Staring Down the 800 Pound Elephant in the Room – Part One
Bricktown 1996.
I’ve covered Bricktown for almost 20 years, and regardless of what’s underway, one common theme remains the same: residents are not content with the amount of progress to date.
Wednesday’s paper includes an intriguing look at some harsh truths about Bricktown, and what might be done to move forward.
It starts off with some great news – Guest Room Records is going to open a music store in the Oklahoma Hardware Building in conjunction with ACM@UCO. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
But the story also comes with photos of a deserted Bricktown Canal – photos taken Tuesday afternoon. Something still isn’t quite right.
That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of pride out there. The first truly celebratory moment for MAPS was the opening of the Bricktown ballpark. That pride felt in April, 1988, was magnified several times over when the canal opened one year later. But the glass has always seemed half full or half empty.
Let’s just consider Reno Avenue. This corridor passes the Myriad Gardens, Chesapeake Arena and Cox Convention Center before crossing into Bricktown. And what is one of the first views offered to our visitors as they pass under the gateway into Bricktown on Reno? It’s a boarded-up Rock Island Plow building.
Properties like the Rock Island Plow Building, 29 E Reno, are seen as reminders that the district has yet to arrive. To the north is the Bricktown Canal, which is lined up with shops, restaurants and offices. To the east is the ballpark. And to the south is Lower Bricktown, anchored with a hotel, bowling alley, restaurants, theaters, shops, condos and offices. The property is owned by Phil and Avis Scaramucci, who have set a great example in developing their other property in Bricktown – Nonna’s and the Painted Door. And to be fair, the couple and their investors spent a lot of money making emergency repairs to ensure the Rock Island Plow building didn’t collapse from years of neglect. But the building’s boarded up windows still serve as a reminder something isn’t quite right.
Fortunately, we’ve seen a lot of the other empty eyesores in Bricktown renovated and brought back to life in the past few years, most notably the Red Ball bought by Harding & Shelton (including the home of Zio’s along the canal).
The Red Ball prior to renovations
Yes, the glass is half empty. Yes, the glass is half full. But after residents have invested more than $300 million into the immediate area (including the arena), why is Bricktown still not an unqualified success story?
The city could have hired a consultant to figure this out. In fact, I think a consultant was hired early on, but was quietly cut off when their work turned out to be rather unremarkable. I’m not a bit fan of consultants. More often than not they seem to fall short on calling a spade a spade, and offer up what is often just a rehash of prior work.
I urge you to read the report. Presented by city planner A.J. Kirkpatrick and assembled in conjunction with the Bricktown Association and Downtown Oklahoma City Inc., it is among the best, most honest looks at our our urban core in the 15 years I’ve covered all this (only to be topped by the Jeff Speck report on walkability).
You’ve read the story. So let’s get down to what it says (with my translation):
- Too many property owners don’t know what they’re doing
- The city screwed up when it turned Reno into a virtual highway separating Bricktown and Lower Bricktown
- The city made it too easy for property owners to cop out and create cheap parking lots
- The city made it too easy for property owners to cop out and go for flame-out bar leases
- The city is virtually hiding the canal
- The city has done little to link up Deep Deuce with Bricktown
Fixes are available for all these mistakes. And some of the solutions wouldn’t be very expensive. But is the leadership in place to make the right changes? And can a new generation of owners overcome the mistakes of their predecessors?
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Comments
Neal Horton had a long term plan; it might even have been viable if it had been launched a couple years earlier or a few years later.
And yeah, the shadow of Jim Brewer did tend to scare away some other developers who might have gotten into the game in the mid-1990s and done something different.
But all this is a parlor game, isn’t it? Saying “what if?” As for the “cop-out” quips – yeah, I’m sticking by that as my interpretation of their conclusions. Mike, did you know the downtown business improvement district actually charges more assessment for a building than a cash-producing surface parking lot? Have you noticed how many parking lots in Bricktown fall far short of the city’s requirements for space width, landscaping and lighting (requirements enforced elsewhere in the city).
The city plowed millions into the canal, but then made no restrictions on building parking lots along the waterway (and was even a participant in building the lots in Lower Bricktown).
As for the bars… where else in the city is there such a large expanse of area where ABC-3 (alcohol zoning) is by “right”?
Yes sir I knew about the assessment cost and I am not happy about the location and operations of many of the lots. The city should not have allowed them to encroach upon the canal. The spacing in Brictown is indeed ridiculous. I drive a rather narrow vehicle and I barely fit the slots as they are too narrow by, I believe design. But I feel that goes back to the citizens clamorring for Bricktown parking. The city gave the citizens exactly what they asked for. Be careful what you ask for…You might just get it.
If they had to reduce capcacity in the lots to abide by parking lot standards enforced elsewhere the price would climb and visitors would stay away. Kinda like a viscious circle that spirals ever downward.
I have always agreed that Bricktown had way too many bars.
One thing I took away from the study (and appreciate your pointing out here) was that the canal is virtually hidden. Sure, it appears on Chamber and CVB advertising, but does it occur to anybody that not a single wayfinding sign anywhere in Bricktown (or anywhere else) says “canal”?
For many years I have also hoped against hope that there could be simple signage at each entry point that directs people down to canal level, and/or (even better) has a mall-style listing of businesses located there. Many times I have been literally feet from the canal and have been asked directions to it, or been told by someone who had spend much time in Bricktown that they didn’t even realize there was a canal only yards away.
Often we (as a city, and as a neighborhood) seem to have worked under the assumption that everyone knows there is a canal, knows how to get there, and knows what it has to offer. None of this is true for a large number of people, both visitors AND locals.
I’ve mentioned it on OKCTalk, and I’d like to suggest here that we look at what Omaha has done with their Old Market – or what has happened naturally, as I’m not sure how it evolved. I was up there visiting family who recently moved there and I was shocked at the difference betweeen it and Bricktown – and it doesn’t even have a canal of which to boast. I’m going to include a link to their website, and it’s particularly interesting if you click on dining and shopping. You’ll see many local, non-chain restaurants and a lot of varied shopping. Some of the best restaurants in Omaha are in their Old Market. I cannot imagine they get significantly more convention business than Oklahoma City, so how can they support this much dining and shopping? I suspect it’s because people who actually live in Omaha go there. I was not impressed that parking was significantly easier than in Bricktown, and the lot that we parked in charged comparable prices. So, I don’t think the parking issue in Bricktown is a reasonable excuse.
It’s likely a chicken and egg thing. Because there are many dining and shopping options, people tend to go there who live in Omaha, which encourages more dining and shopping. Or, because people went there to begin with, the dining and shopping flowered? I don’t know. Oh, and speaking of flowering, one of the appealing things about the Old Market is that many of the buildings have large metal awnings that allow shaded dining beneath, out of the sun and rain. Those awnings are lined with flowerboxes, which have a built-in sprinkler system (I asked about how they stayed beautiful when it wasn’t raining much there either).
So, whether it evolved naturally, or the city gave it some help might be worth discovering, as I believe Bricktown could benefit from some of the lessons learned in Omaha.
Someone mentioned making Reno a boulevard. That’s not a bad idea. It also might be nice to put more decorative signage up as you enter Bricktown from the west. A few flowers associated with it wouldn’t be bad either.
Hadn’t really noticed the Canal being hidden so much but the Landrun Monumnet (on the Canal) definitely is with it being tucked at the end of the Bass Pro overflow parking lot. It is one of the few things DT that I would bother insisting that visitors see and I know of only one directional sign for it.
I always thought the Rock Island Implement Company building would be an excellent Hard Rock Cafe. And I agree with Mr. Kirkpatrick that Bricktown would be better served with more on street metered parking.
Bricktown isn’t going to change significantly until new property owners buy out the old ones. There is an overall lack of leadership and direction in the district. They need to decide what they want to be and how they are going to get there.
It’s an opportunity for someone with the right capital to go in and buy up property and be able to quickly influence the direction of the district, but that’s assuming the “sellers” would sell at a fair price. Too many owners have held on to property in hopes of selling for a big profit. Once they realize that’s not going to happen, maybe they will sell to someone with a clear plan and experience developing. The district is becoming irrelevant to locals, but will continue to thrive with conventions, arena business, and tourism. It’s sad that they can’t have both.
Another possibility is what helped slow traffic in the West End was “entertainment districts” popping up all over the DFW Metroplex. Same thing is beginning to occur/mature in in OKC with the Plaza District/Midtown/Edmond venues.
Bricktown parking is not really a problem now but anybody who was here and frequented Bricktown in the early years knows it was a problem in the past.
Larry OKC, the single sign pointing out the Land Run monument is one sign more than the number that even MENTION the Bricktown Canal.
way back when mark schwartz said that we don’t want bricktown to just be bars and restaurants, (i must admit) i wondered why (not). now i understand. given that he said this LONG before the demise of the west end, he looks smarter all the time. too bad we lost him.
i’ve wondered for a long time why they don’t rent out the upper floors for residential. look at all the wasted space in the spahetti warehouse, where it all began. if there are people, retail will follow. people live in deep deuce, people live downtown, but who lives in bricktown? by the way, surface parking is really crappy planning for an urban (i.e. non-suburban) district. how much of that do you see in manhattan or san francisco?
Chad, while that may certainly well may be the case, I have found that most are aware of the Canal’s existence where few are aware of the other. At least if someone bothers to ride the Canal, they will be exposed to the Landrun sculpture.
Sure wish they could find the funding to COMPLETE it as pitched (was supposed to have had a 77 statues (one representing each of our counties). But think the total planned, but not fully funded, total is a little better than half that amount. The City’s website still has 45 listed but think it had been cut a couple of years back to the 30s??
The Canal brings up a reoccurring thought. I would love to get a Venetian Style Gondola and put it on the canal for folks to ride. Wondering how to get permission for such a thing.
To a great degree I agree. I feel a big part of the trouble is that nobody really had a long term viable plan. It was a new idea and many really had no idea what to do. Also Jim Brewer and his operations can be added to the blame list. Not only did he do a lot of good he was a tad bit arrogant and parochial. He was known to swaggger that he was the Mayor of Bricktown and he was not anywhere close to that.
Another problem is the impatience of those in the area. Admittedly things have moved slow but the wheels of progress rarely run wide open. Recall who won the race between the tortoise and the hare! As to the parking lots if you don’t have suffecient off street parking at reasnable to free cost then nobody will go.
Many citizens complained bitterly to the powers that be in the past that free off street parking or they would boycott Bricktown. So to claim copout is a bit over the top don’t you think? Please explain how the city is to blame for who and how building owners rented out there space? I do agree that owners would rather lease out in big blocks of space rather than cut it up in small pieces.