Urban Renewal set to select mix of affordable, market rate apartments, retail for west downtown

The Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority is set to vote Wednesday on whether to choose Colony Partners to develop a mix of 138 apartments and 4,000 square feet of retail as part of its proposed $22 million “700 West" plan at NW 4 and Shartel Avenue.

The proposal includes a mix of affordable and market rate housing, with rental rates starting at $675 a month for qualified tenants.

Colony Partners is led by Ron and Jason Bradshaw, whose previous projects include the 2nd Street Lofts in Deep Deuce, The Civic across from the Civic Center Music Hall and the Page-Woodson apartments in the John F. Kennedy neighborhood east of downtown.

The project will be the second chosen by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority that includes affordable housing. The city is tackling affordable housing as studies show a continuing rise in rent rates and less housing available for the working poor, especially in the urban core.

“Affordable rental housing is in very short supply throughout Oklahoma County, with very low vacancy and waiting lists at many affordable properties,” Bradshaw wrote in his proposal. “As population growth continues in the area over the next five years, demand for rental housing of all types should continue to grow, and with comparatively little new affordable housing development the need for affordable rental units will continue to grow as well.”

The 700 West project was chosen against a competing proposal submitted by Commonwealth Development Corp. and Oklahoma City Housing Authority that pitched a four-story, 132-unit senior independent living tower and a three-story, 120-unit assisted living tower, both built above a one-story podium consisting of parking, amenity space and commercial space.

The two proposals marked the second time the corner has been offered for development, with a previous proposal for micro-units turned down by the Urban Renewal Authority.

The southeast corner of NW 4 and Shartel Avenue is one of the last large parcels not developed from the hundreds of parcels acquired by Urban Renewal in the 1960s and 1970s.

If the Urban Renewal board approves the choice of 700 West by the authority's selection committee, Director Cathy O'Connor will be tasked with negotiating a final agreement with the Bradshaws.

The 700 West project, if built, will open immediately east of the Banquet Cinema now under construction and other developments in planning stages.

"The selection committee liked the active amenities at the corner and the design along Fifth and Shartel," O'Connor said.

"That was the most significant consideration, they really see that corner becoming more important. There are townhomes being proposed along 4th. And we're going to see more investment. While we want to see more development with more affordable housing, to have a mix of market rate with the activity that brings will help. The other would involve assisted living and would not be as active as traditional apartments."