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Three Statewide Business And Development Stories We're Watching This Week

Traffic passes in front of the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.
Brent Fuchs
/
The Journal Record
Traffic passes in front of the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City.

Tuesday the Oklahoma City Council approved a request for proposals for a hotel catering to the convention center that will be built as part of the series of projectsfunded by the MAPS 3 temporary sales tax extension.

During the meeting, the council heavily stressed the importance of building enough parking for the hotel, convention center, and other uses around town, as well as alternate funding to make sure developers can complete the project.

The Journal Record's Brian Brus reports city officials are worried about the parking situation if the new building replaces the 50-year-old Cox Convention Center, and its underground garage, as expected.

If the older building is razed for redevelopment someday, the downtown district could also lose its basement parking space. Given that officials are already scrambling to come up with enough parking downtown in the face of growing construction and office occupancy, that 1,000-vehicle loss will be a big problem. City Manager Jim Couch said the city’s parking authority is already in the process of conducting a downtown parking study. “Uses and demands are being added; some parking is going away,” Couch said. “It’s a dynamic process that we’re trying to address.”

But there's been criticism of the focus on parking in that part of the city. Last week the Downtown Design Review Committee voted to allow nine buildings downtown to be demolished to make way for the proposed 27-story 499 Sheridan project, that also includes two parking garages.

"Instead of having street-level retail, some of the early plans just had a parking garage, and people weren't happy about that," says the Journal Record's managing editor Adam Brooks. "There is a lot of new parking that could come over the next couple of years. There's 1,800 spaces planned for 499 Sheridan, and the building that will be the OGE Energy tower has 3,200 spaces."

Oklahoma City Councilwoman Meg Salyer says several national hotel firms have already expressed interest in the project, and Oklahoma City expects to receive about six-to-seven responses to the request for proposals.

"They'll choose a finalist in the third quarter," Brooks says. "The timing's kind of important because they want to coordinate the start of construction of a convention center next year with the hotel and parking garage so that it all links up."

A construction zone in north Oklahoma City
Credit Brent Fuchs / The Journal Record
/
The Journal Record
Construction continues on the Chisholm Creek development at N. Western Avenue and Highland Park Boulevard, where Topgolf and Cabela’s will open soon.

Driving Range Dilemma

Several anchor tenants and a much-anticipated entertainment venue are under construction in the 170-acre Chisholm Creek development near Memorial Road and Western Ave. in Northwest Oklahoma City.

Topgolfplans to open this spring, but its presence caused the local developers of a similar venue called Skybox to announce plans to look elsewhere in the state so their facilities wouldn't compete.

"They're talking about 40 retail slots, with some residential above it," Brooks says. "The big anchors that people want to hear about, there's going to be a Cabela's sporting goods store, and a Main Event, which is video games and entertainment. There's also going to be a St. Anthony Healthplex up there."

Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Retail Development and Recruitment Manager Tammy Fate told The Journal Record's Molly Fleming the development will create more than 800 full- and part-time jobs and attract 2.2 million visitors annually.

According to retail brokers, Topgolf, Cabela’s and Main Event are likely to be the beginning of a slate of new-to-market companies. When they do enter the city, the companies are often looking for interstate frontage, which the Western Avenue-Memorial Road area still has. Price Edwards & Co. Senior Vice President of Retail Jim Parrack said Topgolf and Cabela’s are signs that Oklahoma City has moved up in its attractiveness to national retailers.

The Village at Aspen Park apartments in Broken Arrow.
Credit Rip Stell / The Journal Record
/
The Journal Record
The Village at Aspen Park apartments in Broken Arrow.

Booming Broken Arrow

In Broken Arrow, 3,000 new apartment units have opened in the past decade, with more than 1,000 more planned.

Brooks says tensions are starting to appear as people believe Broken Arrow is reaching a limit on how much development it can sustain.

There are problems in certain neighborhoods where they don't really want new apartments that are three and four stories tall built next to them," Brooks says. "There are some analysts that the fall in oil prices could also slow that growth."

But the Journal Record's Kirby Lee Davis reports many analyst don't think the development spring is anywhere close to drying up.

Despite much-discussed trends toward urban living, demand for suburban lifestyles remains strong. Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce data charted 22.9-percent population growth from 2000 to 2010, with another 4.1 percent from 2010 to 2013. The chamber study by the Nielsen Co. forecast another 6.1-percent growth through 2018. “People want to live in that suburban community, and on the developments that have occurred in that area, they’ve been tremendously successful,” said Raymond W. Lord, senior vice president with NAI Petrous in Tulsa. “The rental rates are strong, the occupancies are strong.” Despite 10 years of steady construction, Broken Arrow apartments charted 95.4 percent occupancies at the end of 2014, up from 93 percent the prior year, according to a fourth-quarter survey by First Commercial Real Estate Services of Tulsa. That report charted average rental rents at $740, or 86 cents per square foot, up from $705, or 81 cents, at the end of 2013.

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The Business Intelligence Report is a collaborative news project between KGOU and The Journal Record.

As a community-supported news organization, KGOU relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membership department.

The Journal Record is a multi-faceted media company specializing in business, legislative and legal news. Print and online content is available via subscription.

Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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