After a few years of dormancy, Oklahoma City's Bricktown is again going through a construction boom, this time on the south canal.

A Bass Pro outdoors shop, corporate headquarters for restaurant chain Sonic Corp. and plans for a movie theater and a canal hotel could transform land south of the historic warehouse district into what development officials hope will be a round-the-year, round-the-clock destination for tourists and city dwellers alike.

Downtown and Bricktown boosters say with a movie theater and Bass Pro, the area could draw up to 7 million visitors a year, on par with San Antonio's hugely successful River Walk.

The "Field of Dreams" mentality — if you build it, they will come — of Bricktown development doesn't always add up, some experts say.

They are concerned that development along the south canal could delay renewal efforts in older sections of Bricktown. Many properties, along Sheridan Avenue and the north canal, remain vacant or struggle to keep tenants.

Former Oklahoma City Planning Director Garner Stoll applauds Bricktown revitalization and the downtown MAPS projects, but has reservations about whether south canal development will truly make Bricktown a pedestrian-friendly zone.

"It is in the character of Oklahoma City, which believes that the sky is the limit and tries to do everything at once." Stoll left Oklahoma City amid controversy over planning policy in 2000 and now is the planning director in Parker, Colo.

"The question I have is, is it focused enough, and are the buildings close enough to create a pedestrian district? Are there enough uses on the canal to energize both the street and the canal level?"

Others, such as aspiring developer Moshe Tal, are more blunt, calling Bass Pro a "glorified bait shop" out of place in Bricktown.

"I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think Bass Pro is going to generate the kind of traffic they are talking about," said Tal, who has battled other developers and city officials for the past five years over his failed Bricktown development plans. "What can you buy at Bass Pro that you can use on the canal? It's already looking like a barn with a big metal roof, and that's not the look of Bricktown."

In his lawsuits against the city and other developers, Tal has claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy that blocked his efforts. Twice his allegations were heard by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and both times, they were dismissed.

Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys also has dismissed Tal's claims as sour grapes and frustration after his plan failed to win favor with the city.

Humphreys said Bass Pro and a proposed movie theater will spur other Bricktown development because it will put more people downtown and help existing Bricktown businesses.

"They will grow the pie instead of slicing it thinner," he said. "For the most part what we'll see is ancillary retail. Bricktown is primarily restaurants and entertainment, and I don't think you'll see that south Bricktown canal become restaurant row."

The 110,000-square-foot Bass Pro building will be built from $17.1 million in city funds and leased to the sporting goods retailer at the below-Bricktown rate of $6 per square foot. The city hopes to recoup its investment through higher sales tax revenue.

"In five years, Bass Pro will look like a no-brainer," Humphreys said. "People will have a hard time imagining Bricktown and Oklahoma City without Bass Pro. All the naysayers will be in hiding and will be saying, 'I didn't like it, but it turned out to be a good idea.'"

Second guessing

Bricktown pioneers such as Jim Cowan, owner of the Bricktown Brewery, say there will always be an element of "Monday-morning quarterbacking" about development in the area.

"People here treat Bricktown like their favorite sports team," he said. "You're proud of it and show it off to friends and family who come to town, but when they're gone, you'll start picking at all the problems or shortcomings."

Perennial problems include parking and creating year-round foot traffic that isn't dependent on baseball season or special events such as concerts and conventions.

Tal said one of his regrets in pitching his Bricktown plans in 1997 was not understanding how intertwined parking and development are in Bricktown. The lots are a huge money-maker for existing property owners, he said, and he admits he made enemies by proposing 3,000 free parking spaces at his ambitious development with Baltimore developer David Cordish.

Currently, there's plenty of parking in and around Bricktown, said Devery Youngblood, president of Downtown Oklahoma City Inc. A new lot is expected to open later this year on the northern edge of Bricktown between the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway bridge and the Walnut Avenue bridge. Bass Pro will add hundreds of spaces on the south side when it opens.

"The big issue of downtown is that it runs on pedestrian traffic, it doesn't run on convenient parking," Stoll said. "A pedestrian district and surface parking are really fighting each other conceptually and unless there's some intervention, convenient parking will win the day."

Youngblood acknowledges that friction but said it will work itself out. A more immediate problem is the lack of signs pointing to parking areas, he said. The downtown area will get parking signs later this year as part of a new system to standardize downtown navigation.

"We do not have a lack of parking, we have a lack of good parking management and a lack of good marketing of the spaces," he said. "A big part of the problem with parking is that people don't know where it is."

Toward 'puberty'

Compared with other downtown entertainment districts in the region, Bricktown is just an infant, officials say. The SBC Bricktown Ballpark is just five years old, and the Bricktown Canal will celebrate its fourth birthday this summer.

It's taken more than 30 years for San Antonio's River Walk to grow into its success, and 25 years for downtown Fort Worth to take off as a retail and residential center. And Dallas' West End experienced tremendous growth in the 1980s and early 1990s, only to fall on hard times as it lost popularity to edgier Dallas areas such as Deep Ellum.

Officials stress that Bricktown's problems are all part of it growing toward "puberty."

"A whole lot of people were under the impression that Bricktown and the canal would blossom into maturity overnight, and of course that hasn't happened and wasn't going to," Humphreys said. "You have to walk before you can run. It's in an ongoing state of growth ... I'm not sure it's even an adolescent yet."

The 1-cent sales tax from MAPS provided $350 million for the public development of downtown, including more than $52 million for the SBC Bricktown Ballpark and the Bricktown Canal. Former Mayor Ron Norick said the private side is just beginning to catch up.

"The private dollar is really flowing in, and I think we'll probably get two to three times on the private side (as went into MAPS)," said Norick, who played a pivotal role in securing MAPS funding in 1993. "There's no need at this point for the city to put in any more money, other than helping with streets and traffic flow, although that might be different five years from now."

The nearby Ford Center arena, an expanded downtown convention center and new hotels also help drive traffic in Bricktown, Youngblood said. Despite being the costliest MAPS project at $90 million, the arena has allowed the city to attract big-name concerts and sporting events.

"All those other things around Bricktown feed it," Youngblood said. "It gets a lot of people from the art museum and the (Oklahoma City Bombing) Memorial. The Ford Center has been the single biggest traffic generator ever for Bricktown, more so than the Ballpark."

Future expansion

So with the south canal along Reno Avenue booming, what's next for the rest of the canal to the south toward the unfinished Land Run sculpture?

"People look at that land and see the two sides to it," said Powell, the San Antonio architect who consulted on the canal. "On one side, what is happening there and why isn't something being built? But on the other, isn't it wonderful that we've got some land to develop? That land and the connection all the way down to the river is one of the great opportunities for downtown housing and downtown neighborhoods."

Youngblood agrees, saying in the next 10 years, there will be a greater connection between Bricktown and the North Canadian River.

"I suspect there'll be housing in that area because it's quieter and its closer to the river and the trails," he said. "It's a little far south for more restaurants or hotels. Housing is our stock answer to everything, but the more people we have living downtown, the more people will be on the streets creating more energy. And we'll have more stable businesses because you'll have that 24-hour customer."

No matter what happens, the mayor predicts a booming Bricktown and downtown well into the future.

"I think 15 years from now, people will look back to December 1993 to MAPS and everything that followed and say they really started doing the right stuff 25 years ago," he said. "But it's not going to happen overnight."

A Local pundit named Tom Hardin of Oklahoma City who puts out a lot of commentaries by email calling himself "Shiloh Media Relations" makes the following comment.

One thing that the Oklahoman isn't telling us here is that the land adjacent to the River Project and Lightning Creek was taken to create a new wetland in conjunction with the damming up of the river. I have samples of the deeds to that property, and they clearly state that the land can never be re-sold as commercial property because it was paid for with federal flood relief money. Your office needs to recognize that there is a felony criminal conspiracy going on here.

Haven't found many people yet that even care, but with a little help, I could put a stop to a lot of stuff. Problem thus far has been that everyone wants to follow their own narrow interest instead of getting the big picture. Unless someone starts resisting the land grabbing now, there is going to be more property seized to make the River and Lightning Creek projects connect to each other so that commercial housing can be built on a federally funded wetland that was created by seizing peoples homes.

I've heard that duky always runs downhill. This appears to be true because it all appears to be flowing toward the Canadian River Basin and Lightning Creek on the lower east end of the Capitol Hill Addition in south Oklahoma City. The City and FEMA removed 144 houses to build a wetland; now City planners and commercial developers want to convert the wetland into a housing project, and the stream of crony crap runs straight down to it.>>Tom Hardin--Oklahoma City

Way to go, Tom, but you do need to learn how to blog so you get some real attention.