by U.S. SBA Entrepreneur of the Year & Cofounder of Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group – Clay Clark
The city once knowns as the “Oil Capital of the World” is making a comeback. Signs of a downtown Tulsa revival are all around us. A steady stream of crowds is consistently attending the concerts and events held at the new BOK Center. The Tulsa Drillers Minor League baseball team set an attendance record this year at their brand new urban ballpark, OneOK Field. The Blue Dome District and it’s collection of unique one-of-kind-restaurants are beginning to develop strong local followings. The city whose downtown was once considered to “ghost town” after 5:00 pm is now starting to show signs of life after dark. With the renovation of the historic Mayo Hotel and Lofts, the fabulously distinctive 119 Downtown Lofts, and the Atlas Building which has now become a thriving Marriott Courtyard Hotel downtown Tulsa is officially once again showing signs of life. And for the people of Tulsa this is great thing.
With a cost of living that is among the best in the country and with an economy that is stable, strong and growing Tulsa has positioned itself to become one of America’s leading cities even in a recession economy. The city of Tulsa has been recognized in Forbe’s Magazine, USA Today, and Relocate America for its great job market, its affordability and its quality of life, and so now is the perfect time for Tulsa’s entertaiment scene to leap out of the pack. Now is time for Tulsa’s downtown atmosphere to grow to the next level. It is now time for Tulsa’s downtown to become the next “4th Street Live (Louisville, Kentucky).” It’s now time for Tulsa to become the next “Gas Lamp District (San Diego, California).” It’s now time for Tulsa to become the next “Bricktown (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma).” And this is fun to say. It’s fun to talk away and to envision. But what are the practical actions steps that our city must take to create the kind of downtown vibrancy that will become nationally recognized for its energy, its culture and its FUN?
7 Elements Needed To Make Downtown Tulsa Vibrancy Possible:
Dining – Bottom line, Americans love to eat. We all love to eat. We love over-eating at birthday parties. We love stuffing our faces at holiday events. We love grabbing a “candy coffee” at Starbucks. We love treating ourselves to gourmet frozen yogurt. We love treating our tastebuds to a unique palette of flavors. For some reason, “going out” includes “going out to eat” for 90% of us, and right now downtown Tulsa is lacking the heavy pedestrian traffic needed to sustain a vibrant culture of “walkable urbanism.” People watching is fun. Meeting new people is fun. Eating is fun. But, you won’t meet new people or enjoy watching people if you are alone downtown. People want to be where people are and dining is a key component to getting people to go anywhere. Tulsa urgently needs this “dining experience” and at Kanbar Properties & Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Realty we are work diligently with national tenants to bring this “dining experience” to you quickly.
Entertaiment – Alright so you just finished eating, now what? So you just finished having an incredible meal and you are feeling satiated now what? You just finished an incredible imported beer from McNellie’s, now where do you go? Right now, you might look for something to do in the Blue Dome District? You might look for some musician playing in front of a Blue Dome District Diner or Restaurant, or you might just go home instead. In order to sustain crowds, downtown Tulsa needs entertainment. Downtown Tulsa needs a unique collection of entertainment venues that will draw a crowd. Tulsa needs outdoor music. Downtown Tulsa needs theme restaurants whose atmosphere spills into the streets. Tulsa needs street performers. No homeless people asking for money do not count as “street performers.” Tulsa needs this entertainment and at Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate group we working together with Kanbar Properties to bring this entertainment experience to you quickly.
Retail – Shopping, shopping and more shopping. Americans love to shop. Specifically women love to shop. They love to find the perfect unique purse to go with their perfect shoes that match their new pair of jeans that go with their unique top. Women love to shop. Nationally studies in fact show that women love to shop so much that they spend nearly 80% of more all of the revenue generated by American households. Think about this for a second? If you are dude reading this, when was the last time you went out and dropped $400 on clothes for yourself or your kids? When was the last time you got the “nesting-we-have-to-redecorate-our-house-bug?” When was the last time you just “had to go shopping?” For 90% of the men reading this, this time was never, or it was the last time that your wife, mom or girlfriend made you go with them. And because we men are either married or chasing a woman, we will go where they go. And if they are going shopping we are going shopping too. Downtown Tulsa needs a thriving downtown retail shopping experience badly. The SoHo District in New York City has this retail experience that women want. In fact women love this experience so much, they will actually book flights to New York City just to shop there. Tulsa has the thriving Utica Square Shopping Community and the beautiful Woodland Hills Mall Shopping area, but it does not have a vibrant retail shopping experience at this point, however at Kanbar Properties & Fears & Clark Clark Realty Group we are working tirelessly to bring this to downtown Tulsa’s scene.
Full Events Calender – “What do you want to do tonight?” “Should we go out?” “Should we just stay home and rent a movie?” These are the types of questions asked by Tulsans and families throughout America every weekend. Humans are always debating the idea of whether they “should go out” or they “should stay in.” Either way they are going to make a choice. And as a general rule, most people do not like to plan ahead, they like to get up and go somewhere randomly and at the last minute. People love to be spontaneous with their weekends. They work all week achieving goals and implementing plans. During the weekends many people just want to show up somewhere where the “experience” will just happen to them. People want to go somewhere that is very different from their day to day workplace. People want to go somewhere where the “entertainment experience” is tremendous and where a vibrant energy is pervasive. Downtown Tulsa needs a “buzz” and it needs the kind of “buzz” that comes with a full events calender. Relentlessly, every night there needs to be something for nearly everyone to see and do. Downtown Tulsa needs an outdoor magic show on Monday, a outdoor concert on Tuesday, a “Baby Boomers Concert” on Wednesday, a “3 on 3 Basketball Tournament” on Thursday, a “Street Block Party” on Friday, a “Downtown Run For Charity” on a Saturday, and a “Tail-Gating Party” on a Sunday. Tulsa needs to have a consistently full event calender if it is to attract consistent crowds. Downtown Tulsa cannot expect crowds to just show up when the big events are going on, because most people don’t plan 3 weeks in advance. Most people show up 45 minutes after work, just looking for something to do. Thus, at Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group and Kanbar Properties we are working with national tenants and entertainers to bring this type of “magic” to downtown Tulsa.
Partners – Promoting constant events, dining experiences, entertainment venues, and a vibrant retail environment can be challenging, and expensive, but it is doable and to do it a true partner program must be established. Downtown Tulsa businesses, radio stations, newspapers, TV stations, local retailers, commercial real estate owners, loft owners, developers and the entire private sector that stands to benefit from a vibrant downtown must be committed to seeing the downtown transformation through. The city of Tulsa cannot expect the rural community or the south Tulsa suburban crowd to want to vote yes for tax increases all the time to support a downtown that they currently do not like. The downtown business owners must become self-sustaining based on their faith that if they build it, they will come. This is why Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate Group and Kanbar Properties and a host of other successful downtown businesses including Epic Photography, DJ Connection, Cherished Traditions Video and numerous other retailers and service providers have begun a downtown marketing program that truly change the face of downtown Tulsa.
Parking – Unless you travel to down via an alien hover craft, you probably need a place to park your car (your coche, if you are Spanish speaking). And right now you might have to walk for 3 hours from the site of where you parked your car to get to your job or to your restaurant of choice. For some reason their is something not romantic about parking your car 8 blocks away from the restaurant you are dating your hot date to. Thus, Fears & Clark Tulsa Commercial Real Estate, Kanbar Properties and Exquisite Valet Service are working to establish viable, and affordable downtown valet parking services at all the major attractions of downtown. Will this be easy? No. But are we on it? Yes. And because no large bureaucracies have been allowed to form, I have reason to believe this valet parking I write about will actually come into existence within the next 24 months. Hang in until then.
Promotion – Suppose that we have lively dining experiences, entertainment, retail, partners, parking and everything else a downtown needs to thrive. Will the people come if they don’t know about it? Probably not. So how will be get the word out there? Promotions, promotions and more promotions. The downtown Kanbar Crawl, the renaming of key building contests, concerts, commercials and nearly any marketing campaign you can think about will be used to promote downtown Tulsa. As the PR Director of this project I am up to the challenge and I know the citizens of Tulsa are certainly eager to see some results. So hang in there in the mean time, and know that the return of a vibrant downtown Tulsa is on the way.
For more information about downtown Tulsa, leasing space in downtown Tulsa, Tulsa commercial real estate, commercial real estate in Tulsa, and Tulsa office buildings contact Fears & Clark Realty Group today – 918-481-2080.
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posted Friday, September 24th, 2010
posted under: Blog, Real Estate 101 tags: commercial real estate, commercial real estate listing, commercial real estate listings, commercial real estate tulsa, oklahoma commercial real estate, tuls aoffice space for lease, tulsa commercia real estate, tulsa commercial real estate for lease, Tulsa Commercial Realty, tulsa office buildings, Tulsa office space, Tulsa real estate, Tulsa realtors
