Transforming a city by leveraging public & private investment

Editor's note: This piece was originally written for the IEDC Economic Development Journal. We thought readers might be interested in learning a bit about the Chamber's response to economic development challenges. An edited version of the original is below.

Introduction – Changing the Trajectory of the City

The decade of the 1980s brought about significant change in Oklahoma City. As the new year rang in 1980, Oklahoma City was flying high. An energy boom was underway, downtown buildings had a 99% occupancy rate, and dirt was moving on numerous urban redevelopment projects. Population growth, improvements in unemployment, and real estate development were occurring at a record pace. Of the 15 million square feet of space downtown at the close of the decade, more than half had been built during the 1980s. And plans were underway to attract the World’s Fair in 1989 to coincide with a commemoration of the historic land run that settled the area just 100 years before.

The decline began over July 4th weekend in 1982 when federal regulators moved to close Penn Square Bank. What had begun in 1960 as a one-office retail bank with a drive-up window at a new suburban mall had grown to be a powerhouse during the energy boom, with $525 million in assets and lending of more than $2 billion. The bank’s decline rocked not just Oklahoma City but the national banking system and triggered a series of failures of other banks. A federal bailout of $4.5 billion was all that prevented the closure of Continental Illinois, the country's seventh-largest bank.

By 1985, many of the city’s developments had slowed, were radically altered, or were stopped. The dream of a World’s Fair was over. Four of the city’s banks had failed, and the city was ranked last in the nation for new business starts. The state was leading the nation in bankruptcies. By the end of the decade, downtown occupancy dropped to 63%. The metro had dropped outside of the top 50 metros in the U.S. in size and was out of the top 100 on every measure of income and productivity.

Andy Coats, the mayor of Oklahoma City at the time, urged leaders to not back down on some of the city’s redevelopment plans downtown, daring the crowd to realize the dreams of a vibrant downtown and restored riverfront. He predicted the future in a meeting stating, “if we make the quality of life in our city good enough, we won’t have to worry about growth, it will take care of itself.”

It was Coats’ successor, Ron Norick, who was able to generate support for a plan that would change the city’s trajectory. Elected on an economic development agenda, Norick committed that he would be the “number one salesman for Oklahoma City,” and championed increasing economic development, tourism, and the convention business.

Norick got his chance to lead an economic development effort in 1990 when United Airlines was looking to build a new $1 billion maintenance center. The mayor, along with the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, saw the potential of 8,000 new jobs and pursued the project as just the economic improvement the city needed. The national competition was intense, and the winning city would need to provide significant incentives to land the project.

The Oklahoma City bid included up to $8 million in tax breaks, including sales tax exemptions. Oklahoma County voters approved a countywide sales tax to generate as much as $160 million to offset construction of the maintenance center. Eventually, the competition came down to Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Louisville. Following a trip to United’s Chicago headquarters to make their best and final offers, the Oklahoma City team returned home, knowing they left what they believed to be the best financial offer on the table.

Ultimately, the project went to Indianapolis and United CEO Stephen Wolf told Norick that while the city presented a wonderful deal and made a great proposal, the company did not think it could convince employees to relocate to the city.

Faced with this defeat, Norick, civic leaders, and the city council began serious conversations about what else could be done. The city was not competitive in attracting industry because of the perceptions of the city and its declining quality of life. The city’s quality of life infrastructure was aging or lacking. There were threats of losing the city’s AAA baseball franchise, as well as many of its rodeos and horse shows, a mainstay to the city’s tourism economy. Oklahoma City needed a bold plan to reverse the negative momentum facing the community.

Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) --  the First Series of Projects

In 1991, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber created a plan called “Visions of a New Frontier” that called for a series of projects to revitalize Oklahoma City and create a new image of the place – both for residents and for visitors.

The centerpiece of the plan would bring water back to the river and downtown, and then implement improvements along the waterfront including new hotels, an arena/sports complex, retail stores and restaurants, an arts and cultural center, a renovated convention center, trails, streetcars, a Native American cultural center and more. Leaders at the time predicted the vision would take 15 to 20 years but would make the city competitive with any in the country.

Bricktown before the canal was built. 

Norick agreed with the premise and launched a series of committees made up of both elected and civic leaders to contribute to the plan. The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber continued to provide input and support, helping to bring consultants, studies, and information.

As city staff pulled together information and plans from previous studies and master plans created in the decade before, a projects list began to take form. The process was complicated, as every special interest group in the city wanted something on the list.

With support of the business community, the final list was narrowed to nine projects and a bold decision was made that the projects would be voted on as a package. Norick and others believed the transformational change of the combined projects was more important, and that only one or two or even five projects would not create the change Oklahoma City needed. To succeed, the city needed them all.

The package, dubbed the Metropolitan Area Projects or MAPS, would be funded through a five-year, temporary 1-cent sales tax. Projects would not be built until the money was collected, allowing each project to open debt-free. Another feature included was a citizen oversight board to make recommendations to the city council and increase the credibility of the program.

The proposed projects included:

• A new 15,000-seat baseball stadium that met AAA league standards, with an estimated cost of $21.8 million
• A new 20,000-seat arena built to meet NBA and NHL standards with the hope of attracting a team from one of the two leagues, with an estimated cost of $79.8 million
• Renovation of the Civic Center Music Hall, the city’s 56-year-old performing arts center, with an estimated cost of $27 million
• A new downtown Library and Learning Center estimated at $15.9 million
• Renovation and expansion of the Myriad Convention Center estimated at $60 million
• A series of dams along the North Canadian River, along with trails and landscaping estimated at $53.5 million
• A river canal including landscaping, trails, and recreation spots through Bricktown estimated at $37.1 million
• Improvements at State Fair Park, including arena improvements and a equine auction facility, estimated at $11.5 million
• Public transportation system linking the projects, matched by federal funds, estimated at $3 million

The plan included another $16.6 million for site acquisition, parking, and related construction fees.

Officials announced the plan in September 1993, calling for a vote on December 3. The polling made it clear that the individual projects were not going to win the day but selling the package and the vision for the city’s future could convince voters.

The campaign included public meetings, rallies, and business luncheons, along with a strong mail campaign, radio, and television ads. The campaign was successful, passing by a 54 to 46 percent vote.

Opening day of the Bricktown canal. 

With a vote in early December, collections of the tax began on April 1, 1994. As funds were collected, an office was created, staff were hired, and plans began in earnest on the nine projects. One year later, in April of 1995, the public was starting to grow anxious as they still had not seen any of the projects begin and they were ready to see change. On the 19^th of that month, however, they received a change they had not been expecting when Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols exploded a 2.5-ton fertilizer bomb in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and damaging or destroying 324 buildings in a 16-block radius.

The impact of the bomb on the city was immense, not just in the loss of life and the physical damage but the emotional impact to a community that had already suffered so many losses. The international attention brought to the city, while highlighting the disaster that unfolded, also held a mirror up to the citizens, showing a community that came together in the wake of the tragedy.

Facing the Dual Taks of Rebuilding and Implementing the MAPS Plan

The city now had the dual task of rebuilding following the disaster and implementing the plan approved by voters two years before. Congress quickly appropriated $39 million in Community Development Block Grant funds to assist business owners unable to obtain funding through other sources. Another $12 million was added later, along with two Economic Development Initiative Grants. Approximately $10 million of the total was placed into a revolving loan fund for the revitalization of the area. The program allowed individuals to contribute 10% equity, with the city loaning 30% at 0.375% and the bank providing the other 70% at normal lending rates. When the loan is paid in full, the money is available for another investor. Approximately 50 loans have been issued through the program and it is still being used today.

Meanwhile, the MAPS team was still working to bring the nine projects to fruition. The first project was completed in 1998, nearly five years after voter approval. In April of 1998, in time for opening day of the baseball season, the new ballpark in the city’s Bricktown district opened its gates. Residents were ecstatic. The ballpark delivered on the promise of MAPS, delivering what many thought was the best AAA ballpark in the US. In fact, the ballpark continues to draw praise from around the country and was again voted best AAA ballpark by Ballpark Digest in 2021.

The Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark is consistently voted one of the top minor league ballparks in America. 

At the same time, construction was underway on the convention center and the Civic Center Music Hall. As final plans were created, it became clear that when the tax collections ended in April of 1999, there would not be enough money to finish. Mayor Kirk Humphreys, who took the mantle from Ron Norick in April of 1998, put together a plan to extend the tax for just six months. The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce stepped in again to run a campaign to “Finish MAPS Right.” Voters agreed overwhelmingly, approving the extension by a 67% margin.

The next summer, the Bricktown Canal joined its ballpark neighbor, opening with a grand celebration on July 4^th weekend. By this time, doubts about MAPS were barely a whisper. Citizens were confident that the program was a success. The remaining projects opened sporadically over the next five years, with the last project, the Downtown Learning Center, opening its doors in 2004.

Overarching Themes of the Initial MAPS Projects

The overarching theme of the initial MAPS projects was the revitalization of downtown Oklahoma City as the center of civic life in the greater Oklahoma City area. Externally, the efforts were intended to enhance the national image of the city and its fledgling status as a convention and tourism destination. Six of the nine venues in MAPS have an entertainment component, including the arena, ballpark, river, music hall, canal, and fairgrounds.

These new and upgraded public venues provided numerous opportunities for entertainment, recreation, and cultural and arts activities for both city residents and non-resident visitors. Eight of the nine MAPS projects (not the public library) have an outward focus on increased tourism, by both in-state and out-of-state visitors. These new downtown public venues offered several attractive venues for visitors to make repeated visits to the area for entertainment and recreation.

The Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and Paycom Center are related to fan-attended sporting events. The ballpark was a modern replacement for the aging All Sports Stadium located at the state fairgrounds where prior professional teams played from 1962 to 1997. Professional baseball in Oklahoma City is traced back almost uninterrupted to 1904. The new stadium has been ranked among the best minor league ballparks in the country. The Oklahoma City Dodgers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, are currently based in Oklahoma City and play their home games at the Ballpark.

The canal is now a centerpiece of the revitalization of Bricktown, which has become downtown’s primary entertainment district. The formerly deteriorating area is home to continued private investment and sharply rising property values. Extensive redevelopment of existing structures from the historic warehouse district maintains its early roots in city history. A key aspect of the area’s revitalization is the development of an extensive network of new hotels, retail vendors, and food service operators. Bricktown is also an active area for residential real estate development and increasingly office space development.

The completion of the arena was a key factor in the temporary relocation of the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets to Oklahoma City for home games during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons following Hurricane Katrina. The availability of newly constructed and NBA-suitable arena,  coupled with the success of hosting an NBA franchise for two seasons in Oklahoma City ultimately contributed to the relocation of the Oklahoma City Thunder beginning with the 2008-09 season.

The presence of the Thunder propelled Oklahoma City into the exclusive tier of cities with a major sports franchise. The Thunder are now viewed as a key lifestyle amenity for residents, with the team having drawn attendance at the full capacity of the arena for the first ten years of the franchise.

The Oklahoma River system has become an anchor recreational destination downtown. The seven-mile system of parks, greenways, trails, and recreational amenities provides riverfront activities for residents and visitors alike. Private investment followed creating the Boathouse District which is home to Olympic-level rowing and whitewater venues that place Oklahoma City among a group of elite destinations for training and competition. New permanent trails developed in MAPS 3 now connect distant areas of the metropolitan area to the Oklahoma River and downtown.

Convention center improvements addressed the limited role played by Oklahoma City in the national convention market. MAPS funding upgraded and extended the life of the aging and undersized Cox Convention Center by more than two decades. This improved conference venue provided the initial step in rebuilding the city’s convention profile as early MAPS projects were marketed as new assets for conventioneers visiting Oklahoma City.

The trolley system is the only relatively small project among the initial MAPS efforts and the only project that is no longer active. The trolleys were decommissioned in 2010 at the end of their useful life. The final project in the original MAPS initiative, the Ron J. Norick Downtown Library, was completed in August 2004. The library serves the local community through traditional library services as well as providing computer access, meeting space, and online services. The library carries an educational focus and is designed to serve primarily city residents.

The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber began measuring the economic impact of the MAPS program in 2003, even before the projects were finished. During the campaign, Norick had promised that the city would double its money – that the private investment that followed would equal the public sector. He seriously underestimated. In 2003, the total was 1.1 billion, but that was just the beginning. By 2009, that number exceeded $5 billion.

MAPS for Kids – the Second Series of Projects

Following the first MAPS projects, voters approved a short-term temporary tax to beef up the city’s public safety infrastructure. As this was underway, another big need in the city became apparent to Mayor Humphreys. As a former school board member in a suburban Oklahoma City district, he had a heart for public education but also knew the importance of quality public schools to attract residents and grow the city. He would often quip that “we can pave the streets with gold, but if we don’t have good schools, people won’t want to live here.”  

At the heart of Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City Public School district had an aging infrastructure with massive maintenance needs. These needs were impacting the classroom, as an outsized portion of the district’s funds were required just to keep the buildings open. This was an urban district that faced challenges common to other similar districts – many in the community abandoned the district, both physically and emotionally following desegregation orders in the 1970s. The student population decreased by half and the aging voters who still lived in the area no longer felt they had a connection to the schools or the responsibility to pay for their upkeep. When the district finally convinced voters to pass a capital program, it was implemented poorly and when combined with low student achievement, the district had little credibility with the voters.

Humphreys and a group of civic leaders formed Project Kids to develop a plan to transform the Oklahoma City Public Schools. Following months of community engagement and data analysis, the group presented a plan titled “MAPS for Kids.” This program would replace or renovate every building in the city’s urban district, including three new high schools. The program also provided capital funding to the other 23 districts in the city based on their enrollment of Oklahoma City residents. The program was a combination of the temporary one-cent sales tax and a school bond issue, which required a super-majority 60% for passage. It passed on November 13, 2001, by 61%.

The temporary sales tax would provide $470 million in construction for the Oklahoma City Public Schools, along with $52 million for technology and $9 million for transportation. It would provide another $153 million to the 23 suburban districts. The Oklahoma City Public Schools bond issue provided another $180 million for the program.

MAPS for Kids again included an oversight board to vet the projects and make recommendations to both the council and the participating school districts. The program’s diverse projects and complicated implementation took nearly 20 years to complete.

MAPS 3 – the Third Series of Projects

As the sales tax collection for MAPS for Kids was ending, talk of a third program was brewing. The citizens were not ready for this string of success to end and just like in the lead up to the original MAPS, every special interest in Oklahoma City had an idea how to spend the money. But fate intervened with another opportunity.

In 2006 when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the NBA suddenly had a team with no home. Oklahoma City’s next mayor, Mick Cornett, was a bonafide sports fan, having spent most of his professional career as a sportscaster. He saw the opportunity to bring a professional franchise to the MAPS arena and he reached out to then NBA commissioner David Stern and found interest. Local businessman Clay Bennett, who had been part of the San Antonio Spurs ownership previously, got involved and in a short few weeks, the New Orleans Hornets were temporarily relocated to Oklahoma City for two years. Their stay was an enormous success for Oklahoma City and for the team.

Buoyed by the experience, Bennett and a group of Oklahoma City investors purchased the Seattle Supersonics. They made a promise to remain in Seattle but only if they could negotiate for a new arena, enhancing the revenue potential and securing the long-term health of the franchise. Negotiations on the new arena did not go well and by the end of 2007, it was becoming clear that Bennett and his investors could consider a move to Oklahoma City, but they needed the NBA’s Board of Governors to approve.

An important piece of that approval rested on improvements to the arena built by MAPS. It was built without a tenant and did not have the features necessary to support the team on a permanent basis. Nor did the city have a practice facility that met NBA standards. The Hornets' experience made that abundantly clear. Oklahoma City was not going to let this opportunity pass by, approving another temporary tax in March of 2008 to expand the arena and build the practice facility. Just a month later, on April 18, 2008, the NBA Board of Governors approved the move and Oklahoma City attained the big-league status it was seeking.

With a new temporary tax on the books, conversations about the next MAPS took a back seat for a year but began again in earnest with Mayor Cornett’s State of the City address in 2009. He created a website and called for citizens to share their ideas for what was next. The insight provided direction as a list of projects, and a focus began to take shape.

In addition to the citizens’ requests, Cornett also wanted to emphasize projects that would improve the city’s health rankings. The city had been named the eighth fattest city in America by Fitness Magazine in 2007 and Cornett put himself and the entire city on a diet, with a goal to lose a million pounds. Adding more recreational opportunities fit into his plan.

By late summer 2009, a projects list was announced, and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber began its work to develop a campaign. The projects list was broad, with seven diverse investments that continued to transform the central core but also provide amenities in neighborhoods across the city. The $777 million program included:

• a new downtown convention center
• a new 70-acre park downtown
• a streetcar line in the central city
• RIVERSPORT Rapids at the Boathouse District
• a large public event building at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds
• three Senior Health and Wellness Centers
• miles of trails to create a connected citywide system
• a massive sidewalk program to connect neighborhoods with city amenities across the city

The Campaign for MAPS 3

The campaign for MAPS 3 brought together a grassroots coalition of special interest groups who really cared about each of the projects, but it also brought opposition. The city’s police and fire unions expected another temporary funding proposal to enhance services and they actively campaigned against the program. With funded opposition, the path to passage was not easy, and it came with a much higher cost. In all, supporters spent more than $1 million running an aggressive campaign to secure a victory.

This new program had a longer collection period -- seven years and seven months – and had two complicated and expensive projects with the streetcar and the convention center. The program again used a citizen oversight committee, and a 12-year implementation plan was developed. The largest project, the convention center, was left to the end in the event tax collections did not meet expectations, the project could be adjusted. In fact, the opposite occurred, and tax collections exceeded expectations, allowing for the convention center this city was hoping to build.

MAPS 4 – the Fourth Series of Projects

As the third program was being implemented, citizens began calling for the renaissance of the city to extend beyond the central core into every part of the city. Oklahoma City covers more than 600 square miles, more than half the size of Rhode Island. Maintaining the city’s roads is a significant challenge, due to both the size of the city and the weather cycles. Citizens were also looking for an expansion of the trails and sidewalks planned in MAPS 3, and public safety supporters wanted to see a permanent increase in funding due to the city’s steady population growth and increased needs.

The City of Oklahoma City put together a significant package of projects that would combine a general obligation bond issue with a .25 permanent tax for public safety and a two-month temporary extension of the “MAPS” penny sales tax to fund a massive $1.3 billion program to meet these needs. As in previous efforts, a Chamber-led coalition once again joined together to easily pass the effort in September of 2017.

This broader community-oriented mindset was still in place as the community contemplated its needs once again for a MAPS 4 vote. The program was estimated to bring in $978 million over eight years and includes 16 projects focused on neighborhood and community needs as well as transformational projects seen in other programs:

• Parks - $140 million to improve existing parks, create four new parks, and build new soccer fields
• Youth Centers - $110 million to build four youth centers around the city
• Senior Wellness Centers - $30 million to build a fifth senior wellness center and to create an operating fund to support the existing centers
• Mental Health and Addiction - $40 million to build two mental health crisis centers, a restoration center, and temporary crisis housing
• Family Justice Center - $38 million to create a new one-stop location to support families in crisis
• Transit - $87 million to create two bus rapid transit lines and improve the bus transportation system
• Sidewalks, trails, bike lanes, and streetlights - $87 million for continued expansion of these programs
• Homelessness - $50 million to invest in a housing first strategy
• Arena improvements - $115 million to continue improving the MAPS arena
• Animal shelter - $38 million to build a new, expanded shelter
• Fairgrounds Coliseum - $63 million to replace the arena at the fairgrounds
• Diversion Hub - $17 million to create a center for programs to divert low-level offenders away from incarceration
• Innovation District - $71 million to build Innovation Hall, create a walkable connection between downtown and the innovation district, and renovate the HB Foster Center to create a small and minority business center
• Clara Luper Civil Rights Center - $25 million to create a civil rights museum named after Clara Luper
• Beautification - $30 million to beautify the city’s entrance gateways and corridors
• Multipurpose Stadium - $37 million to create a multi-purpose stadium for soccer and other uses

Once again, a coalition of more than 40 organizations came together with the Chamber to run a campaign for passage. The theme for the campaign was “Love Your OKC,” encouraging people to vote for the projects they love and to continue the moment started with MAPS. The effort was a resounding success, garnering 70% of the vote and affirming the legacy that began in 1993.

Conclusion

The legacy of this public investment is really two-fold. In total, there have been $3.1 billion in public investments during the period, including MAPS votes and the additional temporary sales tax votes or bond initiatives. The private sector has made another $3.9 billion in investments to bring the total to $7 billion.

This 30-year period of investment is one of the most significant transformations of any city in America. The population grew by 50%, from 972,512 to 1,425,695. The City of Oklahoma City is now the 22^nd largest city in America and the metro comes in at 41^st. It is common to see the region at the top of a list as the best city for young families or entrepreneurs, or as a must-see destination for travelers. The city has gone from a place where companies couldn’t see their employees moving there to becoming a destination for workers of all kinds.

While these investments and rankings are critically important and a success on their own, it is impossible to place a value or ranking on the impact of MAPS to residents -- of a new school on a neighborhood, or the value of a sidewalk that helps someone get from their home to a job. It is also impossible to put a dollar figure on the changed image of a community, or how the citizens of Oklahoma City embrace this community in a way they did not before this program. Former Mayor Ron Norick said it best in a celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the program when he said, “With MAPS, it’s not the bricks and mortar, it’s the change of attitude of our citizens and that our kids and grandkids are going to want to stay here and raise their families too.”