Reopening a Window
Yet another building along Automobile Alley is about to go through an upgrade – this time it’s the former Ernest Istook headquarters, now home to Frontline Church, at 712 N Broadway. Years ago the second floor windows were bricked in and covered with stuco. Now that damage is about to be reversed if renovation plans are approved this week by the Downtown Design Review Committee.
We’ve seen a lot of this sort of work along Broadway, which is always overshadowed by Bricktown. And curiously, we see little or nothing of this sort of improvement by property owners in Bricktown. Automobile Alley had a lot more boarded-up buildings a decade ago – now they’ve all been improved one way or another (only exceptions are at the corner of NW 10 and Broadway, which are slated to be fixed up by Greg Banta).
So here I go again, asking difficult questions aimed at Bricktown: why can’t this district take the same sort of pride in their neighborhood that is demonstrated by the folks along Automobile Alley?
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Comments
Many Bricktown investors are a joke and not visionaries. They are looking for a “sweet flip”. They have no pride in their properties and don’t see the long-term picture. We’ve got plenty of boarded up neglected buildings in Bricktown, several canal facing prime real estate. They don’t even have the pride to repair broken windows. They all demand uber high rental prices and haven’t had any takers for years now. Folks, demand controls price and their has been no demand. Retail will be the demise of Bricktown and we can thank greedy property owners who think they are going to hold out for the big fish, when in fact that opportunity may never come because they held out too long. Rent out all the vacant space for a more realistic price. If you fill it out, then you can start to raise rates as demand allows. Wake up folks. I won’t even rant on the joke that is Randy Hogan’s lower stucco town, I mean “brick” town. Talk about no vision.
I’m ready to see Banta really get with it on his AA buildings.