Steve Lackmeyer posted this on his blog earlier today...

"I'm Stunned

Downtown is about to undergo changes that could arguably rival the original MAPS program. Developing …."

I'm Stunned

For him to be "stunned", you would think it would have to be "new" news that hasn't previously been reported.

Ooooh.

Exciting.

Those tags are very interesting...

maybe Flatiron starting up?????!!!!!!!

That doesn't seem "bigger than MAPS" to me.

me neither, but something bigger than MAPS better mean something BIG......or could just be something to get us to follow along and suck us in with false hope.....

It's gotta be core to shore/canal stuff. And Devon must be doing something too... Maybe the canal will extend to the new Devon tower?

Another nba team!

Steve has always been a pretty straight shooter. I hope this is as big as his post would lead us to believe.

He's promised more information at 3 pm.

Categories: Central Business District , Downtown Retail , Urban Renewal Authority , Downtown housing , Architecture , Arts District , Automobile Alley , urban design , downtown hotels , Devon Energy , Bricktown

It's like he checked "select all."

Whatever this is is definitely huge.

Oh now, here comes the pressure....

F5

f5

f5

Steve isn't one to do that. His articles and blog posts about the Cotton Exchange always expressed caution.

I don't think he would tease this if it wasn't a pretty solid thing (and something he could elaborate on very soon).

you got all of our hopes up on this longgggg friday afternoon

Hey, remember what we talked about underpromising and overdelivering?

Okay so it involves retail, residential, hotel(s) and Devon Energy. And it encompasses the CBD, Bricktown, Arts District, and A-Alley.


That's HUGE.

And what details I can't fit into the paper, I promise I'll add on to the blog over the weekend.

Devon buys bricktown

Okay, looking at the categories...

Categories: Central Business District , Downtown Retail , Urban Renewal Authority , Downtown housing , Architecture , Arts District , Automobile Alley , urban design , downtown hotels , Devon Energy , Bricktown

I can first throw out the fairly generic tags which will inevitably be related to nearly every project downtown, highlighted above.

I'm then left with a list of districts:

Central Business District
Arts District
Automobile Alley
Bricktown

A list of development categories:

Downtown Retail
Downtown housing
downtown hotels

And finally, two entitiies:

Urban Renewal Authority
Devon Energy

I could come up with a hypothesis explaining the relationship between the actors in each of the 'categories' above, e.g., for development categories, I could easily say whatever this is will be mixed use and for the entities, if Devon is going to acquire another parcel of land, they might be doing it through the Urban Renewal Authority (but it'd have to be for public use, so that's complicated), etc.

What I can't explain or even guess at is that this one announcement affects all of these districts except for one possibility:

That this is something which will affect all of downtown OKC in some way and will include mixed use and will be for a public purpose (since Urban Renewal is involved).

But what it is, I have no clue. Guess I'll wait 30 minutes and find out.

OK, now I remember a thread here with a diagram of a block of buildings that had been purchased in the CBD. ANd it's right next door to devon's tower.

But, bricktown? Automobile Alley?

Yeah, it must be big.

The only thing that seems to fit for me would be some sort of public transportation designed to serve downtown housing, hotels, Devon, etc.

In fact, that's one of the only ways I can explain urban renewal being involved. The thing about their involvement is that for them to acquire property, the property either has to be acquired for a public use (it's use in Oklahoma, not the Kelo cases' public purpose test) or it has to be blighted property.

Since I don't know of any blighted property downtown, public use is all I can see... and public transportation is that, and it can touch all of those other subjects.

Also, an extension of the canal is a possibility.. to Devon... and that could touch all of those districts while touching everything else as well.

Wait a second guys. He never says "bigger than MAPS." He says "could arguably rival the original MAPS." Obviously it's something big, but let's not blow into more than it is just yet. The title sounds promising though.

Maybe OKC will annex Tulsa???

Interesting...

Yeah, I'm now thinking canal extension.

That'd fit even better.

The public trans option was iffy on the "architecture" category, but the canal thing fits everything.

That was my guess too, Midtowner.

Maybe the announcement of a streetcar system?