The city of Norman held a pre-development meeting Thursday to discuss the proposed $1 billion Norman-OU entertainment district in the University North Park area, including showing a preliminary project plan for the layout of the district.
The application for the meeting stated that University North Park, LLC plans to rezone the property along Interstate-35 between Rock Creek Road and West Tecumseh Road “in order to facilitate a mixed-use, master planned community, with allowances for various residential opportunities, hospitality and entertainment anchors and compatible commercial uses.”
This entertainment district would include a new home for OU basketball and women’s gymnastics as well as housing, shopping and corporate spaces.
City, OU and Team Norman leaders first proposed the entertainment district on Sept. 6. When initially proposed, Team Norman, a group of leaders focused on preparing the city for OU’s transition to the Southeastern Conference, said the district would be 80% privately funded and the remaining would come from public sources.
In a Nov. 14 meeting, Norman City Council adopted a resolution forming a review committee for a possible tax increment finance district, or a TIF, within the entertainment district.
A TIF is used to support the redevelopment, infrastructure and community-improvement projects within a certain area with the intent of stimulating private investment in the area in need of economic revitalization.
A staff report posted as part of the agenda for the Nov. 14 meeting read:
“Under the proposal, a combination of University and private resources would combine to fund approximately 40% of the total arena construction costs, while the University would only use approximately 25% of the event dates. Team Norman has asked the City to consider funding the remainder of the construction costs as well as some additional infrastructure utilizing tax increment financing.”
This meeting focused on the zoning and platting of the project and not the TIF, the TIF review committee or the project plan.
Sean Rieger of Rieger Law Group, an attorney representing the applicant, started the meeting by showing the plats and zoning before presenting a preliminary plan for the layout of the entertainment district.
“This isn’t the master plan as we progress through the process, but this is the initial plan that shows you what is the development,” Rieger said.
Rieger explained that OU’s arena is slated to be a roughly 8,000-seat venue that is the centerpiece of the southern piece of the development. This area is south of Radius Way. The southern part of the development, Rieger said, is the entertainment zone of the district.
Included in this is space for restaurants, other entertainment zones, retail, office, hospitality and conference locations. It also includes a proposed festival street that could be controlled by the applicant and wouldn’t need approval from the city to be closed.
This area also includes a parking garage. Rieger said the goal of the garage is to limit surface parking and encourage pedestrian walkability in the entertainment district.
Rieger said the multi-family housing is a safe distance away from the runways of OU’s Max Westheimer Airport. Rieger also said developers of the housing portion of the district have not been solidified as of Thursday.
Rieger and BJ Hawkins, a traffic engineering consultant, explained that the area in UNP has more access and better plans for traffic than OU’s current arena, Lloyd Noble Center, which is the southern part of the university’s north campus and off of Highway 9.
For traffic in the area, Hawkins said there are current and future Norman projects intended to widen and update roads in the area surrounding the proposed entertainment district that will help alleviate traffic and the developers and Team Norman have been in contact with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
Following the OU Board of Regents meeting Thursday, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. told OU Daily he hasn’t been involved so far directly with the numbers but he expects the finances behind the entertainment district project to be released within the next few weeks.
Harroz explained that with a growing university and a growing city, a place where people can “live, work and play,” language taken directly from the development plans shown during the pre-development meeting, is essential to the continued growth of both.
“Some like to label it as an arena project and it’s not,” Harroz said. “That’s an element of an entertainment district that we know the most successful cities have.”
Rieger said he doesn’t have a timeline or idea for when the project would be completed if passed.
“I have been amazed by how quickly people can work. … We will move rapidly,” Rieger said. “There is a lot to figure out obviously.”
The Norman planning commission will meet on Dec. 14 to discuss the development before it heads to City Council, first for a reading and then for a vote. This will not include a TIF in the area.
This article was edited by Alexia Aston, Taylor Jones and Peggy Dodd.
