OAK (formerly Penn Central)

[jdizzle]

To be fair, this catastrophe is going to halt great projects and destroy existing ones in every city in the country. I doubt any particular city's relative place in the national hierarchy is going to notably change due to COVID, though all of them are certainly going to be lesser versions of their pre-virus selves.

Nah, only OKC will be affected jkjk

[HangryHippo]

To be fair, this catastrophe is going to halt great projects and destroy existing ones in every city in the country. I doubt any particular city's relative place in the national hierarchy is going to notably change due to COVID, though all of them are certainly going to be lesser versions of their pre-virus selves.

Most definitely. I wasn't implying otherwise, just typed OKC project while commenting that this situation has an eerily familiar feeling to 2007-08.

[Pete]

They have started to demolish the Penn Park office complex.

As I mentioned earlier, The Registry building to the west has active tenants and is looking to sign new leases.

[David]

Was the Penn Park office complex previously in active use? I'm still hopeful for this project, but it's going to be disappointing if we come out of it with no fancy new infill and an empty lot.

[Pete]

Was the Penn Park office complex previously in active use?.

Yes until they recently cleared out all the tenants.

[Dob Hooligan]

Drove up Pennsylvania yesterday afternoon and the traffic light on the 50 Penn side had been removed. I'm guessing it had been damaged or needed repair. Anyone know anything?

[Pete]

The developer told me yesterday the houses on Barnes will soon be demolished.

[warreng88]

Pete, do you think they will do it in two phases now or are just clearing the land for when they are ready to build?

[Pete]

I think they will move to a phased plan.

The area occupied by The Registry will likely come later.


My understanding is they will not be doing any construction anywhere on the site for a while. Just too many uncertainties right now, so that's completely understandable.

[AP]

I think they will move to a phased plan.

The area occupied by The Registry will likely come later.


My understanding is they will not be doing any construction anywhere on the site for a while. Just too many uncertainties right now, so that's completely understandable.

Why demo if they aren't certain of what's going to happen?

[Pete]

Why demo if they aren't certain of what's going to happen?

Because they cleared out both Penn Park and the homes some time ago and neighbors were starting to complain about vandalism and squatters.

[Pete]

[snark0leptic]

Hey! I can see my house from here.

[Pete]

Hey! I can see my house from here.

We're neighbors as I live a few blocks south.

[macfoucin]

https://www.news9.com/story/5f35d17f...l-development-

[jonny d]

Man, OKC can't catch a break.

[shavethewhales]

I understand that they are in a tough position with a lot of the space they had originally designed being un-rentable in the current climate, but by the time they re-design everything this pandemic will be in the rear view mirror (knock on wood). I wish they would just shelve it for a year and re-evaluate.

[Pete]

I understand that they are in a tough position with a lot of the space they had originally designed being un-rentable in the current climate, but by the time they re-design everything this pandemic will be in the rear view mirror (knock on wood). I wish they would just shelve it for a year and re-evaluate.

Before they can design and finance this, they have to have commitments from restaurants and other tenants.

They've been working on that for quite a while, but of course now any letters of intent and similar have likely been withdrawn.

The best hope is to do part of the project then hope they can be more ambitious in the 2nd phase, which is likely at least 5 years down the line.

[G.Walker]

Bad timing, we knew this was coming. Unfortunately, I have a feeling this project will take 3-5 years to fully develop.

[Southsider2]

Yeah this is super unfortunate but completely understandable. With all the uncertainty right now it makes no sense to move forward aggressively with a relatively risky project. The good news is that this is a very valuable piece of land and they didn't start construction just to abandon the project (See Left Frame Lofts LOL).

[Plutonic Panda]

I just realized that it was a news 9 article and they aren’t exactly known for being the most credible news agency out there. Anyone here in the know have anything to say about this? Hopefully they don’t make the stupid/shortsighted decision to completely downgrade this project and instead just delay it. I’d gladly take a delay to do it right.

[Teo9969]

Could they not slightly reimagine the northern portion of the property so that they could go ahead and build the residential and some of the retail/restaurant and maybe even try and get the hotel up and running? Wheeler is showing that things can definitely be done in phases. Obviously it's a smaller area, and with a more dense build out, but I have no doubt that the residential component of this will crush it. Downtown obviously has its allure, but this area is increasingly competitive with downtown in terms of restaurant, beats it in retail, and is close enough that the entertainment advantage is largely nullified, additionally there's substantial employment within a 3-mile radius: the mall, several office towers, Integris, Chesapeake/MidFirst campuses.

[MagzOK]

Glad we sold our house to them a while back before all this! I made some really good money off the sale that I otherwise wouldn't have had I waited them out.

[Pete]

Glad we sold our house to them a while back before all this! I made some really good money off the sale that I otherwise wouldn't have had I waited them out.

Not sure about that. I live a few blocks south and my home value went up more than 50% in four years.

[Dob Hooligan]

Not sure about that. I live a few blocks south and my home value went up more than 50% in four years.

I recall Chesapeake was the buyer of the houses for a "Grand Plan" project they had lined up. Aubrey had a well earned reputation of paying a premium for properties that fit into his vision, and being very generous with all expenses related to a move. I have heard of such minutiae as paying for checks with the new address. Items that don't show up on the county assessor site as the sale price.