas of all types, if that makes sense.  Having "nearby lots" just creates a variation of the suburban theme where everyone still uses cars instead of transit.  The cars are parked in back, instead of in front.  Then as things infill and build up, parking garages replace the lots which then costs over all more money than if you would have started using transit (even transit that costs more at first and is not used as much at first).   More a change in appearance and not use and function.  You can look around at many places in the world that have lots of tall buildings and density, but are not at all urban.  People still live isolated lives and have to drive everywhere.  They end up having to pay more for that lifestlye, but don't get the benefit of living in a true, pedestrian friendly, urban environment.