SE Corner of I-44 and Lincoln

**ryanosu** · 01-22-2013, 08:03 PM

We recently moved offices across the street (Central Park) and noticed the swath of undeveloped land on the SE corner of I-44 and Lincoln (all the way east to Kelley and south to 50th, minus the Burr Oaks neighborhood in the SE corner).

Doing some research, it looks like "DFK LLC" paid nearly $7MM for ~135 acres (mostly zoned ag - some residential) in 2008, during the heart of the recession. They even purchased some of the residential lots in Burr Oaks fronting 50th & Kelley.

I was curious if anyone had any knowledge of the plans for that area?

SE Corner of I-44 and Lincoln-lincoln-50th.jpg

**DoctorTaco** · 01-23-2013, 07:33 AM

Don't know about any plans for the area, but I recently found the background on the space which you might find interesting. When my wife and I lived in Central Park we ventured into the area one hot summer evening and it was one of the creepiest experiences I've had in OKC. Felt like Jason Voorhees was about to jump out of the woods at any minute. The weirdest thing was that in the middle of this giant empty overgrown abandoned lot we found, on the ground, a fresh chocolate chip cookie. Just sitting there. Not even ants on it or anything.

The pictures in the link don't speak to the eeriness about the place.

http://www.abandonedok.com/red-ridge/

**Rover** · 01-23-2013, 01:36 PM

Those images make me sick just to see the disrepair. In the late 70's I officed there when we used it as headquarters for Oklahoma Monthly Magazine. At the time it was an elegant old structure, but in good repair. My office was upstairs and opened to the top level veranda shown in some of the pictures. The "ballroom" with the big fireplace was used as a photography area. The grounds were well kept at the time and it was an amazing environment to be in. So sad to see it now.

BTW, at that time our lead reporter was Mike Boettcher. Mike went to be one of the original CNN reporters, was the lead war correspondent/analyst for NBC in first Gulf War, and now is an award winning journalist embedded with troops in Afghanistan, along with his son Carlos.