WPX bought the old Spaghetti warehouse a couple years ago and signaled intentions to build a new office building there so they can move out of their Williams building lease.
https://www.tulsaworld.com/business/report-wpx-energy-to-buy-former-spaghetti-warehouse-building/article_9f7ff2fa-f3d9-5bd5-ad14-1f5f336a63d0.htmlCould be interesting. WPX is big and growing, so could be a tall building in store. Would rather it be redeveloped into more food/entertainment/lodging for the district, but a big new office building isn't anything to sneeze at.
Artist, I love Decopolis and really need to get down there and support it again. Honestly, it does feel like I go out of my way to get there... Hope you can find another great location closer to the action. Have you looked into the Boxyard?
Thank you!
As for the Boxyard, probably a worse location than where we are at retail wise. Also hear "behind the scenes, for people try to put a positive spin on things publicly" that retail struggles there. It is isolated with gaps in the urban fabric, cut off from the small cluster of stuff on east 3rd street with apartments and non retail businesses. Remember some of the tenants being excited when that architecture firm went in across from them. I was like... not good. If Santa Fe Square went in that could help, but pedestrians are so finicky. One block gap might as well be a mile gap. And remember, its not just about "will this work, can this business survive" its about "can this business compete with similar businesses in the local mall, strip mall, or a more vibrant urban spot. Can this business thrive and grow. At least during the day we have thousands of potential customers in the large office buildings around us. They do not. But even then, we still get, 3 years plus in at this location people coming in from the buildings practically right across the street from us going "how long you all been here?". So strange. Plus we get loads of tourists and tour groups to our location because of the architecture, that they don't get. They do have more buzz than we do, but on the ground I think we are better where we are, BUT that is still not good enough to be competitive with other stores like us in better locations.
We took a risk, we have done ok. But writing is on the wall. Baring some surprising turn of events, we will have to move.
Typical rule of thumb is 6 city blocks of contiguous, retail to make an area competitive and doable. Yes there are exceptions. Even the Mother Road Market must continue to expand. Its going off newness and buzz now, but... competition and bored familiarity will eventually set in so in order to be "real" it will have to grow. One advantage the Market has as well is the publicity all the businesses together work to create, and that the foundation itself puts out there.
So if we do move, the question is.... Where? In downtown where will there be several blocks of retail facing retail without gaps?
Look at the Promenade. When you started seeing that mall get non-retail type places and "gaps/closed spots" it was like... "Ooops it's dying!" Easy for people to understand. But its fascinating that people don't see it's the same thing with blocks of retail in an urban area. It' is also why its actually in the zoning code and illegal in many cities to allow things like an insurance or tech firm, architect firm, or living to go in on the ground floor of their urban retail corridor. They know it will hurt retail. Those things can go everywhere else in the urban core and it will be fine.
