Developer plans MidTown Renaissance
He sees this as a chance to invest in the future

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

Greg Banta is answering long-asked questions about his 2-year-old MidTown Renaissance development, including who is financially backing acquisitions and renovations that, to date, top $21 million.
Yes, a major financial player in Oklahoma City is backing the development. His name is one many will recognize: car dealership owner Bob Howard.

What's next? New office buildings, creation of several free surface parking lots, renovations of most or all existing buildings into more offices, condominiums, restaurants and retail. And Banta is offering yet another tantalizing tease: the prospect of a national retailer being among the next deals to be announced.

Two years have passed since Banta first began buying properties in the area generally bounded by NW 8, NW 13, Classen Boulevard and Broadway. Altogether, the mixed-use development involves 515,000 square feet, with 268,000 slated for offices and 132,000 planned for retail, with up to 90 condominiums.

"There are a lot of buildings and a lot of unique space,” Banta said. "And until we could get the buildings gutted and see what they could become, it was like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle.”

Banta said he already had bought several buildings west of Walker Avenue, including "a whole lot of empty lots,” when he was introduced by an acquaintance to Mickey Clagg, a business partner with Howard.

"I didn't know Bob and Mickey, and they didn't know me,” Banta said. "We clicked, and they got it. They got the vision. We drove through, looked at the buildings, I told them what I wanted to do and they agreed it was something that needed to be done.”

Howard already is invested in the area with his Jaguar, Volvo and Mercedes dealerships along Broadway between NW 10 and NW 13.

"Those dealerships have always been the pride of Automobile Alley,” Banta said. "They're always well lit, the lawns are manicured and the gardens have lots of flowers.”

After the tour, Banta told Howard he had spent all he could on acquisitions and couldn't go any further.

"He basically said, ‘If you had a partner, what would you want to do?'” The partnership started then, giving Banta a chance to achieve the sort of master-planned redevelopment he had dreamed of from the start.

"I think a lot of people think real estate is easy,” Banta said. "But Bob and Mickey saw the big picture, the long-term effects, and that's what they were looking for. They weren't going in with a buy-and-flip mentality.”

Clagg said he and Howard quickly embraced Banta's vision, and already were excited about developments downtown after the success of the city's Metropolitan Area Projects. They didn't want to see Banta's development fall short of its potential.

"In projects like this, if you don't take a significant position, it's hard to get it going,” Clagg said. "And with so many significant architectural buildings, it's hard to say when to stop.”

Banta is looking to create an entertainment district that will be an alternative, but not a rival, to Bricktown. But he admits some of his plans, including ample free surface parking, resulted from not wanting to repeat mistakes in one of Oklahoma's premier urban destinations.

"I'm looking at something that will be locally flavored,” Banta said. "I think Bricktown will always be our tourist attraction. And I love Bricktown. We go there a lot. It's really for the guy on an expense account — and we need that. What I'm wanting for MidTown are local restaurants, local cafes, local shops.”

Banta admits he has changed his mind on "several buildings, several times.” But he's determined to move forward this year renovating most or all of the more than 30 properties acquired as part of MidTown Renaissance.

The plan calls for the following:

•The core of the emerging entertainment district is the Plaza Court Building at NW 10 and Walker. The 55,000-square-foot building was one of the city's first "suburban” shopping centers, built in 1927 on what was then considered the outer fringe. The property was developed by John D. Thomas, an early-day grocer and owner of Crescent Market. Early tenants included WKY radio and Veazey Drugs. The building already houses a Subway and King Emporium gift shop, and work is under way for Irma's II burgers, Prairie Thunder bakery and James E. McNellies Public House.

•Banta's vision for a restaurant row continues north on Walker between NW 10 and NW 13. The strip is already anchored by Cafe do Brasil, 440 NW 11. A former Beverly's at 1207 N Walker, owned by Banta, has been leased to brothers Arturo and Marco Chavez, who plan to open 1492 New World Latin Cuisine.

And the former Reesers Eyewear Building at 1215 N Walker is being renovated into "the Walker Shops,” a mix of retail and restaurants. Future tenants will include Gaijin Sushi.

•On the east side of Walker, Banta is preparing to renovate the seven-story Osler Building and adjoining four-story Heritage Building into condominiums.

Plans call for 1,200- to 5,000-square-foot condos, two per floor on the Osler Building, with a special penthouse unit on the top story. A facade makeover is being planned for the Heritage Building, but must still be reviewed by downtown Urban Design Committee. The Heritage Building is also being marketed to include retail on the ground floor facing Walker Avenue.

•East of Walker, along NW 10, Banta is eyeing a mix of offices and housing on a stretch of downtown that three years ago was home to seedy bars, flop houses and boarded-up buildings. Two old hotels, the Cline and the Marion, are both being prepared for conversions into condominiums.

"We've gone back and forth on the Cline,” Banta said. "It lays out great as office, and it lays out great as residential. We may go with whoever shows up first as a buyer. Right now we're leaning toward doing it as six residential condos with gated, covered parking.”

•The three-story Hadden Hall, 215 NW 10, will be restored to its original use as housing.

•A two-story building at NW 10 and Robinson, last occupied by Pat's Bar, will be renamed the Packard Building to reflect its original use as a car dealership. The building was designed to support two additional floors, and Banta is awaiting an engineering report to see if he can do just that. Banta is pursuing a restaurant tenant for the first floor, and will convert the upper floors into housing.

•The old Guardian funeral home garage will be converted into 22 condominiums that will sell between $170,000 and $370,000. Next door, plans are being drawn up to convert the former Guardian Funeral Home into an event center, but Banta is prepared to change it into offices if a company makes a bid to occupy the entire property.

•The east entry into MidTown Renaissance, at NW 10 and Broadway, is marked by two landmarks — the 1100 N Broadway and 1101 N Broadway buildings. The plans call for the 21,000-square-foot former dealership at 1100 N Broadway to be converted into a corporate headquarters, while Banta envisions the four-story, 60,000-square-foot former dealership at 1101 N Broadway being renovated into offices and ground floor retail.

•Restorations are further along on buildings west of Walker Avenue — the area where Banta first began his acquisition spree. He moved his companies into three buildings at NW 13 and Classen Drive last year, and is planning to construct two one-story office buildings on the site of the old Myriad Motor Inn.

•Two former low-income apartment houses at 1217 and 1221 N Frances are being renovated into condominiums and offices. Condominiums also are planned for former flop houses at 905 and 909 NW 12.

Banta intends for renovations to continue on most or all of the properties this year. Work is under way at more than a dozen of the properties, including the Cline, Marion, Packard and Plaza Court buildings.

"I want my kids to be proud of this, and for my grandkids to look at it years from now and be proud of it,” Banta said. "We're not cutting any corners. We want this to be a statement.”

Bob Howard

Yuk, they should rethink this one.

Other than that, sounds pretty impressive ... guess we'll see.

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

I love the Midtown concept. Even if Banta doesn't consider Midtown a rival to Bricktown, I think that Bricktown does need the competion. With a alternative to Bricktown I think that would only make Bricktown and Midtown that much better.

Well yes and no in my opinion. I knew he had planned to do this at the Guardian site for sometime now. There is a need for a smaller events center in downtown/Midtown. It will definitely fill a niche since there are no other places like it downtown/Midtown. Yes there are events centers (Montgomery, Petroleum Club) for banquets and receptions, but Banta plans on using if for weddings (up to 300 people or so, receptions, private events, etc. It will have different sections to accomodate different sizes of parties, etc. I support the need for it, HOWEVER the proposed design (see the rendering in today's paper) is absolutely wrong! It looks like a giant suburban Nichols Hills home. Very suburban in design. The existing building is very unique and they should retain that. Other than that good job Banta! Can't wait until he gets some street level retail going! I wish with his properties at 10th and Broadway he would allow more retail in those and not hold them for a Corporate Office. Automobile Alley has too many corporate offices and businesses and is running out of room to make it a night-time destination. Leave the streetfront for retail and restaurants. I'd love to see an Urban Outfitters in the building on the NW corner of 10th and Broadway, perfect perfect building for them!!

The old Guardian Garage has amazing windows.

Banta is really on the ball. His development is so organic and not fabricated like KC's Power & Light district or Tulsa's East End. Not that those kinds of projects don't work, but it's great to see someone succeeding almost entirely on adaptive reuse.

I was in NYC last week and one thing I noticed is that they have many, many very small restaurants. Even many Zagat-rated establishments are just little hole in the wall places no bigger than The Coach House or The Metro. Midtown would be a great place for those size restaurants. Perhaps more restaurants would make it in the inner city if they weren't designing them all to hold 300 people.

Has anyone seen a master plan for the Banta area? I didn't see anything on their website.

My husband and I are interested in officing in the area and called them in January to get some information. They didn't call us back for a couple of weeks. When we finally did get a return call I asked for some information and still haven't received it. Their website is not much help. I don't know if they are just so busy or what.

I saw a model in his office but it doesn't really tell you anything other than where all the buildings are.

Maybe one of the Okc-Talk, investigative reporters could look into this, and see what the "Banta Plan" is.

Maybe eventually, with his relationship with Bob Howard, he can convince him to urbanize his dealerships along Broadway. It would be ideal to have the enclosed auto galleries facing Broadway with huge windows and good nighttime lighting, and then the actual lots behind. This wouldn't be that difficult, and those luxury dealerships are always renovating and expanding anyways. It would really give it a more classy feel coming down Broadway from NW 23rd into downtown. It would be awesome to make that stretch of Broadway north of NW 10th into a true 'Auto Alley' with urban-scale luxury dealerships on both sides.

I'm really curious which "national retailer" is interested in Midtown, and where the store will be? My guess is somewhere along NW 10th, that seems to be the 'Main Street' of Midtown and where most of the future retail/restaurants will go. That's good because it's a major connector between the Asian District/St. Anthony's and the OU Med. Center. It's also a good transition between Heritage Hills and Mesta Park neighborhoods to the north and the CBD to the south. Maybe a future light rail corridor as well???

oh, I proposed that same corridor to the city's MAPS III "survey". I proposed having a line S on Robinson, N on Harvey or Broadway turn at 10th E-W, also at Reno E-W. On 10th at Shartel or Classen, it could go on to the Asia District and OCU (future extension or current if funding there) and on 10th and Harrison?? it could go toward the OHC and OU Med, then on up to the capitol. The Reno portion would go East on Reno into Bricktown where it could have an intersection at Mickey Mantle (and go up over the bridge into Deep Duece and connect to the Harrison ext. Back to the intersection, it could keep East then have a turnaround in far E Bricktown (with the possiblity of future extension. For the W. Reno route, it would go W to Stage Center and the bus terminal/Montgomery where it could either have a round the block track or turn N toward the Civic Center/City Hall then roll E down Park Avenue or Kerr into the CBD.

That would be a pretty extensive system that would get used, and have the potential for LOTS of routes. That is the key to a successful light rail trolley circular - you want it extensive enough to have creative routes so that you can have the flexibility downtown just like you do a bus. You dont want a line to just go one way in a circle - if its prohibitively expensive, thats better than nothing - but I dont think it will be that expensive to have a rail trolley in downtown OKC. In fact, I think my suggestion above should cost less than $50M, and that would cover pretty much all of our downtown aside from downtown South and West.

I think it sould be done, and fast. With the influx of people downtown and midtown as well as the impending retail boom - there needs to be an efficient transit system downtown NOW so that people can get around without cars/hopefully wont even have one. that is the beginning of a true downtown economy and that is what we should shoot for.

Just think, you leave your townhouse or highrise condo hop on the trolley and head for your job in the CBD then after work you hop the trolley to the store then head home for dinner. After dinner you hop a trolley to the Ford Center to see the Sonics, then hop the trolley to Auto Alley or Midtown for some cocktails or to dance it up. Then hop the trolley home. Should happen soon!!!

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

I've seen some dealerships in urban areas of Houston that had multi-story garages instead of seas of surface lots. It looked really cool.

okclee, you might want to re-read my original post at the top. it outlines Banta's plans. In speculation, you can't have everything nailed down but you can have a master plan, that is his master plan if you will. As you will re-read in the article, some buildings depends on who decides to be a tenant first. You can't force tenants to move to MidTown so you have to accept what you get to an extent.

Metro, thanks for the original post. I was just looking for more of a aerial map of Banta properties. There isn't one on their website. I really think that Banta has a excellent vision for the area, Okc could use more developers like him.

No doubt. There has been a aerial map posted before. I'll see if I can find it if someone doesn't beat me to it.

Drove by the main Midtown area along Walker and the Plaza Court area last night and up 10th street as well. Okay, the Plaza Court building progress is still coming along slowly, I imagine Irma's Burger shop will open up first then the Prarie Sky Bakery then finally the Irish pub will open last, it barely has any progress going. Then on 11th and Walker the 1492 New World Latin Cuisine is coming along nicely and should be open in a few weeks I imagine. The building on the corner directly south of 1492 is also coming along nicely but I'm not sure what is going in there. Banta's buildings immediately north of 1492 are being remodeled, gutted, and new windows are going in as well as the buildings directly across the street. Work continues on all his buildings on 10th street, slowly but surely. The OKC Community Foundation on 10th and Broadway is nearing completion on the exterior and has really changed the look of the intersection. I just wish they had the forsight to build it another story or two and sell the ground floor for retail and another floor for offices/lofts. Further south on Broadway, Red Prime steakhouse is coming along quickly and should be open on schedule next month.

The buildings on Walker north of the 1492 Latin Cuisine will house a Wine Bar, Dry Cleaners and Bridal Shop.

I saw that 1492 place this morning. I drive by there twice a week and this morning was the first time I noticed the sign.

Then again, I think today was the first day it wasn't raining when I drove by? haha.

Good stuff, thanks for the updates! Can't wait for all that stuff in Plaza Court to open!

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Still corrupting young minds

What the heck is going on with McNellie's??

They were planning to open by St. Patricks Day and we are now 2 months past that and they still aren't close.

The entire Plaza Court has been the slowest moving development I can ever remember.

Part of the holdup is that Banta has been working with OG&E to remove the overhead lines to eliminate all of the un-sitely wires and poles. He also had to have several transformers installed and he also had to increase the size of the gas lines coming to the buildings to accomodate the restaurants. You may not have noticed but OG&E removed the overhead lines going north from Plaza Court to 12th Street last week. I wish they would remove all overhead lines in Midtown. It would make everything look so much cleaner. Additionally, the street work on Walker north to 13th is just beginning and is not scheduled to be completed for a couple of months. They are widening Walker, replacing sidewalks, adding streetscape and lighting. Banta was wanting all of the utility and street improvements to be done before he had a bunch of restaurants open and the restaurant customers got irritiated because they couldn't get in or out of the parking lots. I think Banta's goal is to have a quality development and if that takes more time so be it.

Wow, that's pretty ambitious of him. I think it's a nice thing to do for the long term, though.

Thanks for the details, trison.

Plaza Court is the real jewel of Midtown and I'm glad to hear they are trying to do things right.

Thanks for filling in the gaps I could not trison. My question though is what is the building SOUTH, not north of 1492 going to be?