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Thread: Myriad Gardens

  1. #226

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    Here you go:

    More for Myriad Gardens: $6.9M parcel of land purchased for expansion
    By Brianna Bailey
    Oklahoma City reporter - Contact 405-278-2847
    Posted: 05:56 PM Monday, October 25, 2010

    OKLAHOMA CITY – Myriad Gardens has purchased a $6.9 million chunk of downtown real estate on the corner of Reno and Hudson avenues that includes the historic Vitagraph film exchange building and an adjacent brick structure that houses La Luna Mexican Cafe.

    The acquisition also includes a 7,000-square-foot parking structure. The three buildings are all located just west of Myriad Gardens across S. Hudson Avenue.

    The purchase will help Myriad Gardens relocate some of its operations that have been displaced as part of a $38 million makeover it is undergoing, said Brent Bryant, business manager for Oklahoma City’s finance department. The massive overhaul, slated for completion in spring 2011, is mostly funded by Project 180.

    For now, there are no plans to tear down any of the buildings or relocate La Luna, Bryant said.

    “At this point and time, the plan is to utilize some of the existing vacant space and put employees there to help support Myriad Gardens,” Bryant said.

    As part of the renovations, Myriad Gardens will have a new southern entry point that will dislocate some of the botanical gardens’ behind-the-scenes operations, Bryant said.

    The old Vitagraph building, 123 S. Hudson Ave., will be used to house Myriad Garden offices, Bryant said.

    The structure was renovated in 1990, according to property records, and its original masonry exterior has been covered with stucco.

    Built in 1922, the two-story, 12,600-square-foot Vitagraph building once housed one of the city’s film exchanges.

    “At that time, films were very explosive and there is a vault in the building where these film reels were stored,” said Oklahoma City attorney Armand Paliotta, who represents the buildings’ previous owners, Hudson Reno LLC.
    Paliotta could not immediately comment on the details of the sale.

    Hudson Reno LLC is managed by Oklahoma City businessman Richard R. Dunning, according to property records. The Oklahoma limited liability corporation purchased the three buildings in 2001 for $1.4 million from Fred Jones Properties, according to property records.

    Dunning could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.

    The Oklahoma City Economic Development Trust gave the Myriad Gardens Foundation a $5.5 million loan to help finance the real estate purchase.

  2. Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    why can't MGB employees and patrons utilize existing parking facilities and office space in the CBD?

    This is what I absolutely don't understand about OKC. We have trouble filling our existing skyscrapers - yet as soon as a civic operation gets money for 'renovation', they have to have their own parking lot and office space right next to it. Why can't the city utilize existing space? the actual park maintenance building could be built on the park (or already exists) im sure, so I dont understand the need for office space that couldn't be fulfilled in the cbd or city owned buildings in Civic Centre.

    At first I was under the impression that the park itself was expanding - but after learning the park will have employee parking and offices there - ---- (????).

    Again, I also have to ask why the restaurant was downscaled. Could it be this is where the found the funds for this "expansion"?

    Something funny is going on. ...
    Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!

  3. #228

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    Sweet...buy them for $1.4M and a few years later sell them for $6.9M.

    How is the $5.5M loan going to be paid back? Through more borrowed money (eventually thru the Devon TIF)?

  4. #229

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    Thanks Warreng88 for posting the article.

  5. #230

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    This really pisses me off. There are plenty of City offices a block away on Main street, yet they can pay $5.5MM more for a property than was paid a few short years ago, just to house a very limited staff of park workers so they can walk across the street instead of one block yet meanwhile the City is scaling back our signature Skydance Bridge because they can't find $5 million something for the increased construction costs? Three steps back..........

  6. #231

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    LOL,

    Okie see, Okie do.

    Must have curbside parking for all Okie citizens. Also, will the skydance bridge have parking lot nearby? If not we need it.

  7. #232

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    I'm worried for La Luna.

  8. Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    OKC Government can't do these things - it will severely impact not only people image of OKC but also future initiatives (ie MAPS IV+)!!!!

    OKC needs to back away from this purchase and use whatever monies they need to build that darn bridge and the MG to what was promised. This could REALLY get out of hand very quickly and I don't want to see OKC's government fail - particularly due to abuse and misuse of funds, which is EXACTLY what this MG, SkyDance, and C2S is all starting to smell like.

    Metro is absolutely right, why do we need to purchase a MG front building (particularly at the markup in price) when we have so much space existing not to mention an actual CBD that could see more office types only 2 blocks away from MG. ....

    This could be a disaster!
    Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!

  9. #234

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    Oh, for cryin' out loud.

  10. #235

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    No..... Not La Luna!!!!!

  11. #236

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    I thought that the Myriad Gardens that is referred to here is the foundation that is set up to maintain the park. I don't think that they are part of the city budget but are privately funded. As for the price, the current activities in the neighborhood have caused a rise in property values. Progress has a price.

  12. Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    Hmmmm. Don't mess with my La Luna!!
    Don't Edmond My Downtown

  13. #238

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    La Luna will be fine.

  14. #239

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    FritterGirl, is this aquisition really necessary, I mean really? Is it going to help with density around downtown? If anything we need a private investor to buy that parcel and create more dense development. How many employees at MBG will be displaced to this parcel? Could they not just walk a block from City offices on Main Street? What happened to the underground maintenance parking they were going to build at MBG?

  15. #240

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    The underground maintenance parking, while considered as part of the original charette, was never part of the actual plan, due to budget and other considerations.

    I can't answer your questions as to why staff aren't taking up space in other nearby city buildings, as I was not in on the decision-making process there. A lot of the needs, however, have to do, not just with administrative staff, which will office in the new buildings, but in the horticulture staff, which will need storage and equipment space (mowers, other heavy equipment) adjacent to the gardens grounds, and quick access to the gardens/grounds throughout the day.

    As was noted in the article, the new south entry portal will effectively be used as conference, meeting and education space, as well as a welcome entrance for visitors. As such, the staff who were placed in the MBG (some administrative, mostly hort), will have their offices moved to the newly-aquired space.

    This was an opportunity that came to the Myriad Gardens Foundation, and they, as a separate entity, chose to approach the City with the proposition. The City, to my knowledge, did not go seeking this out.

    I really don't have any other concrete answers other than that.
    Last edited by FritterGirl; 10-27-2010 at 09:33 AM. Reason: typo / minor text correction

  16. #241

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    Sad.

  17. #242

    Default Re: Myriad Gardens Acquires Three Downtown Buildings

    The Vitagraph Building is at least as historic as any of the other film exchange buildings. I hope that somewhere along the line, that stucco will be pulled off and the building's exterior restored.

  18. #243
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    Default Myriad Gardens Renovation

    It seems like the gardens have been progressing slowly compared to the Tower. What is the time-line for it re-opening?
    Last edited by Pete; 02-07-2011 at 02:19 PM. Reason: clarification of subject

  19. #244

    Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    Before the Arts Festival in 2011

  20. #245

    Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    Arts festival starts in April right? On the signs outside of the myriad gardens it says August 2011.

  21. #246

    Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    The signs around the Gardens say April 2011. Unless things change significantly between now and then, there will be a soft opening on April 26, 2011 - the day the Arts Festival begins. The Crystal Bridge will be open to the public via the north entrance, but the new south entry portal will likely still be under construction, and will be so for another month or two. There will also be some aspects of the outdoor grounds that will still not be accessible to the public, and areas that will need some fine tuning.

    As for the Gardens progressing slowly, they are a different beast engineering-wise and in some ways, more complex. With the tower, you've been able to watch steady progress as it continues to go up. Once they got past the base, they have pretty much been on a "rinse and repeat" kind of cycle in terms of their building.

    The Gardens not only had to deal with a lot of demo, that included VERY careful tree replacement, but regrading of the entire plat of land, refilling a lake area (it's not just dumping dirt in there folks), releveling many of the areas around the Gardens to accommodate for new spaces, which are being completely reshaped. Things are just now starting to really start to look like the renderings in terms of the actual shape of the garden space. In addition, some work has begun on the multiple architectural features within the Gardens.

    The work has just seemed slower because it is less obvious.

    In addition, the bulk of the work on the Crystal Bridge has been done from the inside.

    Because of all of this, from a casual observer standpoint, you're right, it doesn't "look" like a lot has been accomplished. You should start to see more starting to go "up" in terms of architectural features, etc., over the next few months.
    Last edited by FritterGirl; 11-15-2010 at 12:48 PM. Reason: added thoughts

  22. #247

    Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    Thanks Fritter, can you post some new pics of the Gardens?

  23. #248
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    Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    Thanks Fritter. That was a much better response than I expected.

  24. #249

    Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    Thanks, Fritter.

  25. Default Re: What is ETA for new Myriad Gardens?

    yes, thanks Fritter.

    I have a somewhat silly question that might have been already answered. but since I haven't seen it - did they drain the lake? and if so where are the Koi and will they return?

    I remember those fish very well, I would come feed them every time I visited the city.
    Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!

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