There’s a Theme Here Somewhere….
Let me start this post by stating the obvious: by simply commenting on downtown Tulsa, there are those up in our sister city who will assume the worst of me, that I’m out to trash them to the benefit of Oklahoma City, etc.
That’s not true, and fortunately there are also many rational voices up in Tulsa who see beyond the childish and petty “us vs. them” cliche that has plagued the two cities for decades (dear Tulsa – OKC doesn’t like the turnpikes anymore than you do).
So let’s get that out of the way; I love downtown Tulsa. I love its architecture. I love its proximity to the Arkansas River. I have unlimited jealousy of the Tulsa Press Club, its location downtown, and its proximity to Arnie’s (a downtown dive bar unrivaled in downtown OKC).
With that aside, I am struck by a story posted by Michael Bates, an insightful Tulsa blogger who has done a great job informing his readers, including myself, on various matters including urban planning. Maurice Kanbar might not be a household name here in Oklahoma City, but in Tulsa he IS downtown, having bought about a third of the properties in the central business district a few years back.
Now it looks like he may be bailing out.
Tulsa, it seems, gets so close, so often, to celebrating something huge only to see their hopes dashed. While Oklahoma City goes in slower, incremental steps on its urban revival that take years to complete, Tulsa goes after one big quick roll of the dice after another.
A giant Indian statue called “The American” (something to rival the St. Louis Arch) was announced to great fanfare – and went no where. Oklahoma City, meanwhile, went with a heroic size recreation of the Land Run, and while it’s taking a few years to get done, one small piece at a time, it’s quietly becoming a significant tourist attraction (though it will never be the St. Louis Arch).
Tulsa then sought to create urban entertainment districts to rival Bricktown. At first glance, with incredible assets like Cain’s Ballroom and the Brady Theater, this should have been a slam dunk. But again, Tulsa went for something bigger than just one district, and the result until recently has been two detached district, each with great qualities, but still falling short of the sort of place people will travel to from across the region. I have high hopes that may soon change with the latest announced developments – if they come to pass.
So now we come to Maurice Kanbar. In January, 2006, I was quite proud of having scooped the Tulsa World in scoring the first interview with Kanbar’s then-business partner, Henry Kaufman:
In downtown Tulsa, they’re wondering, “How did we get so lucky?”
Two San Francisco investors, Maurice Kanbar and Henry Kaufman, were virtual unknowns when they hit Oklahoma’s second-largest city back in August, buying five prominent downtown Tulsa office buildings.
Unlike typical developers, they skipped doing any interviews with reporters and quietly went about buying even more properties. With their latest purchase last week of Tulsa’s Atlas Life Building, their total investment exceeds $100 million.
Kanbar and Kaufman, in business together for 42 years, now own 19 buildings, representing about 28 percent of all downtown Tulsa office properties.
So who are they? What are their plans? And why Tulsa?
“We had a long-standing interest in Tulsa,” Kaufman told The Oklahoman this week. “We had a publishing company there. It’s a beautiful city. The universities that surround it are turning out excellent graduates, and the architecture is superb. … There are no negatives.”
Downtown Tulsa, Kaufman said, “is an undiscovered gem.”
Well, at least it was until Kanbar and Kaufman came to town.
Kanbar made his fortune as the founder of Skky Vodka. A biography provided by the San Francisco mayor’s office shows he also opened the first multiplex theater in New York and holds several inventor’s patents.
Kaufman said he and Kanbar think Tulsa has the chance to be the country’s next big arts magnet. And their investments will reflect that hunch with a drive to lure some satellite university branches, museums and galleries to their buildings. They also are planning to convert some of their buildings into artists’ lofts.
“I see a need for art galleries, artists’ lofts, the kind of things that made Soho what it is today,” Kaufman said. “We want to price them to be affordable for artists — it’s interesting to note that the artists have abandoned Soho and have moved to Chelsea — because they were out priced by Soho.”
Wow. How could you not get excited about such a development? Imagine if a millionaire angel investor came into Oklahoma City, bought First National Center, all of Nick Preftakes’ buildings along Main Street and Sheridan Avenue, and every undeveloped building along Automobile Alley, and made similar promises. Believe it or not, Kanbar and Kaufman’s arrival in Tulsa was double that scenario.
Kaufman, however, eventually disappeared from the equation. And while one building, the wonderful Atlas Building (where I first visited the Tulsa Press Club) was converted into a nice hotel, that was the result of a sale to new owners. The rest of the story, as told by Bates, isn’t so great.
What’s potentially worrisome is that the Kanbar is emptying some of the older buildings of their few remaining tenants. Such moves can lead to regret later if the buildings go dark, and lose their “grandfather” status under code requirements for renovations.
I’m curious as to what all of you might think, Tulsans and Oklahoma Citians alike. Is there something to learn in all this? In the meantime, let’s hope for the best for Tulsa; and just know that there are a lot of Oklahoma City folks making treks to Cain’s and loving their stay in T-Town.
UPDATE:
As an aside to all this, not sure I ever read about the outcome of the Kanbar/Kaufman lawsuit, but a search of court transcripts shows the matter went to the 9th Circuit Court, where it affirmed a decision by a lower court that went Kanbar’s way, but financially pretty much favored Kaufman. Confused? Apparently Kanbar doesn’t like paying bonuses. And the relationship between the two men was pretty informal. So when Kaufman paid finder’s fees, etc., to affluent Tulsans including John and Tori Snyder (who restored the Mayo Hotel) and attorney Raymond Feldman, Kanbar, according to the court documents, was none too happy.
That said, if I understand the 2010 ruling correctly, the courts determined the money paid to these individuals didn’t exceed what they would have been due. There may still be some filings, court actions not showing up in my search, so I’m not entirely sure this is the end of the story.
ONE MORE ADD:
Over at Tulsa Now, they’re discussing this post and trying to figure out my intent. My intent, quite simply, is to question whether putting all of one’s hopes into the big stuff can overshadow the small stuff, which often pays off more when everything is said and done.
I’m intrigued by this response over at Tulsa Now by “Floyd”:
“His point appears to be that Tulsa seems to keep “missing” on its large-scale development attempts. I think that’s a fair point on one level–witness the failure of the Stadium Trust to even begin to deliver improvements in the immediate vicinity of the ballpark. But it misses the more important aspects of what’s happening in Tulsa. Despite it all, Tulsa’s smaller-scale entrepreneurs and visionaries are remaking the city’s core into a place with character and life, from the Pearl streetscape to Tulsa Tough. That’s the real story here, and Lackmeyer should pop over to Tulsa to see it and write about it.”
Floyd, it’s been about year, way too long, since I last visited Tulsa. I’m way overdue, and I’ll be up there soon!
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Comments
It was near the Blue Dome and the current Tulsa City Hall. It had an old neon “Cold Beer” sign out front. Please don’t tell me that beautiful, sleazy old place is no more! It’s been about three years or so since I last visited that place.
Has anyone purchased that many buildings in downtown/midtown OKC? It seems like a lot of real estate to try to develop concurrently, unless you’re a trillionaire.
I’ve been reading this blog for a while but have never commented before. (I’m on OKC Talk as ZYX2) First off, Arnie’s is still there, going as strong as ever from what I hear.
Secondly, Tulsa may not have something like Bricktown, but we do have an exciting downtown that is highly popular among locals. There is currently quite a bit of construction going on and much more that should start within the year. The Brady seems to be more geared towards the arts/residential with the Tribune II lofts under construction, the Matthew’s warehouse and Hardesty Visual Arts Center under construction, the Brady Park under construction, the KOTV/Griffin site under construction, along with the Brady Flats and Fairfield Inn scheduled to break ground this fall/winter. The Blue Dome does not have as much obvious development but has had a bowling alley and several new restaurants open within the past few months.
When you said the two districts are detatched, they tecnically are, but it doesn’t feel that way to me since they are only a few blocks apart.
Another emerging area in Downtown Tulsa is the area around the BOK Center. With One Place (a large full city block development anchored by an 18 story tower occupied by Cimarex Energy) beginning this summer, the new aLoft Hotel in the old city hall beginning this summer, and the YMCA building being converted into lofts by the Snyders once they finish the hotel, we should really begin to see some things heating up.
I think it is easy to overlook what is going on in Downtown Tulsa, and I also think it is largely underrated. It is an exciting and up and coming place that I think has a lot in store for us all.
What is important to take away from this is that out-of-town developers are even more problematic than local developers. When you don’t live here, it’s even easier to do terrible things. I know of exceptions, but most developers can’t just do great things in the interest of the community when there is money to be made, so the community loses.
I have always liked Tulsa except for one thing, their abominably bad addressing system. That being said Tulsa taks and acts a good game but the just cannot seem to get the execution of those plans together.
Kyle, I share your enthusiasm, and once again I really hope my post isn’t taken as a “bash Tulsa” post because it’s not. And One Place is one of the promising developments I was referring to as I discussed pending changes making things a lot better. What can both cities learn from this experience? What’s next?
Brad makes some good points about out of state investors/developers. As much as we’d like to lure the big dollars from all over the country, a big part of development is understanding the community and wanting to do things for reasons other than money.
OKC has a similar situation with First National Center and Milbank from Los Angeles. They made big promises but then didn’t even bother to pay their local PR firm and other vendors. When asked about this, their president waved it off and complained about undue scrutiny. Even if they hadn’t gone into bankruptcy I had a very bad feeling about them from the outset.
It must be said that a big part of real estate is EGO, which is very obvious to those of us that have been around the business. People like to leave their mark and drive by buildings and proclaim, “I did that!” Or, “I’d love to do something with that.” You don’t get that from those that only fly in a few times a year.
Investors are a different story because typically they are buying finished product. But even so, improvements and maintenance are viewed purely as a financial decision, not as something to be done to better the neighborhood or community.
Don’t worry, I didn’t take it as bash Tulsa, more as reporting on some Tulsa news.
Oh, and another development, we may soon have an Art Deco museum, at least a starter one..
I think the biggest thing both cities could learn is to focus more on the small, organic growth rather than trying to have one person revitalize downtown. It has already been proven which one works better.
i don’t know if this directly answers steve’s question, but what i have noticed as hindering tulsa stems from the shift from the commission form of government to the ward system.
back when tulsa had the commission form of government, tulsa had a much more unified vision for the city, and was frankly whipping okc as being “the place you wanted to be.” this was changed as the result of a very understandable lawsuit (tulsa’s african-american community was basically disenfranchised and could not get representation on the council under citywide elections), but the result is a fragmented city. the feuding that has followed has been legendary.
meanwhile, okc had been divided (since the very beginning of its existence) by a split between north and south. only when things got so bad, for so long, did the city finally put aside local differences and unite behind MAPS. it is still a delicate balancing act, but okc has shown that a unified council can actually get things done, even the unthinkable improvment of city schools.
i can’t say if there is a better way to run the government, taking into account the local history and need to include all of the city’s citizens. however, i can say that you can get much, MUCH more done when the city is not divided against itself. MAPS alone did not save okc. private investment, by people confident in the unified direction of the city, did. as everyone knows, the private investment in okc has dwarfed the public investment.
i truly hope that tulsa thrives. to achieve its fullest potential, the squabbling between the council and the mayor, and among the council members, must stop. i hope it doesn’t take for tulsa to have to learn this the hard way like okc did before this becomes reality.
I have thought for many years that one of the most unrealized economic development potentials in the state is Tulsa’s art deco downtown. We simply cannot afford to lose those buildings.
David is right about OKC going through council in-fighting in the past. I’m old enough to remember the Bishop Block! Southwide councilman Bill Bishop could get a majority for quite sometime to block Mayor Patience Latting’s initiatives and ideas.
Now, this was before the days of the Internet and social networking, so reporting/comments were confined to the news media and face to face conversations. If we had had the technology back then, it could have turned into a quite nasty situation. All you have to do is read the comments posted on the World and Oklahoman sites to see how truly obnoxious and inconsiderate people can be. And it’s there for all to read and react to.
Sigh…
On a side note, it’s quite refreshing to see how civil this particular conversation is going! I doubt that OKC Talk or the Tulsa Now Forum could pull it off. LOL
Thanks Reggie. I really, really love downtown Tulsa, and it wouldn’t take much for me to get as “obsessive” about its prospects as some say I am about downtown OKC.
Kyle, I will want to visit that Art Deco museum!
Being a veteran of both places, OKC has more development, but both the Blue Dome District and the Brady District are unrivaled for a cool, organic area. Bricktown is for tourists and out-of-towners unless there’s a Thunder game. Downtown Tulsa is a way funner place to go with Elliot Nelson’s and others successes. OKC has potential for some cool areas with Deep Deuce, MidTown, Classen, and other areas, but none of them can rival what Tulsa has going…
Local investors are almost always better stewards of their investments than those from the outside. Continuing the comparison, a greater number of smaller investors is better in the long term than fewer, larger owners. Here in OKC (flyover country), we’ve been ignored by the behemoth investors and funds which overheated and overbuilt coastal markets (yes, PHX & LAS too) before leaving town. And to use a baseball metaphor to underscore Steve’s point, we’re putting more runs on the board with base hits, instead of swinging for the fences.
Glad to be here.
Which Arnie’s, Steve? The old one on 15th Street – now THAT was a dive bar of the highest quality!