OKLAHOMA CITY | Projects & Construction

[Peerson]

Latest aerial shots of Omni hotel, convention center, and Scissortail Park:


https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=35905&page=82











https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=24502&page=88

[Peerson]

I stumbled across some renderings for a downtown OKC skyscraper.
I'm quite certain it's not a real proposal, just some designs put together at the behest of some client. Still, I thought it was interesting to look at.

I created another thread for this in City Discussions, since it doesn't belong here.



Edit:
I had the City Discussions thread deleted, as I received a complaint about it not being an appropriate place to post the item.
And I can see the point. I just didn't know where on this forum to place purely speculative stuff.

For those who are interested in the renderings, the link is here:
https://beckdesign.com/work/okc-skyscraper

[DetroitSky]

Wheeler District is such a cool development.

[Dale]

Originally Posted by Peerson

I stumbled across some renderings for a downtown OKC skyscraper.
I'm quite certain it's not a real proposal, just some designs put together at the behest of some client. Still, I thought it was interesting to look at.

I created another thread for this in City Discussions, since it doesn't belong here.



Edit:
I had the City Discussions thread deleted, as I received a complaint about it not being an appropriate place to post the item.
And I can see the point. I just didn't know where on this forum to place purely speculative stuff.




For those who are interested in the renderings, the link is here:
https://beckdesign.com/work/okc-skyscraper

Are you hearing any rumors of something big ?

[Peerson]

Originally Posted by Dale

Are you hearing any rumors of something big ?

No, not at all...... unfortunately

I just found it very curious that a respected architectural design firm would have a rendering on their website for a conceptual OKC skyscraper.
It's not hidden -- it's displayed along with a bunch of other projects that they've had a hand in.

It's especially curious because the renderings show a tower on the 4th & EK Gaylord site.
That site actually IS being developed.
Right now there are two competing proposals being considered by the city for acceptance. Whichever is selected is what will *really* be built there.

However, that same site was supposed to be developed as residential tower several years ago. That proposal never came to pass.

I just wonder who commissioned the skyscraper design.
Is it a left-over from several years ago when the residential tower was under consideration? Or more recent? Who requested it?

I just found it odd. And very interesting.

Since I've drudged this topic up, I'm going to go ahead a put out a post on those two competing proposals -- and a bit of the background for that site.
Originally, I was planning on waiting until I found out who won before posting anything. But, I might as well do it now.

[Peerson]

4th & EK Gaylord

The empty, grassy, triangular plot of land at 4th & EK Gaylord has been rumored for development for many years now.



The city owns the west part of the plot facing the curving street of EK Gaylord. The east/north part is privately owned.
Sandridge Energy owned that private section for a number of years, and it was presumed that someday they would make a deal with the city and develop the whole plot.

But when Sandridge's fortunes went downhill in 2014, they became cash strapped and sold their acreage to Land Run, a local development company.
Land Run apparently did have some ambitious plans for the area, but many months went by without any notification or action.

Finally, in July 2016 a new development was announced for this.
It consisted of a 17 story residential tower, along with a parking garage and some retail space.
This was given a project name of "Times Square" (presumably because of the shape of the lot).





https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=38885&page=8

There are more renderings for this, but I won't bother - as that proposal died on the vine.
But in the early months, it seemed to have some legs to it.
They even announced that they had selected an architect, WDG of Dallas, who had done other similar residential towers.

Nevertheless, months passed without anything happening.
Likely they were not able to secure sufficient financing.
Finally, after over 2 years had passed by, the Times Square proposal became officially dead when the city issued an RFP (again) for the land in December 2018.

This time, they received proposals from two different groups.

• Bomasada (a Houston company)
• Rose Rock Development (a Tulsa company).

Bomasada had previously developed The Metropolitan in OKC, an 329 unit apartment block in Automobile Alley.
Rose Rock will be developing 'Boulevard Place', which is an 8 story residential complex to be built next to the Omni convention center hotel.
Both companies have good track records.


Here's the Bomasada proposal:







https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=38885&page=18


Here are the intial renderings that Rose Rock issued:









https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=38885&page=18


Rose Rock later issued some amended renderings, with more details about the land use:















https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=38885&page=18

The Rose Rock complex is to have a local bank as an anchor tenant.
But it has not been revealed which one.

Note:

• The Bomasada proposal is for residential only, along with a parking structure for tenants.
  
• The Rose Rock proposal is for mixed-use with office, restaurant, and retail (along with parking), but no residential.

Clearly the Rose Rock proposal is the sexier of the two.
But it's a bummer about no residential units for this design.
It would be great if it were modified to add another 3 or 4 floors above the office space for residential -- but that's just my fantasy.

I'm a bit concerned that the mesh material used to cover the parking garage might not look that great in person once built, but that's just a guess.

The Bomasada proposal is fine in and of itself. It looks sharp.
I just don't think it's the best fit for that particular spot in downtown.
I'd love to see it built elsewhere downtown.

No word yet on when the city will announce the winner.

[Peerson]

More (close-up) photos of the Omni convention hotel construction:


https://www.flickr.com/photos/182843...27901/sizes/h/



https://www.flickr.com/photos/182843...28876/sizes/h/



https://www.flickr.com/photos/182843...62958/sizes/h/



https://www.flickr.com/photos/182843...63563/sizes/h/



https://www.flickr.com/photos/182843...64223/sizes/h/


all photos © Andrew Penney Photography

[Peerson]

Updated photos on a few projects


Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center


https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=29284&page=12


The Monarch building


https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44161&page=5

(you can also see a boom lifter working the Stryker Building next door)


Cajun Corner restaurant on NW 23rd





https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44471


The new Heartland HQ building





https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44171&page=7

[Peerson]

Parkside Building - new Echo Energy Headquarters

The Parkside Building, located at 120 Robert S. Kerr, is located across the street from the Sandridge tower.

It was originally meant to be an amenities building for Sandridge employees.
Construction began in 2012.






Sandridge later ran into financial troubles that ultimately led to filing bankrupty.
The construction stalled for a long time, but later picked up and was finally finished in 2015.


https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=29920&page=17

It was briefly offered for sale as office space, but was dropped after Sandridge entered bankruptcy.

It sat unoccupied for several years until June 2018 when Echo Energy announced that they had purchase the building and would move all 100 of their employees there.
The building was still unfinished inside at the time:


http://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r...ntown-building


Echo spent months preparing the interior.
But they regularly took employees to the new building for events, just to prepare them.
For example, this banquet last fall:


https://www.instagram.com/echoenergyco


Kerr Park, a long time public park adjacent to where the Parkside building was placed, was completely destroyed during the initial construction. But it was rebuilt in a new form afterward.
Then several years later it received another (minor) renovation.









http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=31589&page=6


https://www.instagram.com/echoenergyco

Last fall, while in the midst of the renovation, Echo initiated “Hitchcock In The Park”, a series of nighttime movie showings in the park, free and open to the public.
These movies were projected onto the large building side.


https://www.facebook.com/echoenergycompany/


https://www.facebook.com/echoenergycompany/


This is the projector used:

https://www.instagram.com/echoenergyco


Echo are setting up their offices in the sixth and seventh floors.
Amenities for their employees will occupy a good deal of the remaining space.
However, there are rumors of another energy company moving into this building as well.

http://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r...ntown-building


Sandridge originally conceived of a restaurant on the first floor.
The Echo Energy CEO hints that this will probably still happen:

"The Park Level was designed and constructed with an eye toward a restaurant," Kanady said.
"The views, layout and proximity to green space cause us to believe that continuation of that idea makes a lot of sense.

Oklahoma City has seen a renaissance in food and beverage concepts.
To be a part of this new era, a restaurant would need to compete top of market in food, service and atmosphere."

https://oklahoman.com/article/559988...n-headquarters

I'm still waiting to see if/when they erect the company logo on the top of the building.

[Peerson]

Amazon Fulfillment Center

In March 2018 it was announced that Amazon was building a fulfillment center in Oklahoma City.
This would be the first fulfillment center in Oklahoma.

It was to be constructed at SW 89th & Portland on a 70 acre site close to the airport.

Location:




Oklahoma City already had an Amazon sortation center at SW 15th & Council, which was built in 2017.
The new fulfillment center would allow for quicker delivery (by about a day) for most packages.

Here's how shipments to the OKC metro area will operate:




The new fulfillment center would have 4 floors at 640,000 sf each for a total of 2,560,000 sf capacity.
A massive parking lot holding about 1900 spaces would accompany this.

Additionally, this was to be a state-of-the-art facility employing Amazon's new robotic warehouse system:

The Oklahoma City fulfillment center at SW 89th and Portland will be one of the first built from the ground-up with the express purpose of utilizing their new Robotics Service Platform, a layout that maximizes the benefits of thousands of small robots.

The footprint of the warehouse will be 640,000 square feet with three upper levels, bringing the total size of the facility to a staggering 2.5 million square feet.

The ground floor will facilitate material handling and sorting equipment. The upper floors will house a large automated storage system with shelf-like storage units (“pods” in the parlance of Amazon) that are stocked with millions of consumer products.

When an order is placed through Amazon.com, it is transmitted to the fulfillment facility. Then, the low-profile robots are automatically dispatched to retrieve the pods holding the requested items and delivered to workers at the perimeters of the upper floors where they are placed in a tote and conveyed to the ground floor where sorting, combining, packaging and shipping occurs.

http://www.okctalk.com/content.php?r...mazon-facility


Amazon signed a long term (40 year) lease to operate the facility.
From April 2018:

Today, the Airport Trust approved a ground lease for 69.456 acres to the company that will build the fulfillment center for Amazon, then lease it back to them.

Terms are:
Revenue Annual ground rental rate of $242,039.26, subject to escalations of $0.006 (7.5%) per square foot every 5 years thereafter during the primary lease period.
40 years with 3 five-year options to extend.

Construction began about a month after the announcement.
By the summer, the land had been cleared and the foundation started.

7-2-2018



9-14-2018



10-22-2018



4-1-2019



6-5-2019


This is nearly finished now.

Note that, while the fulfillment center was built next to the airport, this is more of a coincidence and simply based on the availability of a huge plot of convenient land for the purpose.
The center itself makes no use of an airport -- everything comes in and goes out on trucks.

Amazon is currently hiring for this center.
There will be about 1700 jobs available -- the vast majority for warehouse floor positions.

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44168

[Peerson]

400 N. Walnut - renovation / adaptive reuse



This building at 400 N. Walnut is located in Deep Deuce, a largely residential district immediately north of Bricktown.
It was originally constructed for the Oklahoma City Board of Education in 1919.
It has seen a number of uses over the years.

In the 1970's it was purchased by the Opportunities Industrialization Center and used as an alternative education and skills training center.
However, it has been vacant for awhile now.

A few interesting facts about its historical significance:

• It was the first permanent home for the Oklahoma City Schools' Administration
• It's the only remaining building directly related to the original Irving School - built in 1896 - which was Oklahoma City's first high school
• It's one of the few original buildings remaining from the 1890-1920 time period of school construction in Oklahoma City
• It's one of the few original buildings remaining within the Deep Deuce District
• It was designed by Layton & Smith Architects

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=38624&page=7

Recently, a local law firm purchased the 100 year old building to relocate their practice to the downtown area.
They will carry out an extensive renovation that seeks to restore the building to its former glory while updating the interior with modern amenities.

Renderings:








A new rooftop patio/deck will be installed on the top of the 2nd floor (along the south side).
Street trees will be planted along NW 3rd Street and new landscaping/planter beds placed next to the front entry.

This is how the building looked just prior to the beginning of the renovation:





https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=38624&page=7


Here are a few construction photos courtesy of Studio Architecture





https://www.instagram.com/p/BwuQpuBh...=1kmpssdxsd84d


There are plans to install a historical monument sign on the site.
No word yet on an expected finish date.

[Peerson]

Villa Teresa





https://okcmod.com/2018/05/endangere...some-fun-saves


Villa Teresa was in operation as a convent and Catholic school for nearly 80 years.
But in 2012 they ceased operation and put the property up for sale.

It stayed on the market for years. Rumors abounded... but no action.
This prompted some (very real) worries that the wonderful old structures on site might be demolished.

Finally in the fall of 2017, it was purchased by a group led by Marva Ellard.
Marva Ellard is an OKC developer who has been involved in previous renovation projects,
most notably the old Sieber Hotel, another midtown property, which was converted to apartments.

more info: http://oklahoman.com/article/5562995...s-preservation

Ellard's plan for the 3.5 acre lot involves converting the old convent into a boutique motel.
Additional townhomes and condos would be built upon undeveloped sections of the site.
All historic structures are to be preserved.

Location:


Note: the Unitarian church next to the site is not part of the property.






The development will occur in three phases.




Phase I: Dewey Townhomes and Classen Flats will be built along the undeveloped section fronting Dewey Avenue.

Phase II: renovate the historic Lowery House into two condos and the former school building into eleven flats

Phase III: create a boutique hotel - this involves converting the former convent and Anderson house


Dewey Townhomes






Classen Flats




https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=29042&page=9

website: https://www.villateresaokc.com

This is a long term project.
Marva Ellard is known for her careful, cautious and unrushed pace of development.

[Peerson]

Scissortail Park

Here are some recent shots showing detail work on the eastern side of the park.



https://twitter.com/adgokc










https://twitter.com/ScissortailPark


There will be a media event at Scissortail Park on Monday (6-17-2019).

A gift is to be presented, and names will be announced for the Stage and the Great Lawn.
Since there will be a sculpture placed on the park's east side, speculation is that the gift will be the sculpture.

[Peerson]

TownePlace Suites - downtown OKC

A new TownePlace Suites hotel is being proposed for downtown.
There is already an existing one in OKC on SW 15th & Meridian.

The original proposal for this was made over a year ago.
It may have run into difficulties about approval - the design was a bit suburban style.
After a lengthy gap, they have finally submitted a second design proposal.

Renderings:













from OKCTalk:

The 111-room TownePlace Suites by Marriott would feature 4 floors of rooms atop a 3-level parking structure.

Other than parking, the ground level would include a 'jump lobby' where guests would unload luggage before proceeding to check-in on the 4th level.

Also on the 4th floor would be the main lobby, a bar connected to an outdoor patio with a glass folding wall system., meeting rooms, a fitness center, and guest rooms.

Floors 5, 6 and 6 would be for guest rooms and suites.

TownePlace is positioned as an extended stay hotel, with all rooms having kitchenettes and larger than average rooms.

This would be built north of a large parking garage and to the west of the new Heartland headquarters.

Location:


That's an older pic, taken before construction started on the Heartland HQ building.

Here's another view using a recent photo of the Heartland construction.



https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44065&page=5

Given its 'tucked in' location, the north side (facing 6th street) is the only part of the building that will have much visibility.

[Peerson]

Thunder Alley Entertainment Block proposal

A few months back, OCURA put out an RFP for the empty section of land south of Chesapeake Energy Arena.
(OCURA: Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority)




They received only one response - from the Oklahoma City Thunder ownership group.

Here's some renderings from their submission.













from OKCTalk:

Named Thunder Alley, the project would also include surface parking spaces for 70 cars at the east end.

The group anticipates the area to be a gathering space before and after Thunder games and other arena events, but also conventioneers who will be utitlizing the new Omni Hotel and convention center being constructed to the immediate south.

The proposal offers $1.25 million for the city-owned 1.55 acres but also asks $1.5 million in public incentives in the form of tax increment financing funds. They anticipate the entire project will cost $10.5 million.

https://www.okctalk.com/content.php?...south-of-arena


To be honest, I'm not really digging that silver basketball-globe-with-hands sculpture.
In fact, the whole proposal leaves me underwhelmed.

It seems to me that the strip could be better developed, particularly in terms of street interaction since it faces the new downtown boulevard.

OCURA has yet to make a decision on the proposal.

[delts145]

I love the look of that building. Hard to believe it was just sitting empty. I'm sure the new owners got a great deal. Simple, but very elegant! Also perfect to have the park as an adj. feature.


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/parkside111515a.jpg

[Peerson]

Originally Posted by delts145

I love the look of that building. Hard to believe it was just sitting empty. I'm sure the new owners got a great deal. Simple, but very elegant! Also perfect to have the park as an adj. feature.

Yes, it's a very cool looking building.
The stacked box interface gives it a 3D effect that sets it apart.
There are no other buildings in downtown OKC that look like that.

As for it being empty for a long time -- that's actually pretty understandable.
Sandridge ran into financial troubles right in the middle of building this.
The construction stalled for quite awhile.
It looked as though the building would never be finished.

Fortunately, Sandridge finally did manage to finish this off -- but only barely.
They got the building closed up and the exterior all done, but the interior was left unfinished.

So whoever purchased this building was getting a shell, basically.
They would have to put some hefty funds into finishing out the interior.
Energy companies would be a natural candidate, but after the oil slump a few years ago, not many of them were in the mood for a project like that.

I'm glad that a local company finally stepped up to the plate.
Echo Energy has been working on the building for about a year now, and, as far as I know, it's not quite done yet.
So it took some real initiative -- not to mention cash.

But they will get a great building.
And having that public park right there at their doorstep -- that's a great amenity for the employees.

[Peerson]

Shay Hotel

A new boutique hotel is being proposed for midtown at 516 NW 8th.

Location:



The 3 story building was constructed in 1963 and has the typical 'mid-century mod' styling of the time.
It has been used recently as apartments.





https://www.google.com/maps/place/St....5209168?hl=en

Shyon Keoppel, who is also developing the Fan Club / Okie Kush development on 10th & Hudson has purchased the building and is planning on converting it to a 25 room boutique hotel.

It will feature a restaurant, bar and coffee shop on the ground floor.
A large swimming pool and sunning deck will be built on the empty lot immediately to the east.

Renderings:





https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=44919


The house immediately to the west is a private residence.
Keoppel reportedly owned this previously, but it's up for sale at the moment.
A zillow listing has it priced at $1,075,000.




The Ambassador Hotel, not too far away, is an outstanding boutique hotel.
Otherwise there are very few hotels (of any kind) in the midtown area.
So this would be a welcome addition.

The pool deck should have great views of downtown.

[chjbolton]

That Devon tower needs some company...

[Peerson]

Originally Posted by chjbolton

That Devon tower needs some company...

Man, you aint kiddin'... LOTS of company.

Not much I can do about it.

Hope for the best.
Stiff upper lip.
Fingers crossed.
Eat my veggies (won't help get a tower, but a good idea anyway )