Developer Scot Matteson has revealed plans to build a whopping 1,750-foot supertall smack dab in the middle of Oklahoma City. If built, Matteson’s ambitious Oklahoma City tower would be second only to the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower in Lower Manhattan as the country’s tallest building.
The skyscraper designed by California office AO is mostly residential, fitted with 1,528 units. The current 134-story iteration also features restaurants, shops, and a 480-room Hyatt Dream Hotel, alongside 85 condos. Siemens and Thornton Tomasetti are the project engineers.
At the foot of the supertall would be a new $900 million stadium for the Oklahoma City Thunder, a project that was approved by the city council on December 12. The new arena will replace the Cox Convention Center, where the Thunder currently play across the street.
AO’s design shows three separate towers perched above the new stadium that functions as a podium, encompassing a new mixed-use complex the California real estate magnate has dubbed The Boardwalk at Bricktown. These more squat buildings, Matteson says, would tentatively have parking garages, retail space, 576 market rate homes, 48 affordable homes, and 140 units of workforce housing, and a workforce development center.
The megaproject’s total building area is 3.5 million square feet spread across 4 acres. Renderings also reveal a 17,000-square-foot lagoon on site, and a 57,000-square-foot podium rooftop crowning the forthcoming basketball arena.
So far, the Oklahoma City Council has approved $200 million in tax increment financing to support the venture. Under the current deal, the $200 million would be paid after the apartments are completed. The design however is still in the planning phase, and hasn’t been submitted for approval to the city planning department.
From afar, the Oklahoma City supertall would loom over its relatively flat environs like Frank Lloyd Wright’s unbuilt Mile-High Skyscraper in Illinois, proposed in 1956. The tallest building in Oklahoma City today is the Devon Energy Center, a 50-story, 844-foot corporate skyscraper. Renders show that Matteson’s supertall tapers as it goes up; and an iridescent light source at its crown pierces the night sky.
Why a supertall? And why Oklahoma City? Matteson told BisNow that he sees real opportunity in the Sooner State. He says Oklahoma City is particularly attractive thanks to its “low unemployment rate, rising wages, booming construction and growing population.”
“We started thinking about the OKC Thunder and spending a billion dollars, and we are going to have a billion dollars going into our design,” Matteson told local reporters. “We are going to have two big projects going on within two blocks of each other. Option A is we build what we’re already approved for. But Option B is with all these things going on with a downtown entertainment district, let’s see what we can do.”
Looking ahead, Matteson will file renderings and plans with the city planning department within the next month.
