While acknowledging the solicitation requires a quick turnaround on the housing development, O’Connor said multiple established developers have indicated they are prepared to submit bids.
“Building atop the garage will be an opportunity for a developer to go 10 stories up without the cost of getting there,” O’Connor said.
The site of the garage, currently a surface parking lot, is one of the last big blocks of Urban Renewal-owned land left downtown. It’s a reversal from a decade ago when large undeveloped “super blocks” remained left over from the major Urban Renewal clearance program of the 1970s.
Those large, undeveloped blocks were later redeveloped into the Legacy at Arts Quarter Apartments, Devon Energy Center, and soon, the new John W. Rex Elementary School.
“We don’t have the large downtown parcels we once had,” O’Connor said. “We have to get more creative in finding available opportunities.”
Next Story
