Developer Of Bricktown Project Talks Adding Second-Tallest Building In U.S.

The developer of a project in downtown Oklahoma City that includes what would be the second-tallest building in the U.S. said the decision to expand the project was driven by the approval of a new arena.

California-based developer Matteson Capital originally proposed to the city a 2,004,235-square-foot project called The Boardwalk at Bricktown, which includes three residential towers with more than 900 combined units, a 348-unit luxury hotel, areas for restaurants and retail, and hundreds of public parking spaces. The project will be built at the parking lot next to U-Haul Moving & Storage of Bricktown, a location that is bordered by Reno Avenue and Southeast K Gaylord Boulevard, near Paycom Center and the Oklahoma City Convention Center.

In August, the Oklahoma City Council approved $200 million in tax increment financing and $5.5 million in sales and use tax increment to support the project.

Scot Matteson, president and CEO of Matteson Capital, said the project has since been expanded to include a larger hotel (from 348 rooms to 480 rooms plus 85 condo units) and more space for restaurants. But the biggest change of all is the redesign of the third residential tower from a 345-foot building into a luxury apartment skyscraper that is 1,750 feet tall. The tower will have 134 levels and include 1,528 apartment units.

"If we're going to do it, let's do something special," said Matteson.

Should the tower be built, it would be the tallest residential structure in the country and the second-tallest building in the U.S., only behind the 1776-foot-tall One World Trade Center in New York City. The tower would be more than twice the height of the 844-foot-tall Devon Energy Center, the tallest building in Oklahoma.  "If the market conditions are not there or financially not there, we can always downsize the building," said Matteson. "But we figured we'll go for what we thought was the maximum height that makes sense and makes a statement."

Matteson said they had kept the design of the expanded tower in the background for a while. However once they saw that Oklahoma City residents approved the construction of a new arena, they decided to release the design of the new tower because they anticipated that demand for apartment units would go up. "They are spending $900 million to build the new arena. We're spending about a billion dollars on our project so we figured that the synergies between the two will increase demand," said Matteson. "So we're going to go back to the city and ask for that third residential tower to be increased in size."

Matteson hopes to submit the proposal for the 1,750-foot luxury apartment tower early next year. If the city approves, it would be phase two of the project. Matteson said they will not seek additional funding from the city.

Construction of phase one of the project - which includes the hotel, the other two residential towers, and the restaurant/retail space -- is expected to begin next summer, Matteson said. It will take 18 to 24 months to build.

The plan is to rent out the first two towers before constructing the third tower, Matteson said.