DOWNTOWN DETAILS
Construction expected to start soon on hotel at Oklahoma and Sheridan avenues
Steve Lackmeyer fielded questions Friday about downtown development during his weekly OKC Central online chat. This is an abridged transcript of that conversation. To see the full transcript, or to participate in next week’s chat, go to NewsOK.com.
Q: What do you think will come of the buildings that sustained damage on Film Row this past weekend?
A: The former Cash & Carry building at 631 W California Ave. was deemed too damaged to save. The building was a danger to the public with what was left and has already been torn down. I do believe the site will be built up.
Q: I’ve been reading a lot about the slowdown in apartments being built downtown, will this affect the project at 4th & E.K. Gaylord?
A: No. The 17-story residential tower and retail is a unique product. But the timetable was never for it to start right away. From the start, Mark Ruffin and Jonathan Russell indicated it would start no sooner than 2018. When I last checked, the project was still in play and evolving with review by the Urban Renewal Authority.
Q: When is the new Bricktown Renaissance supposed to start construction?
A: Building permits have been filed with the city for the 10-story Renaissance Hotel at the southeast corner of Oklahoma and Sheridan Avenues. Developer Andy Patel has indicated construction should begin within the next few months.
Q: It looks like MAPS 3 will exceed projections. Is it pretty much a done deal that the funds will be used for the Convention Center parking garage and not sidewalks or more trails?
A: Trails and sidewalks actually were among the first of the MAPS 3 projects to get outside funding after the initial MAPS 3 budget was set. City Hall reporter William Crum reported several options are being considered, including a garage that will serve the new convention center, park and arena; an additional wellness center and a renovation of Union Station, which for some unfathomable reason was never funded as part of the park project.
These all seem like reasonable choices. Unless you want to see the current Cox Convention Center stay in place, largely unused and gobbling up prime real estate that can be sold for redevelopment, it will need to be torn down. And when the building is torn down, the city will also need to take out the approximately 1,000 parking spaces under the Cox Center. So we would have these major new venues opening with less parking than we have now. The garage is needed. Union Station is needed.
Let’s see how the first open senior wellness center functions and let that guide us into seeing whether another is needed (we have more still to be built). I’d be curious how much of the trails master plan is being built out with the current MAPS 3 expansions. As for sidewalks, we can never build enough to make up for decades of poor planning for pedestrians.
Q: It looks like the Riversport Rapids have been under construction for a while now. What are they doing? This is a brand-new venue. It seems strange that they are already undergoing major renovations. Will the rapids be completed and reopening soon?
Riversport Rapids was scaled down before work began due to budget overruns. When the city had a better grasp on incoming MAPS 3 revenues and felt more comfortable about the program’s completion, they approved building the items that were cut, including a viewing bridge and other amenities seen as critical to ensuring the venue is a success.