I would agree that developments seem to take an extra long time but I don't know enough about the inspection process you laid out to really comment on it. Having dealt with other City offices, I could totally see that being the case though. I get to work on many large and small projects in OKC and see the financials behind them. The truth no one from here really likes talking about is that many times these projects (especially the bigger ones) are simply too risky to take on and the bigger local lenders are reluctant to loosen up. When you really dig into the metrics OKC is not as appealing to investors as one would think given all the progress the city has made. We boast many things that look appealing on the surface such as really low unemployment rates and a cheap cost of living but we also have an average income drastically lower than the national average. Our population grows consistently but we do so extremely slowly. Could we be one of those cities that has a big boom in the coming decade or two? Possibly. Things can change quickly but looking at the past can be a great indicator for the future and OKC's past is one that's been pretty consistent on this front.
Something that hurts Strawberry Fields, the OAK, and the Producer's District is that we already have an extremely soft office market that doesn't really show signs of getting much better in the near future. Things change fast so they COULD get better but I wouldn't necessarily project it to. Retail nationally is hurting so we aren't alone there by any means. The weed shops actually do help since they pay ridiculous rents that far exceed typical market rents so that's good I guess. Something that does bode well for this development is that contrary to what some believe, most of the multifamily developments in the general downtown area are not struggling. I have personally seen rent rolls/average occupancy and retention rates for many of the multifamily developments downtown and most of them are at stabilized occupancy with only a few exceptions. It is becoming more competitive and one new trend I've seen is the emergence of concessions like a month of free rent.
I completely understand the general consensus of skepticism for this development but in my opinion, there is plenty demand for mid-rise housing here. Is there enough to justify building a 15-20 story apartment/condo building right now? Probably not. I won't even go as far to say that a mid-rise residential building would for sure be successful but from everything I can gauge I think that they'd have a good shot at getting it leased up pretty swiftly if the price points are right. I think if they can successfully develop housing here it will kick start the rest of this development. I'd also be willing to bet that they've had interest on the three developments but no one ready to pull the trigger due to the current state of the area. I encourage you all to drive through this area in the coming week, what you will see is a bunch of unoccupied dilapidated structures and many homeless people sleeping in the nooks and cranny's (no offense meant, just an observation). Many people wouldn't even consider walking through here in the middle of the day because whether it's actually safe or not, it doesn't ~feel~ safe.
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