More retailers coming to The OAK? Skyline changes ahead? Your questions answered

The Oklahoman’s Steve Lackmeyer fielded reader questions Friday during his weekly OKC Central Live Chat. Each week, Steve hosts a live chat, giving readers a chance to ask questions about Oklahoma City development and growth as well as an opportunity to ask direct questions of OKC newsmakers like Mayor David Holt and Dan Straughan, the executive director of the Homeless Alliance. You can join Steve most Fridays at 10 a.m. to add your comments and questions about downtown development.

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Non-profit apartments proposed for Boardwalk development a new model for Oklahoma City

Q: Nice article on the Boardwalk. It would be a great use of the site and I'm all for growth, but when did $2 per square rent become a subsidized rate? Does anyone on the tax increment financing advisory board know what they are reviewing on this project? I saw $600,000 per unit total cost vs $200,000; is that normal? That is three times the normal costs, even subsidized at 30% it is two times the normal cost. They are lumping "free public parking" into the deal to get their hotel parking. It sure does seem like a "DREAM" to me. 

A: There is a lot to take in with this new twist with The Boardwalk at Bricktown. If I understand this component of the project correctly, we need to not look at this as 126 apartments on the open market, but rather 126 apartments that are being leased to the non-profit, Aspiring Anew Generation. That non-profit will also be leasing space for a workforce development center. So in this sense, the residents moving into these apartments will not be tenants with The Boardwalk, but rather with Aspiring Anew Generation.

The non-profit will then be working with chronically homeless and jobless residents to move into those apartments as part of admission into a program where they will receive addiction treatment if needed, job training, personal finance, living skills counseling and case workers to help them get back on their feet.

More: Workforce training, housing for chronically homeless proposed as part of Bricktown project

The rent will start off free and then will increase over the two-year program to the point that for a two-bedroom apartment, the rent will be $1,834 a month. This amount surprised me as well, but Joanne Carras, CFO of Aspiring Anew, responded this is the HUD-defined workforce rent amount for a two-bedroom apartment. She added the workforce rent for a one-bedroom apartment is about $1,200 a month, which as I recall pretty much matches what we recently were told with the Boulevard Place workforce housing to be built next to the Omni.

The cost of going up vertically to 28 stories (that is the figure given to me by the design/contractor and developer on Thursday) is not cheap. It is far more expensive per square foot when you go beyond five stories. By my calculation, the percentage on this TIF is about 36% of the overall cost (not including the hotel, which cannot receive any city assistance due to its agreement with Omni).

Parking will, I assume, be a part of the rent for residents. I did not hear anything about “free” parking for the public in the second garage, but I will check and get back to you.

There is a lot to take in with this project, which as you allude to, will include a Hyatt Dream Hotel. The project has a lot of pieces to it and I’ll be following it closely.

Height of Boardwalk towers rising from original proposal

Q: Will the Boardwalk at Bricktown and the proposed towers to the east of the ballpark be able to both be built at the same time? This seems like a lot of development in a short window. 

A: Plans for The Boardwalk first emerged in November 2021 with developer Scot Matteson revealing plans to build a $275 million mix that would feature two 14-story hotels and an 18-story condominium tower.

That plan has changed dramatically with the plan now being to build two 28-story apartment towers, a third apartment tower (the height has yet to be determined but likely will be similar), and a Hyatt Dream Hotel.

First, to be clear, there are no towers and there is no development in the horizon at this time for the parking lots east of the ballpark.

Now, let's look at The Boardwalk.

Even this week, I saw some shifting around on some of the design and schedule details. It's nothing too dramatic and not unusual, but it makes it a bit difficult to track without talking directly to the developer, Scot Matteson, and his design, construction and finance team - which I did this week.

The printed schedule suggests construction will start in June 2024. I'm going to bet we're probably looking at a start in late 2024 simply based on the need to go through Urban Renewal design review, tax increment financing approval, and all the other financial details that have to be nailed down on a project like this.

More: Record-setting tax increment financing sought for Bricktown towers project

I've done a lot of research on Matteson and his track record is solid and he's done projects like this before. And to be clear, he has done them. It's not where he was on a team doing such work.

What I heard in the latest presentation was a pretty sober and realistic presentation where the formal schedule calls for the third tower, the final component, to be done in 2027. But the team also acknowledged a worst-case scenario where the development may take up to six years to complete based on leasing success and other variables.

We will first see a lot of digging for underground parking similar to what we saw with Convergence by Stiles Park east of Interstate 235.

That can last for several months. We will then see vertical construction start on the twin apartment towers along with retail, restaurant and entertainment space. Construction on the hotel and a public parking garage at about the same time the twin towers construction goes vertical.

We're getting into a new market with the apartment towers, so I would caution against expecting the third tower will go up as quickly but at the same time, construction staging costs could prompt the developer to start it not long after the other buildings are completed.

Omni agreement with Oklahoma City prohibits public assistance for other nearby hotels

Q: How long does the moratorium on TIF proposals for hotels last?

A: I'm told by Kenton Tsoodle, president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City, that the moratorium was written to last 15 years upon the hotel's opening, which occurred in January 2021. So that gives us about a dozen years left. The zone goes from Interstate 40 on the south side, NW 4 on the north side, Russell Perry on the east, and Lee on the west side.

This moratorium would not prevent tax increment financing for an Omni-related hotel in the no-subsidy zone. The agreement prohibits a hotel on the former Cox Center site for 10 years, but it has to be under 200 rooms until 20 years after the Omni's opening. And the Omni is required to be the city's convention center hotel for 45 years.

Omni, however, can build a hotel on the Cox site, which could come into play if voters approve building a new arena. I will be shocked if a new arena is not built on the Cox site, which is now home to Prairie Surf Studios. So this entire discussion is very timely.

No hints of development - yet - at the site of First Christian Church dome

Q: Has anything been planned for the old First Christian Church site at NW 36 and Walker? 

A: Not so far. The congregation destroyed everything on the site except for the ornamental concrete marker topped with cell phone antennas. Whoever ends up buying this property will have to deal with neighbors and preservations upset by the destruction, which happened without warning, and a zoning that limits commercial development to the corner with the remainder of the property zoned for housing.

OAK development progressing with more tenant announcements coming soon

Q: Any more new businesses announced for the OAK? 

A: It's always great when someone like Ryan McNeill, developer of OAK, responds quickly to this sort of inquiry. Here's his latest:

"We'll be introducing/revealing details about our initial art installation soon ($1.5 mill-pls in phase 1).

"More information (coming) about the local partnership to design the stage on the Lawn and programmatic events for the first year (coming soon).

"More first-to-market tenant names to follow."

We're going to see openings of the apartments, the hotel and some of the retailers in September 2024, followed by more of the retailers in the following months."

More: Restoration Hardware, Arhaus and Capital Grille to anchor OAK development

Fact: it was about race

Q: Steve, give us some things to not be depressed about considering the current state of affairs regarding education, attempts to instate Christian sharia law in our state, and the gross mismanagement of funds in both the department of education and in the governor's office. 

A: I'm not going to engage in politics, but I will point out that there were reports this week that Ryan Walters said he supports teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre, but objects to the teaching that the event happened “because of the color of people’s skin.”

As a history author and someone who delved into the massacre history as part of The Oklahoman's 100th anniversary of this tragedy, I'm troubled by this comment. We've seen gross historical revisionism before with those who deny the Holocaust and that six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany under Adolph Hitler. Now we're going to suggest the Tulsa Race Massacre didn't happen "because of the color of people's skin"?

It absolutely happened because white Tulsans went on a shooting spree killing and wounding Black residents of the city's Greenwood community, stealing their possessions, setting their homes and businesses on fire, and even flew over the neighborhood dropping bombs on the people below.

There are no "two sides" to this story. It happened. It happened because enraged white residents and leaders in Tulsa were filled with bigotry and hate and brutally attacked their Black neighbors. It happened because of the color of Greenwood residents’ skin.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC skyline change ahead with proposed Bricktown towers