Key investors are optimistic about the next decade for downtown Oklahoma City as they revealed development plans for three more office-to-housing conversions, more downtown retail, major investment into a Bricktown-adjacent stadium district and an ambitious goal to bring vacant office space down to 12% by next year.
But one potential stumbling block is education. Developers agree that a stronger, more educated workforce is needed to continue boosting the local economy and to capitalize off burgeoning industry opportunities.
“Education, education, education — we are dead in the water without the workforce,” said Richard Tanenbaum, CEO of Gardner Tanenbaum Holdings, an OKC-based real estate developer responsible for renovating multiple historic buildings.
Tanenbaum was one of three guests, including developers Mark Beffort and Christian Kanady, at a panel hosted by The Oklahoman inside the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Moderator Steve Lackmeyer, a longtime business reporter at The Oklahoman, said the three panelists are central to nearly $3 billion in development deals throughout OKC.
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Kanady, who called himself the “new kid” on a “really nice block,” is the chief investor in Prairie Surf Studios and has teamed up with Beffort for plans to build a mixed-use development district around the upcoming MAPS 4 soccer stadium south of Bricktown. Those plans also include NBA star Russell Westbrook, who rose to prominence as a former member of the Oklahoma City Thunder team and is investing an eight-figure dollar amount into the soccer stadium district.
“I grew up in a city where we went to Bricktown to get in trouble, and now you go to Bricktown to live, and that’s a very different paradigm shift,” Kanady added.