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Google, Amazon joining downtown skyline? Commuter rail to airport? 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. On Friday, Steve hosted Mark Gillette, director of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority. You can join Steve most Fridays at 10 a.m. to add your comments and questions about downtown development.

To be able to ask questions and interact with Steve or special guests, you must have a digital subscription to The Oklahoman and you must be logged in. Right now, you can get unlimited digital access to all of our content for $1 for

School expansion likely across from State Fairgrounds

Plans for a new home for Astec middle school and high school at 2600 General Pershing Blvd. are shown in this rendering.

Q: ASTEC Charter School on Villa and General Pershing is gorgeous and there is plenty of land around it. When do you see them building the middle and high school there and leaving Shepherd Mall?  

A: Freda Deskin, CEO and founder of Astec, confirms the school is planning to consolidate its operations at the elementary campus at 2600 General Pershing Blvd. As you note, the middle school and high school have been located at Shepherd Mall since the school was started. The school, K-12, has an enrollment of about 1,500 students.  

Deskin said the school bought ample land for the elementary with the plan to someday build an adjoining middle school and high school. As a charter school, however, Astec does not get facilities funding. With increased interest rates, construction was delayed. But once costs level out, she said, the wait won’t be very long. 

Boutique DNA came to an end with sale of 21c Museum Hotel

21c Museum Hotel, once a 1916 Ford Model T assembly plant, is shown in this 2021 photo.

Q: Any thoughts on why the 21c Museum Hotel failed and how a different hotel concept might have more success in the old Ford assembly plant? 

A: 21c Museum Hotels went from a small boutique hotel chain to being part of a massive global conglomerate. I was not surprised this didn't end well and I'm hearing a similar separation is set for Nashville. 

You say Arts District, they say West Village, I say Film Row?

West Village apartments. Monday, February 14, 2022.

Q: How many years do you think it will be until the jail is relocated? Also, which of the many branding attempts do you like for this district? West Village? Arts District? Film Row? Downtown? Which has the Lackmeyer seal of approval? 

More:Designer for new county jail/health center selected by Oklahoma County

A: It will take a couple of years, at least, to get a jail designed and built. I am intrigued by the possibility of the current jail becoming a server farm for Amazon or Google. Imagine seeing that name at the top of the jail and development on the surrounding surface parking. It could be a nice transformation. As for the area around 21c, I refer to it by the historic name, Film Row. West Village is a commercial development in the middle of the neighborhood. 

Potential airport regional transit line likely to serve nearby employers

The Amazon Fulfillment facility at 9201 S Portland Ave.

Q: Is it possible to extend the Will Rogers World Airport commuter rail line to include the industrial employers along Portland Avenue, like Amazon and the SkyWest Maintenance Hub? 

A: I'd be shocked if such a line doesn't extend that way. 

Could airport help establish regional transit link to downtown?

Airline travelers wait in the terminal for their planes to arrive at Will Rogers World Airport.

Q: The Airport Trust can raise revenue by adding a passenger facility fee (tax) to all departing passenger tickets. It's usually about $3 to $5 per Airport. The funds are used to cover Airport operations and improvements. Now that Will Rogers World Airport has completed its expansion of the terminal, couldn't passenger facility funds go to improve the rail corridor to downtown, without the need for a vote of the citizens? 

A: I think you might be right or at least on the right track (forgive me on the pun). The airport also gets revenue from oil and gas royalties from its property. Could that assist in creating a line between downtown and the airport? Maybe. I'll ask.

More:Regional transit election likely by early 2025, will fund commuter rail network

Clean up of Reno Avenue between Bricktown and First Americans Museum likely

Crews continue work on the OKANA resort next the First Americans Museum  in Oklahoma City, Okla. on Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

Q: Do you know when planned improvements to Reno Avenue between Bricktown and the FAM will be revealed?

A: It's possible with the beautification money provided by MAPS 4 and potential development along the corridor. But nothing is really planned out yet. I do believe the Chickasaw Nation will take an interest in the corridor. 

Sales tax sole funding source for regional transportation

Q: Can an Oklahoma municipality raise revenue by means of a fuel tax? What about a regional transportation authority?  

A: Currently, state law only allows the Regional Transportation Authority of Central Oklahoma to use sales taxes as a funding mechanism. 

Engineers ignored request to build bridge wide enough for commuter rail

People watch workers install the new railroad bridge over Interstate 235 in Oklahoma City. [Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman]

Q: Reducing or eliminating blocked rail crossings in Edmond is nice, but what about N 7th to N 16th, and along S Shields near Capitol Hill in OKC? Are there any other single-track bottlenecks between Downtown OKC and Norman? Part of that issue is the single-track bottleneck between 36th and Britton. It should've been expanded years ago. The BNSF bridge over I-235 should've been wide enough for two or three tracks when it was designed. 

Couldn't OKDOT have understood that commuter rail might use the I-235 bridge, and therefore designed it for two or three tracks? 

A: Before work began on widening I-235 between NW 23 and NW 50, former Councilman Pete White urged ODOT to look at building a wider BNSF trestle bridge to accommodate future commuter rail operations. That request got nowhere, and his fellow council members showed no real zeal for pressing the issue. 

What a missed opportunity. Meanwhile, in Tulsa, ODOT built a double deck bridge over the Arkansas River to allow for a potential future Amtrak line that has yet to go beyond lawmakers who said years ago they want to see such an extension become a reality. 

Yes, the adding of more sidetracks is expected to eliminate most of the bottlenecks along the BNSF line between Edmond and Norman. 

Downtown isn't dead again

The sun sets behind the Oklahoma City skyline as a storms approach the Oklahoma City metro area, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Q: Philosophical Question: For decades Oklahoma City has never had a vibrant downtown business environment. For small stretches there have been hopes on the backs of oil & gas companies, but eventually the market changes and we go back to begging companies to move downtown. What will change that? Should we be celebrating the industrial developments more? It is the heart and growth of OKC. 

A: I'm not sure I agree with your view of downtown. We've seen a lot of diversity downtown that has allowed us to move away from reliance on energy companies. Yes, Devon and Continental Resources are still very important office anchors for downtown. But we also have the recently completed redevelopment and makeover of the former Cotter Ranch Tower into the headquarters for BancFirst. State agencies now fill up the former SandRidge tower. Heartland Payment Systems employs hundreds in both its new headquarters along Automobile Alley and in the Mideke Building in Bricktown. 

Public Strategies is consolidating its operations in a renovated warehouse just east of Broadway. Law firms, tech and banking are as important to downtown as energy these days. 

I agree that industrial development is another important component to our city's growth. We're seeing bio-tech and pharmaceutical manufacturing coming our way with the Convergence development just east of downtown. The city worked with developers Mark Beffort and Dick Tanenbaum to create OKC 577, a new industrial reserve at I-240 and Bryant that also will be focused on attracting new pharmaceutical manufacturers.

A boulevard by any other name... 

Westbound traffic on Oklahoma City Boulevard. Wednesday, October 6, 2021.

Q: By many (read most) people's accounts, the naming for the "Oklahoma City Boulevard" was a horrible choice. Mick Cornett himself was the person pushing for that stale name if I understand correctly. I realize that Mayor Holt was the one-time chief of staff for Mayor Cornett, so Mayor Holt probably won't have the inclination to reverse this horrible naming decision. Mayor Mick was a great mayor (even though his negative gubernatorial campaign was out of character), and he did everything else with excellence except this naming decision.  

Do you believe this horrific injustice of a street name could be rectified with a future mayor? My next vote for mayor will be the candidate who has the intestinal fortitude to re-name the lifeless "Oklahoma City Boulevard" to something more befitting the gateway into the OKC downtown...such as Scissortail Boulevard or the like. 

A: The decision to name the street "Oklahoma City Boulevard" is fully owned by Mick Cornett. There was no invitation for naming proposals, no public discussion, not even a city council debate. Mick was "ad man of the year" and that was good enough reasoning to push it through. I heard from a lot of people who were not happy with the name, who felt it communicated an insecurity that for years was deep-rooted in our city.  

If it is to be renamed, do it now before the corridor is developed and we end up with property owners not wanting to be inconvenienced with changing their addresses. 

Micro-housing coming to downtown 

Drone image of the former downtown Holiday Inn next to The Montgomery building.

Q: I'm super excited that the Holiday Inn project is moving forward. Did you see the conceptual plans? It appears they are making apartments out of hotel rooms. I've only seen that in homeless shelters? Studios with less than 350 sf seem too small, given the average apartment in OKC is greater than 1,000 square feet (as per Richard Mize). Even the smallest unit at the Muse is over 450 sf. Is this going to create the wrong development in the heart of OKC? 

A: Without knowing the buyer and being able to ask questions, most of the information I used to report this story was taken from the building permit filed with the city. Troy Humphrey, who works with the owner, Jonathan Russell, made it clear this is a real deal involving a buyer with the resources and experience to pull off a conversion of the old Holiday Inn into apartments.  

The building permit shows most of the studio apartments will be built within the framework of the old hotel rooms, meaning most of them are between 224 and 260 square feet. That definitely makes this a micro apartment project. A few of the rooms are larger, but even those are no more than 470 square feet from what I can see in the plans submitted to the city.  

In my college days I lived in an apartment that was about 700 square feet, and that was pretty small.  

We’ve seen micro-apartments proposed before for downtown, notably an earlier aborted development proposed for 700 W Shartel where the Muse was recently completed. That proposal was submitted by Rohan Gupta, who also tried to convert the former Sycamore Square (now The Haven) apartments into micro units.  

Neither proposal made sense to me. With the opening of the John Rex Elementary within walking distance of Sycamore Square, the need for its larger apartments was going up. Why do away with that scarce product? Ultimately, the development was boiled down to much needed updates and renovations. The project at 700 W Shartel was risky because it was on the fringe of downtown in an area where one doesn’t want to see an experiment done where if it fails it will create a huge problem.  

The Holiday Inn site makes sense. It is next to the under-utilized Sheridan Walker Garage, within walking distance of the Oklahoma City Streetcar and thousands of service jobs. The building permit shows a lot of shared space that are needed with any micro development, including laundry rooms, workspace conference rooms, a clubhouse, bicycle storage room, dog park and grooming, pickleball court, fitness center and pool.  

Add into this mix the northwest bus rapid transit line launching this fall, which can take anyone living downtown to and from the Homeland at NW 18 and Classen, Integris Baptist Hospital and other major destinations and employers. I look forward to learning more, but at first glance this looks like a great step forward for those needing affordable housing options downtown. 

Development at NW 13 and Classen includes daycare, OnCue

The Regional Transit Authority of Central Oklahoma is looking at using bus rapid transit for an east route connecting downtown Oklahoma City with Del City and Tinker Air Force Base. A northwest Oklahoma City bus rapid transit operation, the city's first, is set to open in late 2023.

Q: Is there any update on what is being constructed on the corner of Classen and 13th? Also, will there be a dedicated lane for the northwest bus rapid transit line? I know there will be priority signaling but if the buses are still sharing lanes with the rest of traffic, doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose?  

A: I believe the construction you are referring to is on the northeast corner of NW 13 and Classen where Primrose School is building a Midtown campus.  

I expect the daycare will open with full enrollment. Waiting lists have long been an issue downtown with the one YMCA daycare at NW 4 and Broadway and St. Luke’s three urban core locations at NW 4 and Robinson, NW 23 and Douglas, and NW 15 and Harvey.  

The corner of NW 13 and Classen has already seen the replacement of an aging Gulf station and an OnCue on the southwest corner of the intersection.  

As for the bus rapid transit line, Michael Scroggins, EMBARK spokesman, tells me the system will have dedicated bus lanes but not along the entire route. The northwest line will be the first bus rapid transit operation for Oklahoma City and much of the infrastructure is in place and the buses are ready to roll. Expect service to begin this fall. 

Infill opportunities abound in Midtown - for now

A mix of apartments and retail are planned on the empty block across from Midtown Plaza Court.
Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman

Q: With any redevelopment, it seems like it exploits a hole after something starts work. Take, for example, the development of the property from Hudson on 10 (Phillips Murrah). Honestly, in the past, I didn't realize how underdeveloped the southside of NW 9 was from Hudson to Walker, except for two houses. Does Midtown Renaissance own all of that land and is there any indication of their potential redevelopment of that area? 

A: The block south of NW 9 between Hudson and Walker Avenues is owned by Cosair Cattle Co. (brothers Gary and Robert Smith). The pair were, for a long time, buy and hold speculators who often saw opportunities long before anyone else. In more recent years the pair have redeveloped properties, notably where Jimmy’s Egg is located. I do believe something will be developed on their remaining property in this area, including the closed apartments across from Elemental Coffee that were last home to a halfway house.  

It wasn’t that long ago that the sprawling empty lots between St. Anthony Hospital and Hudson Avenue was filled with older homes and duplexes. I’ve seen photos of NW 6 that are just heartbreaking – a lot of three-story Victorian style houses that would command top sales prices today. But the area went into a long decline starting in the early 1970s and we lost much of that history due to fires, crime and blight. So now we have huge empty lots in the middle of Midtown.  

But that is changing. And yes, most of these empty lots are owned by Midtown Renaissance Group, which led by Bob Howard, Chris Fleming and Mickey Clagg, has transformed the neighborhood into a carefully curated mix of housing, retail, restaurants, entertainment and offices.  

The Phillips Murrah building will infill one of the largest empty spreads between NW 9, NW 10, Walker and Hudson Avenues. We’re also going to see infill along Harvey Avenue with the construction of a new Palomar campus. We are seeing more than $200 million of development all together in Midtown, making this a game changing year for the district.  

More:More than $200 million going into creating a new skyline in Midtown Oklahoma City

Industry trends, politics complicate OKC's ability to draw concerts

Kings of Leon perform Sept. 27, 2019, during the grand opening of Scissortail Park.

Q: I have noticed lately that there are a lot of mid-size to larger concerts that are going to places like Rogers, Arkansas, Huntsville, Alabama and Albuquerque, New Mexico and bypassing OKC all together. Specifically, most of them are playing amphitheaters in those cities and not coming to OKC. Looking at Pollstar.com, I can see Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, Disturbed, Mudvayne, Snoop Dogg, 50 cent, Avenged Sevenfold, Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Beck and many others play those areas, but no scheduled stops in OKC or Tulsa, for that matter. I understand a lot of bands playing Dallas, Houston and Austin, but the others kind of throw me off. Why do you think that is? Management? Venue size? Other places are nicer? Oklahoma politics? Other?  

A: I talked to Chad Whitehead, talent buyer with Tower Theatre, Pony Boy and Beer City. He is as good a source as anybody to explain the current situation with the concert scene. Recall that concert venues were hit hard by the pandemic and Oklahoma City was no exception.  

More:New concert venue Beer City Music Hall taps into gap in OKC live music scene

Here is what Chad had to say:  

“In the summer, tours LOVE hitting amphitheaters and specifically outdoor spaces. The Zoo Amphitheater is Oklahoma City’s only outdoor spot and, in my opinion, it does pretty solid bringing in some cool stuff. Overall though, what fans don’t understand is the buckets of the concert world; 500- and 1,000-cap clubs (like Tower), 3,000-cap venues (Criterion), and Paycom Center, etc., all operate with the different realities and the scale of pay for bands as they climb is apples to oranges.  

“The business is built on helping bands maximize profits so an artist will never really play a smaller venue (and thusly make less money). As a side note though, our politics 100% turn off artists and keep some artists away from Oklahoma, particularly the female fronted bands.” 

"If venue cities of Huntsville and Rogers are the examples given above, I am sure Alabama and Arkansas have the same politics as Oklahoma."