Bishops Landing getting torn down

[zacelliott]

Looks like Bishops Landing may be getting torn down to make way for a new high density complex. Very exciting. Apparently the only way to clean that place up is to just nuke it all.
http://www.normanok.gov/filebrowser_...20American.pdf

[BoulderSooner]

Suprised OU hasnt ed's this area already

[shavethewhales]

This is great news. Those apartments were the pits. The owners let the place go to crap because their location next to campus + low rents made it easy to just sit back and collect without any effort. I've always been told that they were crawling with bugs and there were constant leaks and broken A/C. The several people I knew who tried to live there didn't last through their contracts.

Are they basically moving the high-density proposal from the little neighborhood next door to this plot?

[HangryHippo]

It looks like there is a new article in the Journal Record about this development. Warreng, if you read this, would you mind posting it?

[Pete]

$50 million project will house 917 near OU
By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record May 20, 20150


NORMAN – University Housing Communities set its sights on Norman a decade ago. The area experienced a housing boom at that time, and since the multifamily developer didn’t have a specific site, no project was started.

But UHC never let Norman get too far off its development list. In July, the company contacted ARA Newmark in Oklahoma City. Brokers David Burnett, Andy Burnett and Tim McKay were asked to help the company find a project site.

Through their relationship with Dowell Properties President Rick Dowell, ARA Newmark was able to work an off-market deal on the sale of the Bishop’s Landing apartment complex, 333 E. Brooks St. UHC purchased the building and surrounding 7.5 acres for $12.5 million. By summer’s end, the apartment complex will be razed to make room for a $50 million, 428,000-square-foot, five-story multifamily property.

Burnett said the land, which is within walking distance of the University of Oklahoma’s football stadium, was the best option because the company wanted to build close to campus. Since OU owned much of the property surrounding the campus, the only other option was to piecemeal together land.
“This was a very rare opportunity to assemble, all on one transaction, this amount of acreage,” Burnett said.

UHC will put the entire land mass to use, with a pool, three courtyards and a tenant parking garage, said David Pierce, senior vice president of development for UHC. Inside, the complex will have a 24-hour fitness center and a genius lounge, the company’s name for its enhanced study room. The room will have a whiteboard, electronic video boards, and other technology that can help students.
“We recognize locally that people are here to get an education,” Pierce said. “We’re serious about providing the amenity tools to help them do that.”

The complex will be three buildings, though it will appear as one from the outside. It will have 388 units that house 917 beds. The units will range in size from studios to four bedrooms. The company builds housing in communities nationwide and has come to realize that not everyone wants a four-bedroom apartment.

“We need to have a lot of bedroom types for everyone interested in the property,” he said.

The company will break ground in the fall, after leases expire in the summer, if the permitting process goes smoothly. Pierce said if it looks like the company will not have everything lined up to start building, it will postpone demolition. Since it is an operating property, it wouldn’t make sense financially for UHC to tear it down and lose the leasing revenue, he said. Once construction starts, it will take about two years, with the goal to finish before the fall 2017 semester.

“We want to time it to open before the academic year,” Pierce said. “It’s not good for us to open a month after classes start.”

This will likely not be UHC’s only presence in Oklahoma; the company is interested in Stillwater as well. But it wants to finish the Norman project first, Pierce said.

[Scott5114]

That looks and sounds really nice. I like the added touch of the study room. Nice little thing to make the property stand out and cater to its market.

[Robert_M]

Plans are out to bid for sub-contractors on this project. A company out of Florida is the construction manager. The following is the brief description they provide.

"This project is a 475,000 SF apartment style dorm facility . It will be a Texas Wrap style dorm with a 702 space parking garage. The dorm will include 917 beds and will be a 5 story, Type 3 Wood Framed Facility. "
Start Date: 10/05/2015 End Date: 05/26/2017 Estimated Value: $55,000,000

Plans provided are preliminary and not finalized yet but look to be about 60% or so but I have attached the current site plan.

Bishop Landing Site.jpg

[BG918]

Nice to see this fronting Page, Trout and Brooks and it looks like they will install new sidewalks and street trees as part of the overall project. This will be a big improvement and hopefully spur similar dense apartments along Trout north of Page to Boyd.

It would be great to see the city extend the Legacy trail south from where it ends at Duffy along the west side of the tracks with a crossing at Boyd and then have it follow the creek by this debelopment and into the park to Lindsey. Future projects in the area would then be linked by this walking/biking trail that also connects to Campus Corner (via Duffy) and downtown Norman.

[gman11695]

A lot of dirt work has been done on this site now. It looked like they already had retaining walls in and stubbed out plumbing. Wouldn't be surprised to see this start rising out of the ground soon.