This is an interesting article from the Journal Record today:

by Brian Brus

The Journal Record July 27, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY – The trick to piquing the interest of retailers and restaurants to move into downtown Oklahoma City seems to be in marketing the entire area rather than just a site or two, said Alison Oshel at the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber.

In the six months since Oshel took up her position at the chamber as the first director of community redevelopment, it’s been a rare event when a “cold call” pitch to developers hasn’t been met with enthusiasm instead of dismissal, she said.Article Tools Printer friendly edition E-mail this to a friend RSS Feed Digg this history Add to Del.icio.us “I’ve got some great prospects for downtown that I can’t talk about yet,” she said. “But what I’m more excited about is that … I’m getting some very receptive responses. So I really think it’s getting ready to pop downtown. I think we’ll seem some dominos fall pretty soon.”
The community redevelopment position was created with an initial emphasis on downtown retail, she said, because “that’s so much of what needs to be redeveloped. A community builds on itself with residential and retail. We want to do a downtown emphasis on it right now because we feel the downtown has been underserved from a retail perspective.”
Of the estimated 8 million visitors to the metro last year, chamber research found that those who had rooms downtown had to take a bus or taxi to reach retail shopping centers.
So it’s a strong indicator that a women’s clothing retailer has made a commitment to expand into downtown soon by adding another outlet in its small regional chain. “We really need more women’s clothing density,” she said. Oshel wouldn’t identify the business name.
Also expected downtown soon are an Office Depot office supplies chain outlet and Carl’s Jr. fast-food restaurant. The details of a McDonald’s restaurant in or near Bricktown are still being worked out between developers and city officials, she said.
And two national grocery store chains have been asking for more information about downtown, she said. “Burger King has been looking at us, too.”
“The initial pitch is pretty much, ‘Have you thought about Oklahoma City?’ And if they haven’t thought about us yet, they’re pretty surprised by the data we can provide,” Oshel said.
In addition to a five-minute video presentation, the chamber sends a two-page collection of statistics, charts and maps that gives an overview of the downtown area including population, income distribution, household income, retail sales growth, and several “downtown renaissance” bragging points.
“I met with an L.A. (Los Angeles) company in Las Vegas recently who said they weren’t interested in Oklahoma right now,” she said. “But after they took home the materials, they changed their tune.”

This all sounds good...but I hope they look beyond Burger Kings and McDonalds and try and get more "fast-sit-down" style places like Panera Bread to come downtown.

I was more pleased by the women's clothing retailer and the fact that two national grocery chains are looking at downtown. I agree, let's try to rise above the lowest level food chains if we're going to have chains. On the other hand, it's nice to have one fast food restaurant that your picky five year old will eat at within a reasonable distance. Why picky five year olds will eat at McDonalds or Burger King is a mystery to me, but it's reality.

The details of a McDonald’s restaurant in or near Bricktown are still being worked out between developers and city officials, she said.

The way the developers were talking gloom and doom, I thought this project was dead.

I wouldn't consider it a success to draw in the same options we have in our suburbs. It will be exciting when companies that are a draw to other cities are expanding into OKC. A burger king, mcdonalds and office depot couldn't be less discouraging. If we pitch downtown okc as just the next expanding place in oklahoma, the next yukon or midwest city, or wherever, we'll do just that. If downtown okc is marketed as the next union square in san francisco / rodeo drive / "enter neat area in big city to be envious of here" then maybe we'll get that. Reach for the stars people.

I wouldn't consider it a success to draw in the same options we have in our suburbs. It will be exciting when companies that are a draw to other cities are expanding into OKC. A burger king, mcdonalds and office depot couldn't be less discouraging. If we pitch downtown okc as just the next expanding place in oklahoma, the next yukon or midwest city, or wherever, we'll do just that. If downtown okc is marketed as the next union square in san francisco / rodeo drive / "enter neat area in big city to be envious of here" then maybe we'll get that. Reach for the stars people.

well said striker, another burger king? mcdonalds? wow just what okc needs!:bright_id

“The initial pitch is pretty much, ‘Have you thought about Oklahoma City?’

OK, but possible outside of the unnamed grocery store chains, it seems like every business mentioned has already thought about OKC and is already here. And even then, it's very possible those grocery store chains are here, too.

It's so frustrating to hear such a positive and relevant message, but then realize that the message is being delivered to the wrong targets. No one, and I mean no one, is going to reconsider downtown as an option because a McDonalds or a Burger King is there. This message should be delivered to businesses that have overlooked Oklahoma City entirely to this point, because downtown may be emerging into what they've been looking for. I like downtown and I like urban areas, but the big picture here is that we need to use or emerging urban assets to lure new options to OKC, not just move OKC current options downtown. In my mind that's a waste of energy and a misuse of resources. Downtown should be a vehicle to expand the city’s options, not move the city laterally.

Rodeo Drive is just that, a drive.

Magnificent Mile is just that, a district which is basically a mile long.

Downtown OKC is a HUGE area, and all of it doesn't need to be upscale. While I agree that we want to strive for upscale retail and eating options, we also need to accommodate everyone, that includes people who visit downtown with a budget.

We have to START somewhere, so why not try to get in some well known fast food options. Downtown Chicago and NYC have McDonalds and so on, why not downtown OKC? Especially if it gets and keeps people downtown who otherwise would ONLY visit during an event (such as the case today).

Remember, Rome wasn't built in one day - and just as long as the planning is good - I dont see anything wrong with having "common" retailers enter downtown. I just dont think we should stop there - go for the big upscale once the "common" gets established.

For that matter, maybe we should have a "common" area of downtown, like a commons? I was thinking the Triangle was going to be that - where we'd have retail found in other parts of the city - just pedestrian in nature.

Ill tell you how I heard it from my fiance on our last visits to OKC:

"where's all of the retail???"

Enough said, we want it - so we have to start somewhere!!!!

Agreed, we have to start somewhere. But... You get what you ask for. So why aren't we asking for what we really want. Fail big, right?

Regardless of whether we want McDonalds or other like it or not, they're going to come, especially if we're asking for really great. Maybe we don't get really great, but maybe we get really good. We won't even have that shot if we don't try.

McDonalds and things we have and will be coming anyways aren't the answer.

My point is not that downtown can't or shouldn't have those places, it's that we don't need to spend our resources trying to attract them. They are already here. In fact, McDonalds, Taco Bell, Subway, and Sonic can all be found at Classen and Main already and Burger King was actually closed at Exchange and Western.

Do we need the chamber chasing national fast food chains??? No. They should be trying to lure new businesses to Oklahoma City and downtown is a great asset to try and do that. If it happens and they respect the area, fine. They all should be in the CBD already if you ask me, but why should we be using our public market resources to bring in more burger joints to OKC at all?

And, really, who cares if Chicago or NY downtown's have these places? I wouldn't at all be upset if we had different options than Chicago or NYC. I love those cities, but they're full of crap in places, too, just like everywhere else. That doesn't mean our chamber should be out recruiting it. Again, I think it could help the CBD and that's usually where you find those places in bigger cities, but I also know that the financial districts of those cities have a lot of stuff that Oklahoma City doesn't have anywhere and I think that's where we should put our energy.

The point of trying to attract national fast food restaurants is that national retailers take into consideration of what other national retailers are in the area. Most retail areas begin by attracting fast food, then sit-down restaurants then clothing and other dry good retailers. Attracting national retailers is a slow process but it is easy to see how they work by just looking at other areas of town plus all around the nation. The biggest boost in the arm for downtown was attracting Office Depot to the area. That alone gives downtown a whole lot to build on and other national retailers pay attention to what others are doing. We just got to keep the momentum up and I think that is exactly what Alison Oshel and the chamber are trying to do.

^ my point exactly trison.

getting retailers in downtown surmounts any efforts for us to be picky. The thing we need to do is make sure that retailers 'adapt' their construction designs to OUR specifications.

In the case of McDonalds, it is great how the city is demanding an urban pedestrian store for Bricktown, this is what Im talking about.

Also, it would be great - if we did want to have national fast food retailers segregated so to say, we could create a district downtown for it. Osaka has this in their Amerimura district, but of course, this is not the ONLY retail successful area of that great city.

So, I can agree that we do not want Bricktown or AAlley or Midtown to be proliforated with national fast food chains, so why not create an area of downtown for it - and demand they bring urban multistory pedestrian concepts??

But one thing's for sure - national retailers definitely pay attention to who else is already in downtown!! That is why up until now, national retail in downtown has been largely non-existent since the 1980's.

And I think the Chamber is doing the right thing - don't worry, they'll shoot for bigger stars soon once the smaller grabs are in place and successful and that will work for us and we'll surely land the big upscale shoppes downtown!!!

In order to create a retail district for downtown the consumer's viewpoint has to take precedent it seems to me. The consumer in this case is someone who lives, works, or visits downtown. And a 4th group would be someone who actually comes just for shopping.

Common to all groups is a desire for the shopping experience to be safe, convenient, and pleasant. Then each group diverges to some extent. Those who live downtown want to be able to shop for the same goods and services available to everyone else. Those who visit and those to come to shop want something unique.

Retail is terribly competitive with tight margins that require risky, intense capital expenditures. There is competition for site development within a retailer's own organization. So there has to be good reason for the retailer to plan investing in relatively expensive downtown Oklahoma City when other areas are less expensive and offer potentially greater reward at less risk.

Retailers don't do these things alone either so that's where a developer becomes necessary. But it has to be a developer who both understands the needs of the potential retailers and the needs of the area.

One really good thing on the near horizon is that the economic development people from the metropolitan area have managed to secure an ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centers) regional meeting to be hosted in Oklahoma City.

Idea Exchange, ICSC 2007 Oklahoma/Arkansas
September 10 - 11, 2007
The Skirvin Hotel

Here's a link to the PDF:
http://www.icsc.org/srch/mt/descs/2007OKA/2007OKA.pdf

Pretty nice coup for Oklahoma City and all the metropolitan area economic directors.