Producers Coop

[AP]

I can't read the whole article yet but the headline says enough. Finally.

[OkiePoke]

This is pretty big news.

[bradh]

Count me in the crowd though that thinks it would be awesome if some components of the mill could be salvaged and used in a future development. I think that'd be pretty awesome.

[hoya]

Yeah I can't read the article yet either, but I'd anticipate they are getting more serious about selling. Perhaps there's a buyer lined up.

[gurantula35]

Can you guys not watch the video like i can? Great work by Steve here. Says they are moving all operation to their Altus location. They arent going to produce canola oil anymore. The land is for sale. He speculated that the price would be shave by $30-$50 million. They are discussing with Sooner Investments. They could sell the land in parcels instead of the entire thing at once to help attract more buyer. Those were the main points i got from it. Anything else to add?

[Anonymous.]

YES! I thought downtown smelled a lot better lately.

[Bellaboo]

The article says that they have addressed the land to the city for the convention site. It says the city said that semi truck access is inadequate, the mill says they have no problem with the trucks. The mill says they would work with the city to address how much land they need and for the 13 million dollar cost. The mill has contacted about 6 real estate groups to sell as retail and HQ sites. They said to get the ball rolling, they would sell an initial site at a steep discount. They also talked how the milling business is changing and all operations would be moved to Altus. That's generally about it.
They said they also approached the owner of the Lumber Yard to possibly combine both sites for the convention center IIRC.

[AP]

Can you guys not watch the video like i can? Great work by Steve here. Says they are moving all operation to their Altus location. They arent going to produce canola oil anymore. The land is for sale. He speculated that the price would be shave by $30-$50 million. They are discussing with Sooner Investments. They could sell the land in parcels instead of the entire thing at once to help attract more buyer. Those were the main points i got from it. Anything else to add?

After I posted that, I realized I could watch the video. You pretty much covered everything.

[shawnw]

Wow, yeah, I know there's probably some downsides to the COOP site for CC use (range to full service hotels, potential higher use of this land), but IMO (not worth much admittedly) this is now officially the best CC site on the market.

[Bellaboo]

Wow, yeah, I know there's probably some downsides to the COOP site for CC use (range to full service hotels, potential higher use of this land), but IMO (not worth much admittedly) this is now officially the best CC site on the market.

One downside could be a possible high dollar cleanup cost ? But I think the site would be great.

[Just the facts]

Semi access is an issue? Is the City not aware that Oklahoma City Boulevard in all its 'lanes of glory' will go right by it?

[baralheia]

I'm quite sure that the "semi access issues" argument is merely a ploy because the City just doesn't want to put the CC there. That said, I'm happy for this! The smell was terrible and the land can be put to a much greater use - especially given proximity to the urban core and Bricktown.

[ChowRunner]

Producers Co op owner at Council meeting offering his location as a possible site for the convention center

[shawnw]

producers co op owner at council meeting offering his location as a possible site for the convention center

nice

[ChowRunner]

Deleted

[TU 'cane]

Best of luck to the company and their future operations. May they succeed and prosper in Altus.

Moving forward, this land has been debated and sought after for so long. I would like to ask what we could do to try and ensure (as much as we can, if we can at all) that some good quality development(s) take it's place. We all know this is prime real estate between the river, BT, and the CBD. Which means a LOT of potential for something "game-changing." I hate to use such hyperbole, but seriously, let's put this to some seriously good use!

[baralheia]

^^^^^^^^^^
YES!

This is land that will be important to the core of OKC. What can we do to make sure that only quality development happens here?

[jccouger]

All of my dreams are coming true!

There is no better land in all of Oklahoma City. Between Downtown, Bricktown & the boathouse district ANYTHING could go here & it would be a huge success. Convention center, housing, hotels, entertainment, football/soccer stadiums. The list is endless. I just really hope with such a blank slate that the developments codes are top notch.

We also don't have to worry about what will be torn down. Of course I'm sure some people would love to see some rehab, people have already started posting this, but lets be real the potential for brand new development far exceeds anything that could be done with these metal barns.

[yukong]

One downside could be a possible high dollar cleanup cost ? But I think the site would be great.

In truth, that may be one of the biggest hurdles to this property. That whole area of downtown historically was oil field and refinery property. Every other parcel around that area has required some expensive remediation of contamination in the soil, as well as ground water. And depending on the severity it could make residential development very costly. There is really no telling how extensive it is until a phase 1 assessment is done. But those types of issues can impact financing issues, development issues and more.

[Just the facts]

If they are still planning to go underground that alone solves a big part of the soil contamination issue.

[yukong]

If they are still planning to go underground that alone solves a big part of the soil contamination issue.

For a convention center...maybe in that they will excavate and remove a lot of soil. But ground water is a whole different issue. The water table is fairly close to the surface there. All the ground water from the DT area migrates toward the river. Assuming there is ground water contamination...which is a safe assumption...there will also be vapor intrusion issues that will require some engineering controls, especially considering an underground facility will possibly extend to the water table, if not be surrounded thereby. The studies I've seen of areas just north show a lot of contamination in the soil and ground water and that the water table is not very deep below the surface. Not saying it will prohibit development at all. Just that the environmental issues will impact cost (possibly by a fair amount) and also impact the types of development.

[shawnw]

Not that they would, but if the COOP was willing to sell the required amount of land (including for expansion) for $13M minus the cost of the environmental remediation, how could the city refuse? The COOP folks win because there will eventually need to be related development around it that they could sell at fair market value. The CC site is a loss leader.

[Dustin]

Oh my goodness... this is the best news I've heard all year!!!

[Bullbear]

Great news.. as I passed it on the highway this week I thought.. if only that were gone!

[Pete]

This has been percolating for a while, and the coop group has been willing to sell the property for far less than the reported $120 million for quite some time.

I mentioned just a few weeks ago that they were looking to shift their processing capacity elsewhere rather than building a whole new plant.

The tricky part of this is there are literally hundreds of separate owners; all the various members of the coop. It sounds like the involvement of Sooner Investments will help, but there have been at least two very prominent local real estate people working with the coop owners for quite some time, and this still may be a very slow process.

Remember, the property has been officially for sale for years.