American Fidelity

[skanaly]

Unlike in olden times, a fair proportion of the editorial material in the current much-smaller editions of the Oklahoman is now generated by freelance writers, who do not office with the full-time staff. If you pay careful attention to the bylines, you can tell the difference. If the writer is identified as "staff" they're in the office. If it says "For the Oklahoman" then it's freelance work. There's a freelance organization called "EByLine" with which OPubCo works (along with dozens of other media around the country); an occasional ad for it appears in the paper. I get almost daily emails from it with potential assignments, but haven't yet seen any for which I feel qualified to bid.

I didn't know any of that, thank you!

[bluedogok]

Unlike in olden times, a fair proportion of the editorial material in the current much-smaller editions of the Oklahoman is now generated by freelance writers, who do not office with the full-time staff. If you pay careful attention to the bylines, you can tell the difference. If the writer is identified as "staff" they're in the office. If it says "For the Oklahoman" then it's freelance work. There's a freelance organization called "EByLine" with which OPubCo works (along with dozens of other media around the country); an occasional ad for it appears in the paper. I get almost daily emails from it with potential assignments, but haven't yet seen any for which I feel qualified to bid.

Since OPUBCO is part of a media conglomerate now couldn't some of those be written by people in the corporate office and sent out to all their papers? Kind of like the effect Clear Channel had on radio but now on print media.

[Jim Kyle]

Possible, but on the editorial page when they do exactly that, the byline credits the Washington paper rather than 'For the Oklahoman." I would expect them to treat other material the same way -- but expecting consistency from any source these days may be a bit much... .

[Pete]

Here is how the new parking garage currently under construction will fit in with their campus and future plans:

[Pete]

American Fidelity just filed paperwork for a Planned Unit Development.

Looks like they are planning a hotel, some restaurants and a lot of office space.

Also, lots of surface parking at the southern end which will abut the future American Energy Partners campus.

[ChrisHayes]

Any timeline for all of that development. I know their workforce is going to be kind of scattered around the city at other offices they own, so I imagine they would want to get as much of that built as quickly as they can.

[Colbafone]

This is awesome. This could be such a neat area. Sort of like the lakeside area of Lake Hefner. Add in Kimray moving to Britton, there will soon be a lot going on on Britton.

[Zuplar]

Yeah I was talking to my wife about this the other day. A big reason for the additional office buildings is due to the poor planning on AFA's part. They wanted whole departments on a single floor, well when they start to get everyone over there they realize, we don't have enough space. Apparently it's been a big mess and they continue to re arrange and shift. On top of all that the remodeling is constantly behind schedule. Also they were have supposed to rebuilt the day care or remodeled, and still have yet to do any of that.

[Zuplar]

Was with my wife today while she ran up to work. Took a few photos from her office looking south and then one of the new garage that is getting close to being done.

[Pete]

^

Thank you.


I wonder where AF stands on doing more work to their campus?

I don't think they can fit all their employees being relocated from 2000 Classen in the Dark Tower.

[Zuplar]

No, they have another building somewhere that essentially everyone else that won't be at the tower is going to. They are still working a lot on the inside of the building. Level 3 where we went in is completely gutted right now and even on Sunday there are contractors there. They had been working on the ponds so those are just recently refilled with water. Lots of stuff been going on. Wife also said new expanded cafeteria is now open as well as doctors clinic they have there. I know a lot of the development to the south was supposed to be in conjunction with Aubrey and now I think that's very much in jeopardy.

[Zuplar]

They finally finished the facade on the garage and got signage up so you finally know who owns the building.

[JesStang]

Yeah I was talking to my wife about this the other day. A big reason for the additional office buildings is due to the poor planning on AFA's part. They wanted whole departments on a single floor, well when they start to get everyone over there they realize, we don't have enough space. Apparently it's been a big mess and they continue to re arrange and shift. On top of all that the remodeling is constantly behind schedule. Also they were have supposed to rebuilt the day care or remodeled, and still have yet to do any of that.

Yep. The law department isn't even in the tower, they're in a building south of Wilshire on Santa Fe. It's just an open room with a bunch of cubicles and everyone is pissed about it lol. It's definitely a downgrade from where they were. We'll see how "temporary" it is...

[Zuplar]

Yep. The law department isn't even in the tower, they're in a building south of Wilshire on Santa Fe. It's just an open room with a bunch of cubicles and everyone is pissed about it lol. It's definitely a downgrade from where they were. We'll see how "temporary" it is...

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if it's permanent. There are some people who work from home half the time that don't even have desks anymore. I just don't think I could work in the environment that they do.

[acumpton]

http://www.thelostogle.com/2016/06/0...eetings-today/

Wonder what this is all about.......

[Zuplar]

http://www.thelostogle.com/2016/06/0...eetings-today/

Wonder what this is all about.......

Probably belongs in a different thread, especially since it isn't about AFA.

[ChrisHayes]

I saw a story yesterday where OPUBCO is no longer going to be utilizing the print shop there and is outsourcing their paper production to Tulsa World. It's going to be interesting to see what American Fidelity decides to do with the print shop. Tearing it down and building another office building should be high on the priority list so they can consolidate their workforce from around the city

[Pete]

I believe they plan to repurpose the print facility.

All their conceptual plans show it staying, with new office space being built to the east of the current tower.

[Laramie]

nm

[SouthSide]

It took American Fidelity three years to plan, renovate, and move to the existing space. So I wouldn't expect any immediate changes.

[Pete]

^

A big part of that was that OPUBCO continued to occupy space and they had to completely renovate every floor around them, then the floors they ultimately vacated for the Century Center.

It sounds like they will cease printing in October and should be completely out by then.

[Zuplar]

As many know my wife works for AFA. She got an email today that said they plan on starting doing some work starting in July. Sounds like they are wanting to get to it at this point.

[ChrisHayes]

Between the warehouse and loading dock area and the print shop, there's a ton of space that could be renovated and utilized into office space. I'm just not sure how the employees would enjoy working in a windowless building like the print shop. Though I imagine they could install windows.

[bombermwc]

There is a similar concern at the old Lucent plant, aka OKCWorks. One company moved into a space that can hold ~500 people. They moved into an area that had once been part of the warehouse, so no windows. Their solution was to add a skylight structure in the middle of the suite, thin a greenhouse placed on top of a roof, that let in the natural light to most of the space. For them, most of it is 2-story open space (exposed structure look, etc), so it's a bit noisy, but that's how the tenant wanted it. I poked my head in an open door not long ago just to see how it looked since my office has a large portion of the traditional office building up front.

Future plans are to cut window holes in that same wall so there are two levels of windows for future office tenants. With over a million square feet in the place, they are actually doing some great things to get space leased out. And i think you'd be surprised at the percentage of the space that is leased, considering how much the place LOOKS empty, but really isn't. That all to make the point that you can get natural light in to a space even if you are in the middle of a dungeon. It may not be the same as having an actual window, but that little bit of light makes a big difference in morale.

[Pete]

AF just filed 2 building permits totaling $550K to renovate the print facility into offices.