Oklahoma City Sees
Downtown Renaissance

When a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah federal office building in Oklahoma City nearly 10 years ago, the prospects for the city appeared bleak.

At the time of the bombing, which killed 168 people, the city's downtown was still suffering from the oil bust of the mid-1980s. The blast damaged more than 300 buildings, 17 of which were total losses. As recently as 2000, the area still showed scars: boarded-up buildings, broken windows and rubble where shops once stood.

But today, Oklahoma City's downtown is thriving. The Bricktown district is buzzing with night life, people are moving downtown, there is a gleaming new federal building blocks from where the Murrah building once stood and property prices are booming. Add to that two successful stadiums, a $52 million performing arts center, a $22 million central library, a "Riverwalk" type canal, a trolley, clubs and restaurants, and the downtown of the once-sleepy city of 500,000 is bustling.

In Oklahoma City, a canal in the Bricktown area of downtown is a big tourist draw.

Oklahoma City laid the foundation for its revival two years before the bombing when a slim majority of voters approved a sales tax increase to give what became a $350 million boost to the area. The project proved so popular that residents joke that it is hard to find anyone who admits to voting against the raise. Ultimately the tax money led to $1.5 billion of public and private investment being poured into downtown Oklahoma City without any state funds and without the city taking on any debt.

Now, young singles and empty nesters are moving downtown in unprecedented numbers, revitalizing the Deep Deuce district, a historic African-American area that flourished during the jazz era, but had fallen into disrepair. Two new large hotels have been built downtown and four more are on the way. Property values in some parts of downtown have grown by about 500% over the past 15 years.

Next week, the city will mark the 10th anniversary of the bombing with a week of events that includes a concert at the Ford Center and a marathon that will wind through city streets. "At this point, we almost have to remind citizens that we have to be respectful of what happened here with the bombing," says mayor Mick Cornett. "It does seem like a long time ago and in a different place."

Even before the bombing, Oklahoma City's downtown had been desolate -- destroyed by failed urban renewal projects and a flight to the suburbs. "When I was growing up there were seven movie theaters here, all with exquisite architecture," says Laura Warriner, an artist who runs a gallery downtown. "I remember, as a little kid, the magic. I thought I was a little princess and lived in Manhattan."

Oklahoma City National Memorial

Oklahoma City was settled in one day, on April 22, 1889, leaving little time for urban planning. White settlers raced in by wagon and on horseback to stake claims for free land in Indian Territory -- what became known as the Oklahoma Land Run. By the end of the first day of its existence, Oklahoma City had a population of 10,000.

In the 1960s, in a bid to redo the haphazardly built downtown and stem its citizen's flight to the suburbs, the city hired I.M. Pei to design a master plan for downtown and tore down hundreds of buildings in anticipation of a building boom.

But in the 1980s, the oil bust devastated the city's petroleum-dependent economy. Banks failed and small businesses folded up shop. "It was a total economic collapse, worse than the Great Depression," says James R. Tolbert, chairman and president of First Oklahoma Corp., a real estate firm that was among the early investors in Bricktown. By the mid-1980s Oklahoma City's downtown didn't have a single hotel.

If the failed urban renewal plan and the oil bust battered downtown, the bomb set by Timothy McVeigh on April 19, 1995, galvanized the people of the city. The blast, which at the time was the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, caused an estimated $652 million in damage.

SBC Bricktown Ballpark, which seats 12,000, was the first big success of the downtown's revitalization.

In the weeks and months following the bombing, the city rallied. "I think all my life Oklahoma City had an inferiority complex," Mr. Tolbert says. "We had very little positive feelings about ourselves. Partly in response to how we responded to the bombing and came together, we turned the corner on community confidence to the point I think people here are very proud of Oklahoma City. That's a new thing."

The tax increase proved fortuitous and was bolstered by $50 million in federal money that came after the bombing. The first project completed was the $34 million SBC Bricktown Ballpark, and old-style ballpark that opened in 1998 to house the city's minor league Triple-A team. It was followed quickly by a mile-and-a-half canal that threads its way through south downtown. Restaurants and clubs soon opened on the canal and 250,000 people a year ride the water taxis there now.

Today, Oklahoma City is the second-largest city in the continental U.S. in land area behind Jacksonville, Fla., but just 29th in terms of population. And the tourists have come. Hundreds of thousands of visitors a year come to the Oklahoma City National Memorial to view the rows of empty chairs representing the lives lost and to visit a museum commemorating the event.

Former Oklahoma City mayor Ronald Norick assisted at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new library, named in his honor.

A couple of blocks away the $88 million Ford Center, a 20,000-seat arena that opened in 2002 draws huge crowds to the area. In 2003 it was one of the top-10 concert-ticket selling arenas in the world, according to Pollstar, a music-industry data provider. Newer additions include the $52 million Civic Center Music Hall and a $22 million library, while a $133 million American Indian Cultural Center is about to break ground just south of downtown. One of the biggest draws is a Bass Pro Shops superstore, which brings 2.3 million visitors a year downtown.

The downtown economy has also benefited from the success of local companies. Devon Energy Corp., now the largest independent U.S. oil and gas company, has grown strongly while hamburger chain Sonic Corp. built its new headquarters on the banks of the Bricktown Canal.

But the revival is far from complete. Nearly one-third of the city's downtown office space sits vacant, nearly double the national average, according to CB Richard Ellis, a Los Angeles-based commercial real-estate services company. While the downtown population has doubled in the past 10 years, only about 1,000 people live there. "A critical piece of this puzzle is getting a critical mass of housing," Mr. Tolbert says. About 1,500 residential units are expected to be completed in the new few years.

Despite the rebound, parts of the city still look and smell the way they did years ago. The world's largest stock yard, with its massive manure piles, is just blocks from downtown. But even that may change. The owners have proposed building a horse-show arena and hotel where the manure piles now stand.

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