NEWS RELEASES
2.28.2007 - From Cars to Condos: Downtown Gets Upscale Project:
From Cars to Condos: Downtown Gets Upscale Project
By Steve Lackmeyer, Business Writer
Published in The Oklahoman February 28, 2007
Decades ago, the east fringe of downtown Oklahoma City bordered by NE 2,
NE 4, Walnut Avenue and the BNSF Railway overpass was an old fashioned mix of houses and shops. But since the 1960’s, the area has been better known as a sea of surface parking last used by Kerr-McGee in the 1980’s.
Ron Bradshaw, a partner in Triangle Development, estimates those lots were empty for 15 years prior to being bought a year ago for construction of the Brownstones at Maywood Park. Where once was cracked blacktop, now will have at least 15 condominiums.
Without tax increment financing for new infrastructure and a park, Bradshaw and partner Anthony McDermid say the project would have never materialized.
Water and sewer lines and streets through the area were all worn out and beyond repair. They sought tax increment financing to not only replace to infrastructure, but also create an urban oasis boasting new sidewalks, landscaping, lighting and even a park.
“All of these utilities have been there since the beginning of time,” McDermid said. “It wouldn’t have been a viable proposition to do the private side and pay for all the public improvements.”
Created by the city in 2000, the downtown tax increment financing district captures increases in a district’s property tax collections that result from rising property values and reinvests the money in the inner city.
Beneficiaries include the Brownstones at Maywood Park, Block 42 condominiums and the newly-opened Skirvin Hilton Hotel.
The master plan for Maywood Park calls for 125 upscale condos for sale at NE 3 and Oklahoma Avenue. The project is part of a larger mixed residential and commercial development dubbed “The Triangle” on 28 acres bordered by Broadway to the west, Main Street to the south and Interstate 235 to the east.
At the Brownstones at Maywood Park, the fund is helping pay for more than 3,000 trees, shrubs and plantings, including a public park. The project also will include a path that eventually will link the future neighborhood to Bricktown.
Bradshaw said he and his partners spent $365,000 of their own money for drawings and construction plans before seeking tax increment funding.
“I know there is a lot of controversy at times about TIF,” Bradshaw said. “But it seems to me we’re using it for new infrastructure, new streets, new streetscapes – rather than it being a subsidy to a developer. It’s being used to improve what the public will enjoy, and it will all be in the public right of way.”
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