sroberts, just curious but when did Aubrey say that? Can you provide a link, I'd love to read those comments.

“I want to turn 63rd and Western into the second major focal point of this community. Downtown will always be the first. I want this to be the second center of the universe in Oklahoma City,” he said.

From the article posted on the top of page 16 of this thread from the okgazette

Chesapeake?s Aubrey McClendon aims to cement legacy with sprawling campus | OKG Scene.com (http://www.okgazette.com/p/12776/a/4435/Default.aspx?ReturnUrl=LwBkAGUAZgBhAHUAbAB0AC4AYQB zAHAAeAAslashAHAAPQAxADIANwAyADkA)

I was a little off on what he said but this is what I was talking about

However, the land that is closer to I44 and Broadway Ext would be more conducive for high rise, whether it be CHPK or another corperation.

I think you are meaning something like this.....



http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-area-talk/19626-new-highrise-i-44-broaday-ext.html

Metro, interesting analysis. Bwana Bob --- I would love to see BOTH McCormick's, and Capital Grille have restaurants in OKC and/or Tulsa.

I seriously doubt family history has anything to do with it. Geez, he was a great nephew of the Kerr family, big deal.
You need to reread my post, you completely missed my point.


He didn't "inherit" an oil empire or anything, he and Tom Ward started it from the ground up with a minimal investment back in the 80's.
I know the history...thanks but it's not relevant. My point was they could have built a large building but they didn't and it didn't have anything to do with zoning laws.


They are both suburban type guys. Type of building has nothing to do with flatter management structure. They have plenty of management structure, they're just spread out in like 20 different buildings instead of 1. If anything, more buildings complicates processes, not streamlines them.
The sprawling campus was a conscious decision and it's obvious as it has developed. When it was younger, many thought it was random and hap-hazard creation of buildings. Now that it's starting to come together, it's quite obvious there was a master plan....long ago.

When are they going to fix the roads leading up to and around Chesapeake? The potholes and manholes on Western are almost unavoidable now and 63rd street isn't much better.

Speaking of Manholes, I've really begin to notice a lot lately on Western and Classen and throughout downtown. First off, they are oddly placed, exactly where a car tire has to go; you'd think they'd be in the middle of a lane. Secondly, as you stated, they are unavoidable now, I'm hitting them more and more and they are getting deeper since the City hired these crappy contractors to do all this street repaving that is HORRIBLE.

More for historical reasons than any other, here is the current Google Maps image of the areas about CHK as they appeared I would guess between 3-5 years ago. I would love to see a current image as it stands now... Pete's overlays pretty much show that they have developed as intended.

Note the number of homes that used to be in the area... now they number on one hand... no big loss though (IMHO).

Kinda neat to see what it used to look like. I would love to have a shot like this from about 1998.

Comments?

Does anybody know what CHK is doing with all the condos they own around NH Plaza?

They own the large majority of Grandmark, Sherwood Arms, Nichols Hills Manor, and Kings Court. All these back up to NH Plaza South.

Are they leasing them out or are they sitting empty?



Also, some research on the county site showed they own all 23 of the units at Kings Court (the complex on 63rd street), 17 of 23 at Grandmark, 2 of 11 at NH Manor, and 29 of 31 at Sherwood Arms. In general, they have paid 3 to 5 times the market and/or last sales price for these units, representing almost $20 million in investment -- and will need to spend millions more to acquire the remaining units. Plus, they will likely just raze all these buildings, so they are paying tens of millions just for the land.

If you add in the cost for NH Plaza north and south, the gas stations, the rug shop and the church, etc., CHK has at least $70 million invested in just the NW corner of 63rd and Western. And there will be plenty more to come if they relocate NH City Hall, buy the one office building in the middle of NH Plaza... Plus development costs.

Yeah, but that's chump change for what they would have spent on a tower, AND they are transforming that section of the City.

I would rather see them transform that area with a bunch of smaller buildings, over building one tower. That area needed some work and it is looking great!

that's chump change for what they would have spent on a tower

But this has nothing to do with their office buildings...

All this was done as an investment so they must have something very big planned for NH Plaza.


It's very difficult to imagine how they could ever come close to making their money back when you are talking about spending almost $100 million (when all is said and done) just for LAND -- they will no doubt need to scrape just about everything there to make redevelopment work.

I know it's not just about investment but they are a publicly held company and they have to be able to justify these huge expenditures.

NH Plaza - There was a NH City Council meeting earlier this week and CHK applied to bulldoze the Kings Court condominiums on the N side of 63rd between Grand and Mamasita's.

Wow, why the heck would they want to raze those condos when nothing has been approved to go in their place??

They did the same thing with the Kensington apartments on Grand and now it's just a pile of red dirt where perfectly good (and occupied) apartments recently stood.

Pete - How about cutting tax, insurance and maintenance expenses?

Yes, but Kensington was relatively full and generating income which had to offset any expenses.

And why not rent out Kings Court? Same principle applies there.


CHK has a history of scraping buildings and leaving the land scarred and vacant for long periods of time before ever building back. How is that good for the area and community in general?

Maybe they'll at least add parking where Kings Court once was but even so, I wish they'd stop tearing things down when they have no immediate plan to build.

I am excited to see what is up there sleeve. I wonder what they are planning.

I think they are still years away from doing anything major with NH Plaza.

Terrible time to try and lease retail space, plus I'm sure they want to fill Classen Curve first. That could take a couple of years in itself.


That's why I don't underway why they would be looking to pull down those condos. I have the feeling that will sit as a vacant lot for quite a while.

Yes, but Kensington was relatively full and generating income which had to offset any expenses.

And why not rent out Kings Court? Same principle applies there.


CHK has a history of scraping buildings and leaving the land scarred and vacant for long periods of time before ever building back. How is that good for the area and community in general?

Maybe they'll at least add parking where Kings Court once was but even so, I wish they'd stop tearing things down when they have no immediate plan to build.

In a few words, liability, risk and attractive nuisance.

Once they build, what they build has been pretty nice though.

Not to mention the few thousand OKCitians they employ and the millions they donate to many causes around town.

I think from CHK's perspective this pesky little recession is the only reason their NH plans aren't already finished..they're on a different level than this discussion.

Wow, why the heck would they want to raze those condos when nothing has been approved to go in their place??
I agree but you never know...they might have something already planned.


They did the same thing with the Kensington apartments on Grand and now it's just a pile of red dirt where perfectly good (and occupied) apartments recently stood.
True but consider what happened to the economy. They bought the units with a plan to rebuild something different...then the economy crashed. They may have bulldozed the buildings to save on taxes and believing that the economy would rebound quickly so they're just waiting for the right time to start that part of the expansion.

CHK has a history of scraping buildings and leaving the land scarred and vacant for long periods of time before ever building back. How is that good for the area and community in general?
With the building that they do afterwards, it more than offsets the down time.

In a few words, liability, risk and attractive nuisance.

Once they build, what they build has been pretty nice though.

Not to mention the few thousand OKCitians they employ and the millions they donate to many causes around town.
Excellent points and I agree....and FYI, I've heard the latest number of people working for CHK is 8,500.

took these on my phone yesterday

Excellent points and I agree....and FYI, I've heard the latest number of people working for CHK is 8,500.

Most in Texas.

Most in Texas.
:LolLolLol
You can't be serious.

Of CHK's 8,000+ employees, only about 3,000 work at the OKC HQ.

Of CHK's 8,000+ employees, only about 3,000 work at the OKC HQ.

And growing......

Does anybody know what CHK is doing with all the condos they own around NH Plaza?

They own the large majority of Grandmark, Sherwood Arms, Nichols Hills Manor, and Kings Court. All these back up to NH Plaza South.

Are they leasing them out or are they sitting empty?

Interesting that you bring this up, Pete. Driving back to work from lunch today, I noticed for the first time that they are starting to look rough around the edges. The awnings have not been kept up, none appeared occupied, and it looked like at least one of the buildings was being used for storage.

If they tear it down, that will be a noticeable lack of density. In fact, I kind of miss the older buildings they recently tore down on their main campus. Density up to the street level has such visual and aesthetic appeal - I fail to understand the obsession we have with such huge setbacks.

mheaton - If you're talking about the Kings Court condos, they are all vacant and much of the exterior infrastructure (stair railings, HVAC compressors, carports) are either missing, removed or damaged. If this complex is removed and replaced with grass, a greenscaped opening will appear where you can see from 63rd into the SW/C of NH Plaza through a grove of pine trees (that sounds nicer than it will probably appear).

I disagree with Pete's assessment that this is either a setback or significant delay. It is a logical step towards the development of a large, complex multi-use project to replace several that currently exist. A fair metaphor is "rebuilding an airplane while in flight."

Of CHK's 8,000+ employees, only about 3,000 work at the OKC HQ.
In an article of Jan 2009, over 1 year ago, they said this:


The independent natural gas producer said in a statement Monday that it "eliminated less than 50 positions of over 3,300" at its Oklahoma City headquarters. The statement did not indicate if the company cut jobs at other locations or what kind of jobs were lost.
Chesapeake Says It Has Cut 50 Jobs in OKC Office - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wirestory?id=7902261&page=1)

CHK has continued to hire all through 2009 so I would be willing to bet the number has increased significantly.

Jethrol, this is their office in Ft Worth. Google image search for Chesapeake Energy and all kinds of pics of this bldg come up, none of their campus.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3275/2757600315_4dd5e67fd1.jpg

Which by the way, a majority of CHK's work is actually done in the Barnett Shale in North Texas, hence the huge Ft Worth office. Of course the OKC office has more employees than any other one location, but Texas as a whole probably has more CHK workers than Oklahoma as a whole.

I wish they'd stop tearing things down when they have no immediate plan to build.

Maybe they do...?


It is a logical step towards the development of a large, complex multi-use project to replace several that currently exist. A fair metaphor is "rebuilding an airplane while in flight."

We did it with the airport.

Maybe they do...?

Nothing has been submitted to NH for approval.

And, they have submitted some conceptual plans for reconstructing that entire area, but have met with significant opposition from the immediate neighbors.


I hope I'm wrong but my best guess is that nothing new is going to be constructed on that corner until they get all the ducks in a row; i.e. acquiring the rest of the surrounding condos, moving NH City Hall, getting approval from the city, and the economy improving quite a bit.

That could take years or even a decade.

Looks like King's Court's days are numbered, indeed... The OKCO Sheriff has a (SWAT?) training exercise going on there currently.

Next up, OKFD training/burn/demo?

King's Court gone. CHK has closed on the last office building on Classen that they didn't own, and appear to be down to not owning only a few of the homes (like less than 10?) in the area. I hope some of the new construction planned by CHK can now begin, as the area is pretty much theirs now. If natural gas prices would only increase just a bit....

It looks like they have some work to do acquiring properties contiguously along Shartel before they can begin with any kind of development to the east of Classen. Shartel would be the vital avenue through anything they might or might not yet have planned.

The county records indicate that they own all of Shartel but for a couple of homes on the east side of the street. There are a few houses left on 62nd, and a couple more on the next blocks east of Shartel.

CHK should be very close to being able to create their vision for the campus. Too bad they don't want to share that with the rest of us :-(

In addition to the cam for the Whole Foods location, CHK's construction firm has webcams up on three other campus projects.


New Central Car Park (Original, small office cottages were removed except one that will be a CHK museum. Ultimately, a play field and track will be installed on the surface level of this structure.)

http://www.tnttri.com/OKCTalk/carpark1.jpg


Day Care Center (Immediately east of big parking structure):

http://www.tnttri.com/OKCTalk/daycare1.jpg

And Building 14 (Just north of the same parking structure; east of Classen between 62nd & 61st):

http://www.tnttri.com/OKCTalk/building14.jpg


You can seem all the webcams here:

http://www.smithandpickel.com/

Noticed that about a month ago CHK requested and received approval to close all the roads and alleys highlighted below.

I believe the longer term plan for the area east of Shartel is housing.

http://www.tnttri.com/OKCTalk/closures2.jpg

Also, I just noticed that CHK finally acquired that small office building (old school?) on the SW corner of 63rd & Western.

Paid $7 million for it... Previous owners bought it for $2.8 million just five years ago.


http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2629/R133040070001zA.jpg

I hope they don't plan on tearing it down unless they build a multistory mixed use development on that corner. Also for those that aren't familiar with that building, it has underground parking, you can't really tell because Chesapeake already did a good job masking it with the bushes you see out front, just left of the driveway.

Buddy of mine works for Chesapeake, says they are about to build a hotel on one of their properties near or on the campus. He didn't tell me exactly where or how big...

I hate these kinds of rumors and realize 1/50 like this are correct, so take it with a grain of salt. But that is what I heard and felt I should share. Again, rumor.

I'm sure a hotel in that area is needed, not only for CHK business travelers but just in general. The only decent rooms in that area are at the Waterford.

If this comes to pass, I bet it will be on the property near Whole Foods. That playing field and track will soon be redundant when the new central car park is completed and on their master plan that entire area is shown as mixed use.

I imagine they will continue to expand their office buildings to the east, as they've already crossed Classen with one and another is under construction.

W hotel and residences @ the curve? please? Ok I will stop dreaming.

Well, more grist for the rumor mill...my Dad has a friend with a business in the building where the Varsity used to be (I don't remember the name). He told him that the future plans for his building included it's razing for purposes of a "Chesapeake hotel." But this was at least a year ago, so who knows?

That would go along with what my buddy told me. He told me a building (didn't say which one) was going to be flattened pretty soon and a hotel built on it by/for CHK. But, rumors are rumors. Everyone may know them in a company, but that doesn't make it true -- just means both heard the same rumor.

However, given the amount of money and development Chesapeake is putting forward for that area, I wouldn't doubt something along those lines would come up.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if they built a hotel on their campus.....I know they bring in a lot of consultants and stuff from around the country so they have to have a place to put them all.

I heard another rumor that they're going to build an employee fishing pond E of Shartel....actually might even be further E but I think it's planned to go in where all the big mounds of dirt are.

Are there any zoning ordinances in that area that would restrict the height of a hotel? It seems like all the buildings in the area are no more than three-four stories.

Anyone know the rumored completion date on the daycare?

That's what I was hoping for for that whole block that incorporates the Whole Foods. Something like Dallas' Park Lane. Have a nice midrise hotel like the W or Aloft or something, have retail on the first floor and condo's mixed in I hope they make that block real dense development.

The daycare should be finished in less than a year.

The building that used to house The Varsity (and before that, Michael's Plum) is called Glenbrook Centre East. I was by there about a week ago and besides the bridge over the creek to the south where Whole Foods is being built, that area seemed pretty quiet and largely empty. You know they will bring it down eventually as they have not been renewing leases there for some time.

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2629/R133040023001uA.jpg

Am I the only one that shakes my head in wonder at this kind of thing? (if true, a big if) A few years ago that was a full, thriving building with good tenants, retail, etc. I'm not saying it was the greatest place in the world, but I don't understand why they would buy that, empty it out, and tear it down when they have all that open land east of the campus. It sure will be interesting to see how this all plays out...I'm sure somewhere there's a plan.

CHK has already torn down dozens of buildings... There was an office building of about the same size they pulled down recently just west of Glenbrook Centre and it didn't even make the news (and nobody commented on it here until I saw an aerial). They've also razed the Kennsington apartments and Kings court condos in the same general area, with no specific plans to develop those properties. Both have been empty lots for some time.

Their M.O. has been to acquire, not renew leases (and in many cases, buy them out) and tear down as soon as a building is vacant.


I'm less critical now that they have actually built something back (Classen Curve and Whole Foods) that will benefit the surrounding community.

The daycare should be finished in less than a year.



Less than a year from now or less than a year from the start of construction?

Are there any zoning ordinances in that area that would restrict the height of a hotel? It seems like all the buildings in the area are no more than three-four stories.

The height of the buildings are just preference by CHK. All of their campus (and even the area west of Western and south of 63rd) is in Oklahoma City, not Nichols Hills. So, they shouldn't have any issues building taller, especially since most these areas are already zoned for office/commercial.


And I believe the day care center will be open by next summer.

Am I the only one that shakes my head in wonder at this kind of thing? (if true, a big if) A few years ago that was a full, thriving building with good tenants, retail, etc. I'm not saying it was the greatest place in the world, but I don't understand why they would buy that, empty it out, and tear it down when they have all that open land east of the campus. It sure will be interesting to see how this all plays out...I'm sure somewhere there's a plan.
I'm not sure I get what you mean? They tore down a lot of buildings to build the main campus. Most of those people have sold at HUGE profits and in the case of pearls and others, they've rebuilt new buildings close to the same locations (i.e. under a mile away). All this is good for OKC.

Not to mention CHK built the Classen Curve which brings in a whole new crop of stores. Add to that a new Whole Foods market and it seems to me that while it's not an immediate replacement for what was there, it's setting up that area for HUGE growth potential for the future.

Your post almost seems like you're against progress, new construction, new shops, a change in focus and those sorts of things. Is that really what you're trying to say or am I confused?

You misunderstood me, or maybe I was being unclear. I am most definitely NOT against progress, new retail, new construction, or new purposes for old spaces. I think the majority of what CHK has done is good for the area. I was just curious why they would spend the money to buy and tear down a perfectly viable structure that is marginally further from the core of their campus rather than build on virgin land to the east. It must have to do with their overall campus plan. An innocent question, I should have said "scratching my head" rather than "shaking my head."

I was just curious why they would spend the money to buy and tear down a perfectly viable structure that is marginally further from the core of their campus rather than build on virgin land to the east. lol...virgin land. To the East it had buildings and houses there also but yeah, compared to W of Western, it was virgin. Marginally further from the campus tho? Well if anything, CHK has proven that their campus is going to expand significantly in the coming years. We're already seeing this with more buildings to the East.



It must have to do with their overall campus plan. An innocent question, I should have said "scratching my head" rather than "shaking my head."
No worries and yeah that makes sense unless you factor in that they have plans for everything East already. We've yet to see everything completed and they continue to start projects while trying to wrap up other projects. i.e. still not done with the glass building, new parking garage, child care center and they've already carved out the pit for bldg 14. Not to mention the Whole Foods store, Central Park, and bldg 12 are all still under construction. The pace of their construction is such that they must have a steady supply of "ready" space in which to start new projects.

Who knows....perhaps they're also clearing the land to help entice new businesses such as Whole Foods and such.

The thing I like is that they're not afraid to think big, really big and make HUGE changes to the existing landscape of that part of the city. This is something we haven't seen here in OKC....at least I don't remember seeing it, not right inside the city. I love what I'm seeing in that area and can't wait till more things come "online".....traffic is going to suck balls around there tho.

The thing I like is that they're not afraid to think big, really big

Yep, you've got to give them credit for having a grand vision, patiently assembling properties and spending millions (probably now more like a billion) to do things on a very large scale.

I think everyone feels better now that they've actually built some things back to replace all the restaurants and shops that have been moved out of there.

Just hope things continue to go well for Chesapeake and they can see out everything they want to do.

Just hope things continue to go well for Chesapeake and they can see out everything they want to do.
They're doing very well. CHKM is their spin off company that just had their IPO. This company was started back in like 2004 and has quickly risen to one of the dominant midstream companies in the USA. It's quite an impressive feat but honestly, nothing surprises me anymore about CHK. Aubrey and company have proven that they should never be underestimated.

Here's more info on CHKM
http://www.chesapeakemidstream.com/Pages/information.aspx