This urban project is of 191 townhome units atop a hill on the northeast side of downtown OKC. OK City Urban Renewal owned the land, took proposals, and even though two bids actually proposed high-rise development, the bids of the quirky local architect, Antony McDermid, and out-of-towner were not accepted (and you can imagine controvery boiled).

This is merely a couple blocks of almost 200 townhome units. But it easily could have been high-rises...

Has this project already broken ground? I drive by the billboard daily but never had a chance to travel by this site.

I don't THINK it has, but it was scheduled to break ground around the same time as Block 42 and Brownstones at Maywood Park, if I remember correctly.

Three groups pitch housing for coveted downtown area
By Steve Lackmeyer Staff Writer

Three development groups are pitching residential projects valued between $22.1 million and $36.7 million for one of Oklahoma City’s most coveted downtown properties.

The 12.6 acres, on what is known as the “hill” at NE 1 and Stiles, overlooks Deep Deuce, Bricktown and the health-sciences district with a view of the downtown skyline.

Two of the proposals delivered Wednesday to the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority are linked to other nearby developments.

Atlanta-based Wood Partners, listed No. 6 among the country’s top 50 apartment complex builders by Builder Magazine, proposes building 300 lofts in a series of three- story buildings.

The project would be designed by Architectural Design Group and would be planned to connect with a $12 million residential, retail and office development by Robert Meinders on Sheridan Avenue dubbed “the Steel Yard.”

Project architect Scott Dedmon said the two projects would be owned by different developers, but would be designed as part of one master plan.
The apartments would be lofts, he said, featuring stained floors, exposed duct work and 10-foot-high ceilings.

Dedmon called the hill one of downtown’s most valuable sites for new housing.
“It’s in the core of everything right now with everything going on in Bricktown, downtown and the health sciences center,” Dedmon said.

Walnut Hill Redevelopment Partners, meanwhile, would build 84 lofts and 134 brownstone residences in conjunction with a development just north of the property dubbed “Oklahoma City Town Center.”

The team includes Town Center developers Pat Garrett, Bert Belanger and Anthony McDermid, and Somerset Partners, which bought the existing 294-unit Deep Deuce Apartments last year.

As part of the proposal, Somerset promises to build new for-sale brownstones on several Deep Deuce properties the company owns but has not been developed.
Project architect Hans Butzer said the proposal also suggests the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority consider buying adjacent land owned by the Oklahoma Transportation Department to allow for possible development of an $11 million residential high-rise.

“It’s a high profile site, immediately adjacent to the highway, and while it’s not a part of this property, it really would make a great location for a high rise,” Butzer said.

The proposal by Butzer’s team calls for a mix of rental lofts, live/work spaces along Stiles Avenue, townhomes for sale.

“This project needs to re-establish our standard for downtown housing,” Butzer said. “While Deep Deuce was good, it’s not at a quality we’re all looking for.”

The third proposal by The Hill at Bricktown LLC. suggests building 141 upscale homes in a development that would make a strong connection to Deep Deuce’s history as a former black business and entertainment district.

Homes and streets would be named after historic figures and places, while all three developments propose memorials to Deep Deuce literary legend Ralph Ellison.

Those involved with Hill at Bricktown LLC include Oklahoma City historic preservationist Marva Ellard; William Canfield, founder of Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, and oilman and contractor Steve Clark.

Ellard said Canfield became interested in the development after trying to recruit scientists to work in the nearby health research park.

“The lack of downtown housing for sale became a drawback in getting people to move here,” Ellard said. “A lot of professionals were accustomed to living in an urban environment.”

Ellard said homes would sell between $175,000 and $340,000.
JoeVan Bullard, urban renewal director, said representatives from surrounding areas will be asked to review the proposals, with presentations to be made to the agency’s commissioners in January.

“With the proposals that came in, I think we definitely do have a market for homes for sale,” he said.

Bullard said commissioners want to see construction started by late 2005.

“One of the discussion points with the commissioners as they visit with the three teams will be, ‘Are you ready to go?’ ” Bullard said. “We believe the market is there, and the sooner we can hit that, the better.”

TAP's

Alta



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Authority selects redeveloper for Bricktown site
Ja'Rena Smith
04/22/2005

The race for “The Hill” concluded — and began — Thursday when the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority named a redeveloper for the coveted site, which will now be a negotiating battleground for downtown housing.

The Hill at Bricktown LLC took the title as redeveloper of the 12.6 acres at NE 1 and Stiles, but urban renewal commissioners stressed that Walnut Hill Redeveloper Partners still will have a chance to negotiate with the authority.

This is just the beginning,” said commissioner and Oklahoma City businessman Russell Perry, who voiced his support for Walnut Hill.

The final vote did not come without discussion. For a moment, the meeting began to mirror last month’s gathering when commissioners could not decide on a redeveloper. Commissioner Larry Nichols said he wished the authority had enough land that would allow both teams to build.

I think both of these proposals are exceedingly exceptional,” said Nichols, who is also chairman of Devon Energy Corp.

Anthony McDermid, principal of TAParchitecture and a member of the Walnut Hill development team, said in a statement that the decision does not mean his group is finished pursuing downtown residential projects.

While we would like to have been selected as redeveloper for The Hill, members of our team look forward to constructing other mixed-use communities in The Triangle,” McDermid said.

The Triangle is 23 acres of land spanning from NE 4 to just north of NE 10 that’s been targeted for development.

Nichols said his decision to vote for the Walnut Hill project shifted when The Hill group revoked its request for $4 million Tax Increment Financing. Tax Increment Financing districts take a portion of growing property or sales taxes from their areas after they are created and return them to districts to pay for public improvements that might spur future developments.

I would have easily voted on the Walnut Hill project based on the finances, but with the financial field now leveled, I have a slight preference for The Hill project,” Nichols said.

William Canfield, principal of The Hill, said he was excited to be moving forward with the project. Canfield’s plans for the area include 171 two- and three-bedroom residential town houses. The for-sale residences will range from 1,250 to 2,900 square feet.

Negotiating will begin before construction — meaning it’s still anyone’s race.

I think both groups view that there is a real close second,” the authority’s Executive Director JoeVan Bullard said.

Rendering

Here's a map to keep all the locatins straight.

So why did they not go with one of the other plans?

I used to think it was a very corrupt deal, but now I know that it had to do with being wooed by Dr. Canfield's withdrawal of a request for a TIF district. I still would have gone with Walnut Hill. It would have developed a Town Center in downtown, which is something we really need to get shoppers back.

Plus he alluded that he may include a highrise. There is nothing highrise about The Hill at Bricktown, and I believe the name is even a slander on downtown OKC that nothing exists except Bricktown.

The Hill scares me a little. Based on the drawings, I think it has room to either deliver or end up like urban developments in other cities where it looked great on paper, but the finished product ends up looking like what I can only describe as a cheap movie set or Disney theme town.

It sort of reminds me of San Francisco rowhouses a little, except flat. Sometimes you have to tie something to something real to get a better idea of how it will look.

It does look a lot like San Francisco.

As a gated community, the Hill will look urban but it will not be truly urban. It will have easy access to The Triangle for residents, but it will not mesh with the Triangle. It's a suburban development dressed up to look urban because the houses share walls.

That said, the architecture is great and I like how the houses each have a unique look but they're attached. It'll probably be a very pretty project. We'll just never be able to see it except through the iron bars of the gates.

I'm opposed to the gates of this project. Deep Deuce is gated, but the streets go right up to the buildings. In other words, the parking is the only thing that's gated, and it's the only you need gated.

Why does this guy have to build the Wall of China?

The concept of it being gated doesn't seem to mesh with that of an "urban" environment to me. Who's going to do something crazy when you have 200 neighbors with common walls? Locking your door should suffice, I would think. I don't have a gate around my house.

+, if you're so fearful of crime you wouldn't want to venture out to bricktown, either. People get shot down there. And blugeoned for no reason.

They're trying to keep the Mongols out.

Or at least the other wealthy urbanites that will be sharing that section of town with them.

Oh Lord then I am so glad that they went with the Hill. I can't stand public funding for private development.