Today, they are vacant fields and greenbelts, forgotten or distressed spaces in downtown Oklahoma City. Soon they will be high rises, condominiums, English-style homes and flats. They will become the new face of downtown.

Patrick A. Lippmann, Senior Vice President of Banc First, recently presented an overview to a select group of female community leaders on housing plans for the downtown and Bricktown areas and drew a PowerPoint portrait of a new downtown Oklahoma City. While housing usually precedes retail and business development, the opposite has occurred in Oklahoma City. Plans on the drawing board include housing, surrounded by retail clusters.

In Oklahoma City, the University of Oklahoma Medical Center and the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Center have been big generators for jobs, and their locations provide easy access to downtown living. Lippmann predicts the 200 –acre American Indian Cultural Center also will be another generator for downtown housing demands.

Among the amenities the study showed downtown residents would want are attached parking garages, restaurants and nearby retail shopping opportunities. Some of the planned units include balconies, rooftop lap pools, exercise facilities and cabana areas. Elevators will be an option in some residences. Greenbelts and streetscapes, fountains and sculptures will be visually appealing attractions.

“At least 600 total units are planned for sale and 300 are expected to be started this year,” Lippmann said.

The first project of this new phase of development will be the Block 42 residential project at Northeast 4th and Central. Others include the Brownstones at Maywood Park, Centennial Lofts at Lower Bricktown, 444 Central Avenue Villas, The Hill, the Kerr-McGee block, Harvey Lofts, the Classen Tower and the Skirvin Residences.

These projects, for the most part, encompass an area known as The Triangle, which is bordered by I-40 and I-235 and includes Broadway, North Oklahoma, North Walnut, North Second, Third and Fourth Avenues and North Stiles, which has been renamed Russell M. Perry Avenue.

Once the new Walnut Bridge and the newly expanded Walnut Avenue improvements are completed, Walnut will become the primary entrance to The Triangle and the Bricktown areas from the Centennial Expressway.

The collective goal of these developments is to create a series of neighborhoods in the area that will appeal to the 25-34 year old “echo boomers” and the 55-64 year-old “empty nesters.”

It’s a breathtakingly exciting vision for downtown, but realizing the dream won’t be immediate. Lippmann predicts it will take a decade to bring this renaissance of downtown living to fruition. But he believes people will love living just footsteps away from the pulse and heartbeat of Oklahoma City.