Downtown Development Overview

[DowntownDan]

Cool to see that, bet there is no 13th floor listed in the building. A bit of trivia, the Holiday Inn at 7th & Boulder has no 13th floor, and there are no room numbers that end in 13.

I drove by a few weeks ago and the lobby was looking really nice. It's a small footprint and will be interesting to see it when finished.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

I drove by a few weeks ago and the lobby was looking really nice. It's a small footprint and will be interesting to see it when finished.

That's one of the few buildings that I have never been in. Wasn't it originally Home Federal/Sooner Federal S&L or am I thinking of a different building?

[Jacobei]

That's one of the few buildings that I have never been in. Wasn't it originally Home Federal/Sooner Federal S&L or am I thinking of a different building?

Their old lobby was really just a set of very cool period elevators and a door to the kinkos that was on their ground floor.  In the elevator lobby there was a really cool 3D bronze map of the city.  I wonder what happened to it.  I hope it was preserved.

[SXSW]

This pedestrian pathway is under construction in Greenwood.  It will connect Elgin to Greenwood along the highway ROW.  Seems like this could be a good opportunity to eventually connect the Katy and Midland Valley trails.  You also have the Katy trail that could easily directly connect to the river trails but currently does not (it ends at Archer).

[DowntownDan]

Bike lanes downtown connect Katy with Midland Valley Trail pretty well right now, but there's not much connection on the west side of downtown, and the SW corner of the IDL isn't ideal for connecting bike trails, and the streets are available for cyclists. Katy to Newblock to Riverside connects, but a trail just west of the IDL would be better than the current end of the Katy Trail, which is behind the jail and pretty sketchy.

[SXSW]

Connecting the river trail directly to the Katy terminus would be great, but definitely would be challenging and would likely require a new bridge over the railroad to get over to Lawton Ave where it could link up with the trail at Archer.  Doing this connects the 3rd St bike lanes and the rest of the Arts District to the river trail network.

It’s a shame we don’t still have the old Katy RR ROW in place between Cameron and Easton.  You can see the old bridge where it crossed Denver and went east joining up with the MVR near Greenwood.  If we still had that ROW that would be a nice east-west connection between the Katy and Midland Valley trails.  Maybe there is a chance it could be restored someday, this new trail between Elgin and Greenwood roughly follows the same route.  The only major impediment is KOTV’s parking lot.

[buffalodan]

I think looking at the indy cultural trail would be a good step for trying to connect the N/S & West legs of the trails. I'm grateful that we have bike lanes downtown, but having a sort of "preferred" method of going from the river trails to skiatook could really help cement it as a thing. Those little gaps become really apparent when you take new people along it. Our trail system is good and I think fixing those would make it great.

[SXSW]

I think looking at the indy cultural trail would be a good step for trying to connect the N/S & West legs of the trails. I'm grateful that we have bike lanes downtown, but having a sort of "preferred" method of going from the river trails to skiatook could really help cement it as a thing. Those little gaps become really apparent when you take new people along it. Our trail system is good and I think fixing those would make it great.

Agree Indianapolis is a great model to follow.  Very underrated city IMO.  We have these great bike trails that merge downtown but currently there is no direct connection between them.  Still would like to see the Cincinnati Ave protected bikeway that would connect downtown to midtown. 

[LandArchPoke]

Agree Indianapolis is a great model to follow.  Very underrated city IMO.  We have these great bike trails that merge downtown but currently there is no direct connection between them.  Still would like to see the Cincinnati Ave protected bikeway that would connect downtown to midtown. 

Indianapolis is a great example of how they leveraged a trail into spurring private development. Having protected bikeways on Cincinnati (and Detrioit would be great too) would do a lot to bring more people from the Riverside trail into downtown. Especially if we saw some more developments like the Knoll (i think is the name) near 18th & Boston.

I've always thought we should close the Cincinnati ramp into Maple Ridge and turn that into a direct trail connection from Midland into downtown, followed with the protected bike line. You could add some landscaping, etc. to make that bridge an overlook into downtown too. It would maybe add 1-2 minutes to someone's commute from the CBD into Maple Ridge by closing that and making people use Boston Ave instead. For the amount of car that use that spur/ramp it would not be missed. That ramp has some of the best views of downtown too.

https://goo.gl/maps/4ghiPqHry2K2kLzp6

[SXSW]

^ Ha I’ve been saying that for years, how do we make it happen?   

Seriously the Cincinnati flyover could easily be closed to vehicle traffic and very few would be hindered by it, especially with the existing off ramp to 15th.  The protected bike way would only need to be on Cincinnati and would allow two-way bike traffic to move from the Midland Valley trail through downtown and connect to the Osage Prairie trail at OSU-Tulsa.

[Tulsan]

I've always thought we should close the Cincinnati ramp into Maple Ridge and turn that into a direct trail connection from Midland into downtown, followed with the protected bike line. You could add some landscaping, etc. to make that bridge an overlook into downtown too. It would maybe add 1-2 minutes to someone's commute from the CBD into Maple Ridge by closing that and making people use Boston Ave instead. For the amount of car that use that spur/ramp it would not be missed. That ramp has some of the best views of downtown too.

https://goo.gl/maps/4ghiPqHry2K2kLzp6

That ramp is actually a designated part of INCOG's bike map... it's supposed to already have a "sharrow" painted on it.  https://incog.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=bc8b7363bf814d87b69196b6dd5ee373

EDIT: I mis-read the map... it's designated for a future "sharrow."  As far as closing it to vehicular traffic, that would probably be a heavy lift, but it would be pretty cool if done right.  Cincinnati and Detroit are supposed to convert to 2-way at some point in the next, oh, decade or so, so maybe when that finally gets moving the ramp conversion could be part of the process. Obviously ODOT would have to sign off.

[SXSW]

That ramp is actually a designated part of INCOG's bike map... it's supposed to already have a "sharrow" painted on it.  https://incog.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=bc8b7363bf814d87b69196b6dd5ee373

EDIT: I mis-read the map... it's designated for a future "sharrow."  As far as closing it to vehicular traffic, that would probably be a heavy lift, but it would be pretty cool if done right.  Cincinnati and Detroit are supposed to convert to 2-way at some point in the next, oh, decade or so, so maybe when that finally gets moving the ramp conversion could be part of the process. Obviously ODOT would have to sign off.

What's interesting about the Cincinnati flyover is that there is already a wide shoulder on the west side that could easily be a pedestrian/bike path while keeping the flyover open to vehicles going one-way southbound.  You would need to install a concrete wall between the path and road and connect the sections that don't have the shoulder at both ends but seems pretty doable for not a lot of $$$.  

The protected bikeway would be a heavier lift if we do it right.  This would involve taking one parking and one traffic lane on the west side of Cincinnati Ave and building a landscaped buffer in between.  This would run from 13th where it connects to the flyover all the way north to John Hope Franklin where it would intersect with the bike lanes through OSU.  Imagine something like this:

[LandArchPoke]

ARCO building I've heard is breaking ground first of next year for renovation into apartments. Will have a rooftop pool built on the two story part at the back and green roof on the part facing 6th. 70 ish apartments with commercial spaces on the first floor. Basement will be converted into about 30-40 parking spaces.

This really leaves only the Philcade buildings as the biggest under utilized buildings downtown, then the Sinclair building at 6th & Main. Not many older buildings left to convert so over the next five years we're going to see a lot of new infill downtown.

I've heard that First Christian Church is looking at building senior apartments on their parking lots. Would be 150 or so units along Main Street between the church and TCC. Have also heard that the Sun Building ownership group is looking at building a new parking garage and want to build apartments onto of the garage. Not sure how far along either of those are at the moment. Seems like the success of the 9:10 building has peaked the interest of some of the churches to turn their land holdings into cash flowing assets versus just parking.

Also, if people didn't see - the Hyatt Place downtown is now open. They did a great job, the top floor meeting space looks awesome. The Deco district is really building up some density between building conversions and new hotels. I can see the need for a 24 hour pharmacy soon. If the Reasor's ends up not being built which seems to be taking forever for them to each get their act together or just announce the deal is dead.

[TheArtist]

ARCO building I've heard is breaking ground first of next year for renovation into apartments. Will have a rooftop pool built on the two story part at the back and green roof on the part facing 6th. 70 ish apartments with commercial spaces on the first floor. Basement will be converted into about 30-40 parking spaces.

This really leaves only the Philcade buildings as the biggest under utilized buildings downtown, then the Sinclair building at 6th & Main. Not many older buildings left to convert so over the next five years we're going to see a lot of new infill downtown.

I've heard that First Christian Church is looking at building senior apartments on their parking lots. Would be 150 or so units along Main Street between the church and TCC. Have also heard that the Sun Building ownership group is looking at building a new parking garage and want to build apartments onto of the garage. Not sure how far along either of those are at the moment. Seems like the success of the 9:10 building has peaked the interest of some of the churches to turn their land holdings into cash flowing assets versus just parking.

Also, if people didn't see - the Hyatt Place downtown is now open. They did a great job, the top floor meeting space looks awesome. The Deco district is really building up some density between building conversions and new hotels. I can see the need for a 24 hour pharmacy soon. If the Reasor's ends up not being built which seems to be taking forever for them to each get their act together or just announce the deal is dead.

If anyone is interested in ground floor space in the Deco District, our DECOPOLIS spot is available!

Unfortunately once they booted out the last of the other retail near us, and Mods across the street left (DGX is a different animal) our sales went down. And of course this year has been awful. This area seems to be evolving to be more business/living area and not a main street/retail type area that can pull in shoppers from a large area.  Plus believe it or not more living in the area has hurt us too as they park in the available street parking evenings and weekends.

Anywhoo, we are looking to get out of there asap. Oh, and the Arco is not situated to have retail on the ground floor as there is no other retail opposite on either side, and no retail next to it.

Just an aside, our new Route 66 location is doing double the sales of our downtown store (despite the road construction that has just finished up) and the rent is about a third of downtown.   I am no mathematician but... I want the hell out of downtown. The property owners and landlords there are f-ing morons when it comes to retail and I was just as much an idiot to think they would do what it takes to help create a thriving retail like they keep mouthing that they want (then turn around and do things that shoot that idea in the foot and screw over the retail that is there).  Rant over lol.

[SXSW]

Now that 2020 is behind we can look forward to what we will see in 2021.  A few projects I’m aware of, feel free to add more..

WPX Tower - this 11 story office building should be topping out by this summer and finishing up in early 2022.  With WPX acquired by Devon the space is up for grabs, it will be interesting to see if they can line up a tenant (or multiple tenants) this year

The View - this 6 story apartment building should be completed later this year and will have 198 units, one of the larger new apartment projects downtown

Davenport Lofts - this 8 story condo building should be completed later this year and will have 28 condos

111 Greenwood - this 4 story mixed-use apartment building should be completed by this summer and will have 50 units over retail/office space on Greenwood. Clarion Events (formerly Pennwell) will move 130 employees to the renovated Hartford Building next door

GreenArch 2/Greenwood Rising - 3 story mixed-use office building with an educational component about the 1921 Race Massacre at the corner will be completed this summer

OTASCO - retail project at 2nd & Cincinnati that is almost finished - not sure if any tenants have been announced yet?  

Midland - rehab creative/co-working office project at 4th & Kenosha that will be completed this year

OKPop Museum - should be completed by the end of this year.  That along with Davenport Lofts finishing will open Main fully back up which has been a mess the past two years

Western Supply - GKFF’s secretive mixed-use project at Cameron & Boulder should hopefully move into more substantial construction this year.  If built according to the plans I’ve seen this will be one of the larger new projects downtown and will help push new development in the Arts District westward

OSU VA Hospital - this will primarily be a renovation so there won’t be a lot of new construction at least initially with the exception of a parking garage that is planned for the north end of the site.  This is a major coup for downtown though and will lead to additional hospital buildings in the future both at the VA and OSU Med Center, and also brings in hundreds of new jobs to downtown

LA King - this is the brewery/music venue proposed by the Hanson brothers at Cameron & Main.  They have said they will begin construction once the crane/lay down area is removed for Davenport Lofts.  Very interested to see their plans this is a key site within the Arts District

TDA Cameron & Main - catty-corner to LA King is an empty TDA site they sought mixed-use proposals for, not sure what the timeline for development is but this would be a great site for infill

Santa Fe Square - Hotel Indigo was the first phase and is complete, the office building at 2nd & Elgin was supposed to be the next phase but new office construction is tough to finance right now.  I talked to the guys at ARG and they said they would be focusing on the Santa Fe Square residential portion after The View is completed, so hopefully there is some movement on that front even if actual construction is 1-2 years out.  I’ve said it before but this is the most important redevelopment project in downtown Tulsa and we need to make sure we get it right

The Annex - this was seemingly dead but Flaherty & Collins had indicated they are still pursuing this residential project on the PAC lot.  I don’t have a lot of confidence in this project but F&C does have a good track record of quality projects in Indianapolis and Kansas City

PAC Renovation - I haven’t heard any more about this since they released their plans, I imagine this will need significant fundraising and possibly public money from a future sales tax bond but it’s definitely needed.  I have heard the PAC is interested in possibly building a smaller theater across the street that would also have office and rehearsal space

NORDAM Site - hopefully we start to hear more about Brickhugger’s plans for this redevelopment this year

UCAT Redevelopment - a design team was selected for the empty lots west of MLK and north of 244, this could be a really exciting new development over the next several years and could add a lot of new housing to the neighborhood just north of downtown

All Souls Church - supposedly they are still fundraising for a new church and community center at 6th & Frankfort, not sure when they plan to break ground though

And here is my 2021 Christmas wish list (I know a little late):
1. Announcement of a large tech company moving to the WPX tower
2. Another major GKFF project proposed in the Arts District (other than Western Supply)
3. Addition of a protected bikeway to Cincinnati Ave when they do the two-way street conversion
4. OSU updating their master plan to include new buildings on the parking lots between Elgin and Greenwood
5. New federal building proposed downtown to make way for future redevelopment of the Page Belcher site for a convention hotel