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A fresh look at developments, news and issues facing Tulsa.
Lofts now line the streets surrounding Cherry Street.
When I moved onto my street in late summer 2005, it was a traditional Cherry Street bungalow-lined neighborhood. Some houses were in relative disrepair, but most were in good shape and occupied by good people.
Now, nearly five years later, my wife and I remain, but the rest of the street has become unrecognizable.
A few years ago, residents began moving. Signs advertising things to come began popping up on curbsides. Within a few months, the two houses on either side of us were gone. Eventually most of the homes and buildings on the opposite side of the street were gone as well.
The construction began and seemed never-ending. We felt like that old cartoon with the little house in the city that sits in the middle of modern skyscrapers. What once was a neighborhood became a random mix of this and that.
We were witnessing a trend that would not only change the way our part of town looked and cost but change downtown as well.
Everything appeared to be moving full steam ahead until the economy tanked in September 2008. Lofts going for a quarter of a million-plus suddenly weren’t as appealing.
Those next door to us have never been fully occupied. And to add insult to injury, the company that developed them is now defunct.
We are left with an altered landscape that cannot be regained. And a lot of empty (and sometimes ugly) symbols of how the economy went in the gutter in the first place.
Our city’s move toward urban, loft-style living is not an isolated one. Austin, Kansas City, Portland and others have seen this happen.
But one thing we don’t have now, and weren’t planning on before the crisis, are affordable options.
The type of person most interested in loft living — young, hip, artsy, downtown-friendly — is not the one with the income to buy such a home.
At the new Living Arts building, 307 E. Brady Ave., the upper level’s eight lofts are currently rented to the visiting educators in the Teach for America program. With an amazing view of downtown, just steps away from the new ballpark, this is an ideal location to show off our city to out-of-towners such as these recent college graduates.
It’s the kind of environment that might lead someone to move here permanently. But here’s the catch: The George Kaiser Family Foundation provides the lofts. And good for them. In fact, the foundation has plans to convert other buildings for the same purposes. But outside of this project, there is no way that a public school teacher could afford to live there.
Neither could most in the downtown area because “Over one quarter of households in the (downtown) neighborhoods have incomes below $15,000 per year,” according to the recent Housing Potential and Market Demand Study created for the City of Tulsa Economic Development Commission.
If you look through city magazines, this one included, you will occasionally see a profile on a loft owner. They are generally older people with means to afford a pricey place. This will remain true until options are available for the middle-class budget.
An 883-square-foot loft at the Tribune Lofts rents for $950 per month. A 1,213-square-foot space at The Philtower is $2,160 per month. The majority of Cherry Street and downtown lofts are for sale only, at prices that would get you an actual house twice as big.
The economy is starting to recover. Housing prices, while pretty flat overall, are starting to inch a bit higher. But if this is the situation during and in the aftermath of the worst recession in decades, what will it be like when Tulsa is back to business as usual?
