New parking garage/retail planned!!

Bricktown Urban Design Committee approves parking garage application

Renderings by Melissa Shelton Goldstein of MMPartnership.

Pamela Grady
2/14/2007

The Bricktown Urban Design Committee today approved an application for a Bricktown Certificate by Martin Goldstein, MM Partnership for Bricktown Canal Properties Inc. and Harding & Shelton LLC to construct a multi-story parking garage at 3 E Reno Ave.
The application also includes a request to construct an elevated crossover above an alley between the garage and two existing buildings.

The committee approved a traditional two- and four-story option for the project as well as a crossover.

Store-front retail space for advertising on part of the garage’s lower level of will be a possible component of the project. Sixty-five parking spaces will be available per story. Seventy-five percent of those spaces will be available for general use while the remaining spaces will be available for office parking and retail patrons.

MM Partnership’s Martin Goldstein estimated the project could “roughly” go for $10,000 to $12,000 per parking space.

The parking garage is part of a mixed-used project with two existing buildings on California Avenue owned by Diversified Historic Properties Inc.

One of the buildings is often referred to as The Red Ball building, 2 E California, and is on the national historical registry. The other building, 12 E California Ave., houses Zio’s Italian Kitchen.

“They (the two existing buildings) are going to be renovated into mixed-use -- restaurants, residential and retail,” John Shelton of Harding Shelton Inc. said.

“Our goal was to get this (garage) approval, and now we’ll want to get the entire project moving forward in the most sensible fashion,” Goldstein said. “What the approval today allows us to do is move through planning and then submit our drawings to the building department. Once they’re approved we’ll begin construction. There are still a couple of hoops we have to go through, but we’re pushing forward.”

The above-the-alley, elevated crossover will be the connector between the office level of the two existing buildings and the parking garage’s upper level.

“We have working on this for months and we had identified this as an important part of the success of the project because parking obviously is no secret issue in Bricktown,” Goldstein said.

hopefully, it will be four stories to accommodate the populous of tourists and citizens that visit Bricktown and we can begin to get rid of all of the surface parking that currently exists.

I like the design and the fact that they will renovate the upper floors of existing buildings - FINALLY. Hopefully - this will be an all go situation, esp 4 stories.

I am also elated to hear about the Hampton Inn and Suites. The more hotels downtown, the better - especially with lower price positioning. Not every room downtown should be over $150 per night - yet currently there are not many which are below.

Downtown needs a mix of hotels - hi, med, low - to attract all budgets; and of course, we need the rooms. Im glad the HI will be 200 rooms. When will we see the Sheraton's 400 rooms eclipsed with a say 800+ room (hopefully at least 30 storey) hotel downtown that would be the state's largest??

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

The other day when I was in Bricktown I saw that the building with the water tower on it, had some of the dirt cleared on the canal level part. It seems liket they havent been doing anything for a while and then they come up with that parking garage, I really like that rendering of it.

This creates an opportunity across the street as well. If that surface lot is developed in retail, then you have a nice southern gateway into brick town that would be defined by retail. There is a chance to create a dense retail section of bricktown if the south side of Reno is developed with respect to the north side. We haven't seen that happen, yet, but it's kind of bircktown's last chance for a retail sector, unless east of Joe Carter is allowed to be developed for retail.

and when they build this.... its gonna be built on an existing open parking lot? I wonder when they actually start moving on this entire project.... but I guess its better to take yur time inst0ead of rushin things, they're doing a very good job.

This isn't happening is it? Its a shame too, that Cox Water Tower Building has great potential...great above the canal patio and on the canal patios options. It fronts the canal on two of its sides. Might of helped revitalize that end of the canal. Oh well, maybe we can push Chelino's to use their canal-level seating again.

Yes that is some of the best news of this project. Now if someone would just build over the lot across the street from Abuelos(Sheridan I beleve), that would be a great as well. That hotel by the ballpark took some of the surface parking away too. Hey, at least some of it is going away.

Lower bricktown, on the other hand...

One surface lot at a time...

The next targets should be the ones along Sheridan at Oklahoma, and the one next to Zio's on the canal. If those get developed and the Cotton Exchange is built we will see a MUCH improved (and denser) Bricktown.

My hope is that Oklahoma Ave. takes on a greater importance once the blvd. is completed as it will be the first at-grade intersection as you come off I-35. I'd like to see it become a gateway to Bricktown with mixed-use buildings on both sides around that intersection and the intersection with Reno near where this parking garage will be up to the canal and Sheridan. Is there any future plan to connect Oklahoma with the Triangle development to the north??

I can only hope the "retail" along Reno comes right up to the sidewalk and includes parallel parking along the street. The retail so far along Reno on the Lower Bricktown side has not been done very well from an urban design point-of-view.

If you drive down 2nd street, you can see part of the walkway that has been constructed from Oklahoma Ave. that will go into Bricktown. The Maywood Park developers have put in a wide sidewalk where Oklahoma deadends at 2nd with multiple street lights and inset trees.

is anything ever going to happen here?