OKC gets top credit rating!

[metro]

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-city-gets...ad_story_title

Oklahoma City gets top credit rating
Elite score from Standard & Poor’s will help with street and bridge projects
BY STEVE LACKMEYER
Published: April 1, 2009Buzz up!

Oklahoma City residents can expect to spend less on building streets and bridges, thanks to receiving the highest debt rating possible from Standard & Poor’s.

The move from AA+ to AAA puts the city into an elite group of the best municipal credits in the market.

"When it comes to economic news, this is as good as it gets,” Mayor Mick Cornett said Tuesday in a news conference at City Hall.

Oklahoma City is the only city in the state to receive the top rating, which was released Monday.

A few of the factors that contributed to Oklahoma City’s high rating include:

• Oklahoma City’s expanding regional economic base.


• Ongoing downtown redevelopment.


• Consistently strong financial performance and position that includes strategic business planning, multi-year forecasts, balanced budgets, long term capital plans and compliance with reserve policies.


• Conservative financial management practices.


• Low debt and an affordable capital improvement program.


• Political and management stability.

City Manager Jim Couch credited a veteran city staff with making the rating possible. Some of the same staffers also have led in redevelopment plans for the Skirvin Hilton hotel, creation of the Dell campus along the Oklahoma River, and the luring of Bass Pro Shops to Bricktown.

Couch said the high ratings will translate into lower interest rates the city pays to sell bonds to fund major capital projects like streets, bridges, buses, sidewalks and trails and park improvements. Those savings, he said, will be available to spend on bond projects.

The city’s next bond sale will be April 9, and Couch said the new rating ought to help the city in what has been a strained market since September’s economic crash.

The rating also showed the national bond rating agencies’ confidence in the city’s investment climate, Couch said. Other comparable cities with a AAA rating include Phoenix, Austin, San Antonio, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Charlotte, Columbus and Seattle.

[PennyQuilts]

Woo Hoo! Congrats for a job well done.

[metro]

This is great news!

and the luring of Bass Pro Shops to Bricktown.

Nothing to be proud of!

[OKCMallen]

Sweet.

[circuitboard]

Go okc!

[jbrown84]

Hopefully this will help a little when developers try to get financing for local projects like FlatIron and Tuscana.

[soonerguru]

LOL! I met some 'necks who were in town to visit Bass Pro. They were getting drunk and loud at the Skirvin Bar. They referred to our current prez using the N word. Classy crowd. What a great anchor for future retail Bass Pro has been. I'm shocked Nordstrom hasn't moved right in.

[blangtang]

Tulsa World: Oklahoma City leaders mulling tax options, Cornett says

The tax is set to expire on March 31, 2010, which means a vote on extending it will have to be taken before the end of this year, Cornett said.

If a third MAPS proposal is put forward, it is most likely to include a new convention center, a large park in space created by the relocation of Interstate 40 through downtown Oklahoma City, and , possibly, a public transportation initiative.

Cornett personally favors such a component, but said, “it’s hard to pass public transit when you don’t have traffic congestion.”

Cornett said Oklahoma City’s economy has slowed considerably since last fall and appears to be “pretty flat” now. Nevertheless, he said, Devon Energy still plans to break ground later this year on a 950-foot skyscraper that will be the fifth-tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

[dcsooner]

Wow Soonerguru! how pathetic. Oklahoma will remain a bastion for IGNORANCE, RACISM,AND POVERTY.

[kevinpate]

In defense of 'necks everywhere, one need not look very hard, or far, before noticing polished wingtippers in their suits and ties who are every bit as 'classy' when it comes to public displays of bigotry and poor impulse control.

Just sayin

[metro]

Wow Soonerguru! how pathetic. Oklahoma will remain a bastion for IGNORANCE, RACISM,AND POVERTY.

that exists everywhere, in your DC as well, I don't think it's any more a problem here than anywhere else I've been. I do think Oklahoman's have an inferiority complex.

[Midtowner]

LOL! I met some 'necks who were in town to visit Bass Pro. They were getting drunk and loud at the Skirvin Bar. They referred to our current prez using the N word. Classy crowd. What a great anchor for future retail Bass Pro has been. I'm shocked Nordstrom hasn't moved right in.

Those sorts of folks can be found anywhere... but yeah, Bass Pro doesn't exactly attract the 'creative class' folks.

That said, I think Bricktown has a good mix of redneck and sophisticated. If you really want to show your granola crunching buddies a good place, take them to the Paseo.

Bricktown can't be all things to all people and if it's going to be anything at all, it needs to cater to the local crowd. That local crowd is as interested in Bass Pro and Toby Keiths as it is in Nonna's and Tapas at Bolero. Oklahomans are a diverse set. We have our share of rednecks and we have our share of folks who sneeringly post about rednecks on internet message boards. We run the gamut.

[jbrown84]

Well said Mid.

[soonerguru]

Bricktown can't be all things to all people and if it's going to be anything at all, it needs to cater to the local crowd. That local crowd is as interested in Bass Pro and Toby Keiths as it is in Nonna's and Tapas at Bolero. Oklahomans are a diverse set. We have our share of rednecks and we have our share of folks who sneeringly post about rednecks on internet message boards. We run the gamut.

I got no prob with rednecks. Bigoted morons aren't so great, though, wing tips or no.

The point is that Bass Pro was paid for with our tax dollars to create a "retail anchor." And from that standpoint, it has proven to be a spectacular failure.

[okcpulse]

that exists everywhere, in your DC as well, I don't think it's any more a problem here than anywhere else I've been. I do think Oklahoman's have an inferiority complex.

When you are a member of a nation that runs you into the ground for over 70 years and counting, you begin to question your self-worth.

[PennyQuilts]

When you are a member of a nation that runs you into the ground for over 70 years and counting, you begin to question your self-worth.

It took 70 years????

Seriously, what are you talking about?

[DelCamino]

...The point is that Bass Pro was paid for with our tax dollars to create a "retail anchor." And from that standpoint, it has proven to be a spectacular failure.

You don't know what you're talking about. Without BassPro, there would be no Sonic HQ building, no Harkins 16 Movie Theater, no restaurants south of Reno, no new condo building, and certainly no Marriott Residence Inn. The canal boats would still be crusing past a giant mound of dirt, talking about what 'could be.'

[metro]

You don't know what you're talking about. Without BassPro, there would be no Sonic HQ building, no Harkins 16 Movie Theater, no restaurants south of Reno, no new condo building, and certainly no Marriott Residence Inn. The canal boats would still be crusing past a giant mound of dirt, talking about what 'could be.'

All considered a great flop compared to what was promised and what could have been.........Nothing special about a couple one story stucco buildings (Bass Pro, TBK, Sonic/Falcone's, Theater.

[DelCamino]

All considered a great flop compared to what was promised and what could have been.........Nothing special about a couple one story stucco buildings (Bass Pro, TBK, Sonic/Falcone's, Theater.

If the issue raised was that of the design of the buildings/development, sure. The project most certainly could have been designed better.

But 'guru's post implied that the bringing in of BassPro was a flop and that's not the case. It was the catalyst the secured the development of the property south of Reno and without it, nothing would have developed for many a year - undisputed fact. People should to remember the circumstances at the time of the development and remember that context - not what they want it to be 7-8 years after the fact.

[soonerguru]

You don't know what you're talking about. Without BassPro, there would be no Sonic HQ building, no Harkins 16 Movie Theater, no restaurants south of Reno, no new condo building, and certainly no Marriott Residence Inn. The canal boats would still be crusing past a giant mound of dirt, talking about what 'could be.'

This is complete and total bull****e.

[soonerguru]

Remember: we were told that we would have retail. What does Harkins Theatre have to do with that? That was a separate deal that most people wholeheartedly supported.

We were told we were going to get things like Crate & Barrel if we would only support the Gaylord family's efforts to have public support of their bait and tackle wonderland.

Bass Pro is not an anchor for "high end" retail, which is what the city told us we would get.

We have no high end retail. How is Del Camino suggesting we have a retail anchor? There is no retail.

[PennyQuilts]

The real issue is that some people think Bass Pro is low brow.

[kevinpate]

In some respects, it is. And in some, it caters to the unibrow amongst us as well. But it is not without it's higher functioning level fans in the customer base. It's not all bait tackle and singing fake bass on woodgrain plastic, though some of it is that as well.

[soonerguru]

There's nothing wrong with Bass Pro. I'm glad we have Bass Pro. The point is that if you state the goal of luring Bass Pro to an area is to be a leader driving urban retail development, it's a failure.

Simple conversations with anyone in other markets who successfully developed retail in the inner city would have revealed thus.

Did we honestly believe that a company selling brass-plated spittoons would bring us Nordstrom?

A perfect location for Bass Pro would have been near the fairgrounds, or the I-40/Meridan area. It would have been just as successful. Then, we could have subsidized a more urban retail tenant in Bricktown.