Plans for a new parking garage and a nightclub building were approved Wednesday by the Bricktown Urban Design Committee. At the same meeting, developer Marsh Pitman announced that construction will begin next week on a 200-room Hampton Inn.
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The entertainment district is going through a wave of construction this year, with steel going up for a five-story condominium and retail complex in Lower Bricktown and renovations wrapping up on three buildings in north Bricktown.
The committee approved two sets of plans for a parking garage that will either rise two or four stories. The property at 3 E Reno, now a surface parking lot, was bought by oilmen John Shelton and Charles Harding last year as part of a bigger development that will include renovation of the upper floors of three adjoining buildings fronting the Bricktown Canal. "Our preference is to build a four-story garage,” Shelton said. "But there are cost restraints we have to look at.” Shelton said the committee's approval should allow construction to begin within the next few months, and the outcome of tax credit applications could determine whether the garage is built up to four levels.
Shelton's architect, Martin Goldstein of Denver-based MM Partnership, agreed to two changes requested by the design committee: creation of store-front windows on the first floor and replacing limestone with brick on upper portions of exterior columns. "It's very friendly, and it fits the neighborhood,” committee member Avis Scaramucci said. "It's a very nice design for a parking garage.”
Shelton said the garage is the first step in redeveloping the block between Reno Avenue, Oklahoma Avenue and the canal. He said the committee will be asked this spring to look at plans for a pedestrian bridge that will link the garage to the second floor of the Zio's building and an adjoining building that was last home to the Laughing Fish gift shop. The project also calls for renovation of the boarded-up Red Ball Building at the northernmost tip of the canal.
In other business, the committee also approved plans for a one-story building at 315 E Sheridan that will be part of a "club row” owned and operated by Jim Brewer and Walter Gillispie. The building replaces a former slaughterhouse torn down by the pair last year without first getting required approval by the committee.
The Hampton Inn, approved last year, was submitted again Wednesday for a modification to screening of roof-top equipment on the nine-story hotel planned for 300 E Sheridan Ave. The change was approved after a one-minute review. Pitman, who had previously planned a ground-breaking ceremony last month, said he needed approval for the change before a construction permit could be issued by the city. The $27 million hotel, to be built by Boldt Construction, is expected to be complete by mid-2008.
"Our price point should be $115 per room,” Pitman said. "It's about $30 to $35 cheaper than anything else downtown. I expect we'll be pretty competitive.”
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