Tulsa’s Route 66 sees upsurge in redevelopment

1400 block of East 11th Street in Tulsa in 2007.
1400 block of East 11th Street in Tulsa in 2017.

 

I’d suspected this had happened, and it’s been confirmed — more than 28 properties along 11th Street, aka Route 66, in Tulsa have been redeveloped in the past decade.

The Tulsa World newspaper over the weekend had the data:

From Harvard Avenue to the Inner Dispersal Loop, 28 properties along 11th Street (also known as Route 66) have been redeveloped in the past decade, with about half of those being transformed in the past five years, said Bob Pielsticker, first vice president of CBRE, a worldwide commercial real estate company with an office in Tulsa.
The uptick is due in part to rates in the city’s core. Pielsticker noted Tulsa Regional Chamber CEO Mike Neal’s mentioning that $1.5 billion worth of redevelopment has gone into the Brady District.
“Those values have really increased downtown,” Pielsticker said. “That pushes tenants to the east, where it’s cheaper to rent space or buy a building.”

And that area where it was more economical to rent or buy space included 11th Street.

— Among the businesses that have taken root along the Route 66 corridor in recent years include Soul City, 918 Coffee, Josey Records, Ike’s Chili, Lola’s Gypsy Caravan, Spirit Ranch Dog Training, Fuel 66 food-truck court, and the Campbell Hotel. I’m sure there are more. And the Mother Road Market will be coming online in the next year or so, and Renaissance Brewing Co. should open soon.

— The article mentions 11th Street landing development spillover from Tulsa’s downtown. The big growth in downtown came in the wake of two tax-supported projects — the BOK Center, which consistently has drawn top-tier entertainment acts since it opened in 2008; and Oneok Field, a well-designed minor-league baseball stadium that opened in 2010. A lot of businesses, including hotels and restaurants, sprung up afterward.

But downtown growth was occurring organically years before the BOK Center and the ballpark arrived. But by the time those two things opened, growth ramped up[ like it was on steroids.

— That doesn’t mean 11th Street doesn’t need improvement. Pielsticker mentioned improvements are needed to make the corridor friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. If those things happen, he said, even more people and tourists will show up.

The fortunes of Route 66 in Tulsa seemed to have inched up since the city began taking an interest in the Mother Road since the early 2000s. It’s accelerated in the past five years or so.

(Excerpted images of 1400 block of East 11th Street via Google Street View)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.