Arvest Tower

[Swake]

It's a regional company with HQ in Tulsa, started as BOK (well, it started long before then, but in the current era, it's BOK), now it includes Bank of Albuquerque, Bank of Kansas, Bank of Texas, Colorado State Bank, MOBANK (Missouri), Bank of Oklahoma, Bank of Arkansas, Bank of Arizona, along with CoBiz, TransFund, etc. listed in ditm4567's post.

And George Kaiser is the majority shareholder.

[TheTravellers]

And George Kaiser is the majority shareholder.

As well as chairman, the one who bought it out of FDIC receivership, one of the 100 richest people in the world, one of the top 50 philanthropists in the US, gave huge amounts to The Gathering Place, and apparently an all-around decent guy.

[shawnw]

As well as chairman, the one who bought it out of FDIC receivership.one of the 100 richest people in the world, one of the top 50 philanthropists in the US, gave huge amounts to The Gathering Place, and apparently an all-around decent guy.

I know WikiPedia is sometimes wrong but it states Jim Walton is the chairman

[TheTravellers]

I know WikiPedia is sometimes wrong but it states Jim Walton is the chairman

Yeah, he is of Arvest, I was on the BOKF tangent, sorry for the confusion.

[shawnw]

OH, oops

[BG918]

Arvest Bank = Walton Family (Wal-Mart) hence the name Ar (for Arkansas) Investment Bank

[Pete]

They have started work on the bank space (renderings provided by FSB Architecture).

First two images are facing south towards Leadership Square.

3rd is facing west and 4th is facing east.

[Pete]

They are planning to put red LED lighting all along the top of this building and the base as well.

[Bowser214]

Awesome!!!

[SagerMichael]

Hopefully more transparent glass like the BancFirst lobby

[Pete]

No new signage at the top quite yet, but Arvest moving fast with construction:

[G.Walker]

Hopefully they follow BancFirst's path, and put in new windows.

[Pete]

Hopefully they follow BancFirst's path, and put in new windows.

As far as I know, that is not part of their plan.

[turnpup]

I would love to see the Falling Water sculpture resume operation as a fountain once again.

[Pete]

I would love to see the Falling Water sculpture resume operation as a fountain once again.

Reminder that this building is owned by the infamous ("you don't know") Rainey Williams.

All he's done is put a basic pergola in that massive plaza and painted the concrete. I took those photos yesterday at lunchtime and there wasn't a single person anywhere on that huge plaza.

[turnpup]

In other words, don't hold my breath? Well maybe one of these days...

[Plutonic Panda]

In other words, don't hold my breath? Well maybe one of these days...

Well, if you think that then you clearly don’t know Rainey Williams.

[Pete]

If it wasn't patently obvious that Williams was just a front for OG&E for the demolition of Stage Center and then completely failed huge development project, he hasn't done a thing since that time, downtown or anywhere else.

As I pointed out when the initial news broke, he is an investor not a developer and had long-standing affiliations with OG&E.


That whole debacle was a great window on how the rich and powerful manipulate this city, with the Oklahoman abetting them.

[Plutonic Panda]

This is me dwelling in conspiracy land, but I really am starting to think they never seriously were going to build their proposal. I think this whole thing was just a front to tear down the Stage Center to do away with it.

[Of Sound Mind]

... this whole thing was just a front to tear down the Stage Center to do away with it.

The silver lining in the whole saga.

[AnguisHerba]

We often ascribe intentions to malice whenever it's most likely incompetence (and some luck). Just like all the other local oil and gas players, OGE Energy made a killing off shale boom in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Everyone wanted to build their shiny toys (Devon Tower, CHK campus, SandRidge tower) to show off their newfound wealth and power. Unfortunately, OGE Energy was late to the party, and the bottom fell out on oil and gas prices before they could build their own toy. Now that OGE is exiting the midstream business altogether, the project will never happen. And with OGE as the anchor tenant, it probably shouldn't. A better move would be for them to lease space in BOK or Devon Tower. But I'm going to guess the Corporation Commission and the customers are more interested in seeing investment in actual utility infrastructure.

[Pete]

^

It wasn't just that a wildly ambitious project is nothing more than a vacant lot for years now with no hope in sight.

It was that they used Rainey Williams as a front to intentionally deceive people and to deflect criticism for demolishing one of the few architecturally significant buildings in OKC (albeit a controversial one).

[Pete]

Arvest is now open for business in this building:

[shawnw]

Better than expected.

What's the ETA on the top-of-building larger signage?

[Laramie]

Better than expected.

What's the ETA on the top-of-building larger signage?

Electronic Transfer Account...