Former Olympians and fitness business owners Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci as the farm couple in Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” Devon Energy Corp. has grown into an unmistakable part of Oklahoma City’s future.
Chesapeake is reshaping the area around its campus with a variety of businesses.
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G. Jeffrey Records doesn’t court the limelight.
Rand Elliott’s portfolio includes some of our most visible landmarks.
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THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
Visionaries send the message that state is ‘open for business’ They are familiar names to business and industry in Oklahoma. Names such as Pickens, Nichols, McClendon, Hamm and Ward — people who have become masters of their industry, building companies that now compete on
a global stage. But they are also community leaders, helping to transform a city and state, bringing national visibility to Oklahoma. That involves the input of visionaries from various business sectors —
from the developers and architects who have forged a bustling mix of residential and commercial districts from former blighted areas; to real estate brokers who are maximizing the use of technology to handle the
sale of property with precision for the wellbeing of the state; to those who are staging an environment for entrepreneurs to thrive and succeed. It also involves leaders with the unique ability to
sell the merits of living and working in Oklahoma, efforts that recently have attracted companies such as Boeing to relocate hundreds of jobs here. Collectively, these visionaries are re-creating Oklahoma into a destina-
Clytie Bunyan cbunyan@ opubco.com
BUSINESS EDITOR OUT AND ABOUT tion — including an emerging, hip entertainment district in Oklahoma City — that’s gaining a reputation of being the most affordable place to live and sending the message to industries nationwide that the state is open for business.
BART CONNER AND NADIA COMANECI | OLYMPIC ATHLETES AND OKLAHOMA BUSINESS OWNERS
Olympic athletes make fitness their business BY MELISSA HOWELL Staff Writer mhowell@opubco.com
Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci are Oklahoma’s golden couple — emblematic for their vision of fitness and recreation and their passion for mentoring young gymnasts. Throughout the last decade, they have parlayed their life’s work into a thriving business that produces some of the United States’ best gymnasts. Promotion of health and fitness is at the heart of their company, the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy. It begins with Oklahoma, which faces its own set of challenges. “I just want to be a part of the solution,” Conner said. “I know a lot of people are doing good things in our community, and it takes a whole community.” The path to healthier living, Conner believes, begins with Oklahoma’s youths and creating a mindset for fitness that is fun and fulfilling, not painful and boring. “It has to be fun. Kids don’t want to be in a fitness program,” he said. “Obviously, my background comes from the competitive sports. But a byproduct of (competitive sports) is that you take ownership of health and wellness. In competitive sports, you own your fitness; you own your competitive record. It’s up to you to understand how much you exercise and what choices you make. “I think we have to impact kids. If it’s a mindset, it will stay with you for a lifetime.”
Taking ownership With teens and adults, Conner said we have to disengage from the concept of doing “what’s normal” and adopt a practice of doing “what’s good.” “One of the issues for me is that people go along in life and just follow everyone else. Then, years later they look at (themselves) and say, ‘What happened?’ You have to buck the trend to do what’s right for yourself,” he said. Conner said a good example of “following” instead of “leading” is in eating calorie-bloated portion sizes because that is what is on your plate. “One of my biggest issues is portion size. You have to realize restaurants are not concerned with your health. People go and just eat what’s in front of them,” he said. “So you have to sort of push back. Say, ‘Wait a minute. I own my wellness. I don’t have to go along.’ My wife and I go out, and we split an entree. People look at us funny, but I’m willing to take a funny look.”
Business sense That sense of ownership can have the greatest impact on health and fitness in Oklahoma, Conner said. “You have to own your numbers. Own your cholesterol, your sugar. We’re more aware now than we were 30 years ago, and yes, we’re less healthy. It’s not just about awareness,” he said. “You make choices regarding everything in life. We need to decide what our priorities are. There are a lot of issues at
ON THE COVER BART CONNER AND NADIA COMANECI AS THE COUPLE IN GRANT WOOD’S ‘AMERICAN GOTHIC’ Oklahoma’s famous sports couple came to the photo studio smiling and laughing. They’d agreed to be photographed as the somewhat dour farm couple, and while they don’t match the couple’s mood, they certainly match their commitment and dedication in bringing Olympicscaliber gymnastics to Oklahoma City. Conner earlier had reported that he’d found a black jacket, to match the jacket the old farmer wore. But no one knew what Comaneci would wear. She’d been told to try to match the spirit of the painting, and to wear her shoulder-length hair pulled back, ala the austere fashion of the woman she would try to model. Nadia Comaneci, austere? That’s like trying to make a peacock dowdy. When the two arrived at the studio, editors smiled. They were perfect. He indeed wore a black jacket and white shirt. Comaneci wore a conservative black sweater with a white blouse and ruffled collar. She even found a traditional oval brooch to wear, which pulled the “costume” together. Conner nodded his approval and said, “I told her to find the least sexy outfit she had.” YVETTE WALKER, OUTLOOK EDITOR
BART CONNER QUOTES AND QUIPS ON FITNESS: I “I think one of the great things about sports is that your fitness matters on a team. It’s important how I take care of myself if I want to be in the game.” I “There’s no magic pill. No quick fix. I think it’s a mindset as much as anything.” I “A component of your day should have something to do with fitness. I know every day exercise is a component of my day. I’m going to eat, I’m going to sleep, and I’m going to exercise.” I “All the time I think I just don’t want to do it. Everybody’s busy. But on the average, I do some type of fitness five days a week because my fitness pays off. I am more fulfilled. Success breeds success.”
stake.” He knows about ownership. Conner and Comaneci have business interests in several companies, all health and fitnessrelated. In addition to the academy, there is Perfect 10 Productions, a TV production company that produces the Nadia Comaneci International Invitational and the International Gymnastics Hall of fame; The Bart & Nadia Sports & Health Festival, a multisport, health and wellness event; International Gymnast magazine; and Gym Divas and Grips, purveyors of gymnast apparel and gear. As for the future of their business, Conner said he believes in being flexible and taking advantage of opportunities as they arise. “I’m willing to sort of morph with the times. I believe it’s good to have a plan, but I want to be available to seize opportunities and go where we can have an impact,” he said.
Corporate citizens Conner won Olympic
Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner pose with a picture of Grant Wood’s painting “American Gothic” at The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City. PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN
ONLINE For more stories on Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci and video on the couple, go to NewsOK.com and search for “Bart Conner” or “Nadia Comaneci.”
gold in the parallel bars at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and was also part of the team that won gold. Comaneci won three gold medals in 1976 in Montreal and added two more in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow that the U.S. boycotted. The two met in 1976 and reconnected in 1991 before getting married in 1996. They play a big role with International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and perform charity work for the Special Olympics and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Conner said Oklahoma, as a community, needs to implement incentives to reach a higher level of fitness. Yes, we need to be accountable, but we also have to enjoy our path to fitness, he said. “I’m a big believer in the carrot instead of the stick. How many people go on a diet and then quit after a week? Sometimes the stick works, but it’s not long-term motivation. You need a combination of both.”
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LARRY NICHOLS | CHAIRMAN OF DEVON ENERGY CORP.
Growing into a leading downtown employer BY STEVE LACKMEYER Business Writer slackmeyer@opubco.com
Larry Nichols wasn’t pursuing a career in oil and gas when his father, John Nichols, asked him to quit his job clerking for a future Supreme Court justice and return home to help start a new energy company. That startup, which began in 1970, is now Devon Energy Corp., and as executive chairman, Larry Nichols is behind an almost $1billion transformation of the downtown skyline. “He (John Nichols) wanted to start up a new oil and gas business,” Nichols told The Oklahoman as he recalled the ambitious beginning of Devon Energy. “He had some relations in Europe and North Africa and saw in those people a desire to make a safe investment in oil and gas properties by buying and selling properties rather than drilling. “He persuaded me to come back and help do it. I had a geology degree, a law degree, but I could not read a financial statement. And I said, ‘We’ve got a negative worth,’ and he said ‘Larry, all oil and gas companies have a negative net worth. Don’t worry about it.’ “He was serious. Small startup companies have a negative net worth, and we were going to fix that.” Nichols was 30 years old when he returned to a downtown dominated by major energy companies, such as Amarex and KerrMcGee Corp. “I was planning and interviewing for jobs in Washington, D.C., with law firms. I spent one year with the Supreme Court and a couple of years with the Department of Justice. I worked with one of the assistant attorneys general, Bill Rehnquist, who ended up on the Supreme Court. “Our goals were very modest. We would raise money, buy some properties and stay alive for another three to four years. They were the most modest goals you could imagine. And as we took a step each year, we would focus our eyes on what we thought was a stretch goal and then try to get there. “Within about 12 months of getting married, I moved from Washington, D.C., bought a house and did a lot of things all at once. When we first got back we stayed in the Indian Creek Apartments at (NW) 122 and May and then bought a small house in Crown Heights.”
The next step Nichols can’t remember one big discovery that helped the company grow to where it is today. But in 1982, at the height of the oil boom, Devon Energy made one play that likely saved the company from joining a long list of companies that disappeared during the ensuing oil bust. “Our goal was to have one acquisition in each thing we did that we could use to take the next step. And without taking that
Larry Nichols Devon Energy chairman and CEO
step we couldn’t take the next step. “The only really contentious board meeting we ever had concerned leases we had acquired through several transactions in the deep Anadarko Basin. And in 1980 and 1981, deep Anadarko was the most exciting exploration play there was. Very deep, very expensive, and no one had yet completed a well, but the numbers on the test results were hugely impressive. “And right before the board meeting there was an article in Forbes Magazine and it talked about how each of the big oil companies had gotten big on one discovery or another. And then it started talking about the deep Anadarko Basin and it concluded there were some major companies in the making in the deep Anadarko Basin. And we had some directors from New York City coming in having read that article, and they arrived at the meeting with their chests all pumped out and thinking they were directors of a major company in the making. “And the first thing on the agenda was that we sell everything we had in the Anadarko Basin. That resulted in a spirited debate. We ultimately agreed and sold most of what we had in the Anadarko basin for $5,280 an acre, plus a 50 percent back in on each well. We sold to seven or eight companies — and every one of them ended up bankrupt and none of those wells worked out. And it was very strategic; we used all of that money to pay off all of our debt.”
A changing city Devon Energy’s rise to where it is today coincides with the resurgence of downtown Oklahoma City following voters’ approval of the Metropolitan Area Projects initiatives in 1993. Nichols doubts the company would still call Oklahoma City home if not for MAPS. “Certainly during the late 1980s and early 1990s Oklahoma City was a pretty depressing place. But in fairness, everyplace else in the oil and gas industry, Houston, Midland (Texas), Dallas, Fort Worth and Denver, there was no one immune from the bust. “If Oklahoma City had stayed the way it was in 1990, before Mayor (Ron)
Norick got us to where we are with MAPS, we couldn’t have hired the people we needed to be where we are. “When we were trying to recruit people to come to
Oklahoma City, even a decade ago, it was very difficult. Now it’s a very interesting proposition, and the city has grown incredibly and the reputation of the city has grown incredibly.”
Nichols played a major role in the revival that went beyond the growth of his company, which is set to move into a new 50-story headquarters next year. Nichols served several years on the board of the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority. It was a tenure that ended three years ago and included the development of hundreds of new apartments and for-sale homes downtown, construction of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, redevelopment of the Skirvin Hilton Hotel, and creation of Lower Bricktown. Nichols’ advocacy of downtown continues with Project 180, a $141 million makeover of streets, sidewalks, parks and public spaces fueled by a tax increment financing district established with development of the $750 million Devon Energy Center. Nichols is especially enthu-
siastic for the makeover of Myriad Gardens, which will reopen this spring with a new grand lawn and amphitheater, restaurant, ice rink and children’s area. For Nichols, the effort all goes into making Oklahoma City an easier sell to drawing potential new employees from other states. “Now in the last year or two we’ve gotten so much press, the effort to get them down here is less than it was five years ago,” Nichols said. “They’ve read about us, they’ve seen the stories about the Hornets, about the Thunder — that gives us credibility in being major league. They read stories in The New York Times about the growth of downtown or they’ve talked to someone who has been here. It’s a gradually changing yet perceptively changing momentum.”
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IDEAL HOMES | VERNON MCKOWN, CO-OWNER AND PRESIDENT OF SALES; GENE MCKOWN, PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT; AND TODD BOOZE, PRESIDENT OF CONSTRUCTION
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
MARK DALE | HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT
2 kinds of green fuel Ideal Homes Mark Dale, president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association, stands in a model home in northwest Oklahoma City. PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES
Builder comes back by popular demand BY RICHARD MIZE Real Estate Editor richardmize@opubco.com
Gene McKown, Vernon McKown and Todd Booze are the owners of Ideal Homes. PHOTO BY PAUL B. SOUTHERLAND, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES
BY RICHARD MIZE Real Estate Editor richardmize@opubco.com
NORMAN — It was the old-fashioned kind of green that got Ideal Homes into the new kind of green building: Moolah. Scratch. Cold hard cash — the company wanted to make money by building homes designed to save their owners money on energy. “We were looking for a sales differentiation,” said Vernon McKown, who leads the company as a coowner and president of sales. “We just felt like we could build a few thousand dollars extra on our houses and show our customers how they could save a bunch of money. We weren’t really environmentally (sensitive) when we started.” That was in the late 1990s, almost a decade after McKown, his father, Gene McKown, president of development, and Todd Booze, president of construction, started the company. Before long the firsts and accolades started piling up: I 1998 — Ideal Homes became the first company in the country to build affordable homes — under $150,000 — to meet the conservation standards of the federal Energy Star program. I 1999 — Built the 18th “Health House” for the American Lung Association. I 2001 — Won two national Gold Awards from the NAHB Research Center’s national Energy Value Housing Award program. The NAHB Research Center is an arm of the National Association of Home Builders. I 2002 — Earned Louisiana Pacific’s “Engineered for Life” Status of Distinction. I 2003 — Was among Professional Builder Magazine’s “101 Best Companies to Work For.” I 2005 — Was among Professional Builder Magazine’s “101 Best Companies to Work For.” I 2005 — Won Gold Award and Silver Award from the national Energy Value Housing Award program. I 2005 — Built the first “zero-energy home” — meaning it generates more energy than it consumes — in the United States for under $200,000. I 2005 — Built the first home certified in Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design in the United States.
Ideal Homes worked on the home of the Skaggs family in Slaughterville for the television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” PHOTO BY STEVE SISNEY, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE
ONLINE For video from the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” go to NewsOK.com and search for “Extreme Home.”
I 2006 — Won Gold Award from National Housing Quality Award presented by the NAHB Research Center and Professional Builder Magazine. I 2007 — Named America’s Best Builder by Builder Magazine. I 2008 — Built the first home certified “green” in the National Association of Home Builder’s National Green Building Program. I 2010 — Named Builder of the Year by Professional Builder Magazine. I 2010 — Partnered with ABC-TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” to build a home for a Central Oklahoma family. Vernon McKown, on request, has preached the green-building message — how homeowners can save the old-fashioned green and builders can make more of it by building the new kind of green — all over the country: International Builders Show, Pacific Coast Builders Conference, Energy and Environmental Alliance national conference. Are he and his partners visionaries? “No,” he said. “I really consider myself pretty fortunate. We tried something out and it worked for us.” But ask it like this: Do you have a vision? “I have a vision for wind energy,” he said, talking of neighborhoods where the energy from a turbine powers every 500 homes. But all that’s pie-inthe-sky dreaming, he said, until somebody figures out how to make the old-fashioned kind of green doing it. He’s thinking on it.
Last year wasn’t the first time that Mark Dale had to stand up for a beaten-up homebuilding industry and lead its walking wounded. He had been there before, in 1990, his first time as president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association, a tight-knit bunch of folks who couldn’t help take the slump personally when they saw friends and colleagues fall. Twenty years later, during a second turn as president, Dale’s experience leading the industry as it slogged out of the 1980s oil and real estate bust helped give younger builders perspective and remind older ones that recessions can be survivable. He also was able to lend a seasoned hand to construction of the new association headquarters campus at 420 E Britton Road — something else with a generational twist to it. Dale’s father, Everett Dale, was president in 1960 when the previous headquarters was being planned at 625 NW Grand Blvd. It was no accident that Dale, 59, owner of Carriage Homes — started by his father in 1958 — returned to the association leadership. He answered a true encore. In 2007, with housing wheezing and dark
clouds rising, he was asked to return to the leadership structure of the association, which put him in the president’s chair for 2010. About the same time, Chesapeake Energy made the group an offer it couldn’t refuse and bought its old headquarters near the growing Chesapeake campus. The ensuing site search and planning had the new digs coming out of the ground under Dale’s new presidency. It was great timing. Just of a few 2010 members were in the business in 1990, and none were around for the group’s own last big construction project 50 years earlier. “During Caleb McCaleb’s presidency, we sensed a need to bring back a seasoned leader within (the association) to bring both historical context and experience through what we anticipated to be the first downturn some of us had experienced,” said Jeff Click, who was active as an officer as president in 2009 and immediate past president in 2010. “It was rather serendipitous that Mark not only served that need, but also played a key role in leading us through the completion of our new campus.” Last year was a tough one for builders — those still building. The national housing crash, while it never was felt as severely here as elsewhere, did damage, taking out some
companies and causing others to shift emphasis to remodeling or other kinds of construction and development. Some builders who didn’t quit slowed way down. Dale said he often thought of his dad, who died in late 2005. “He was always so levelheaded and calm when he looked at any situation,” he said. “He’d step back and analyze: Now where is the pressure point in this deal?” Whether it was giving advice to younger builders, putting the housing slowdown in perspective for the media and others outside the industry, wrangling with details of the headquarters construction project, or running his own business amid it all, Dale said he kept his father’s wisdom in mind and kept a long view in tramping through the slump. Hindsight, it turned out, was not exactly 2020, he said. “You still have to focus, even if you’re looking in a mirror,” he said. Looking ahead, Dale said he knows one thing will remain the same. “Even though building techniques change and appetites for houses change and economics change, you’re still building a home for people, which is usually their most prized possession,” he said, and that is what energizes most builders in good times and not-so-good times.
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AUBREY MCCLENDON | CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP. CEO
McClendon skillfully deals with challenges BY JAY F. MARKS Business Writer jmarks@opubco.com
Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon seems to have an answer for everything that comes his way. The company he cofounded in 1989 has prospered despite the 2006 departure of partner Tom Ward, a precipitous crash in natural gas prices in 2008 and even the ominous presence of activist billionaire Carl Icahn as one of Chesapeake’s largest shareholders last year. Some analysts wondered whether Chesapeake was ripe for a takeover as Icahn boosted his stake in the company, but McClendon responded in January by unveiling an ambitious plan to reduce Chesapeake’s debt by 25 percent over the next two years while limiting production growth to 25 percent. “This plan represents a fundamental shift from our aggressive asset accumulation of the past few years to a multiyear period of asset harvest, characterized by a clear focus on capital discipline and
AT A GLANCE
Aubrey McClendon opted to create a college-style campus for Chesapeake Energy Corp. as the company grew rather than a traditional office building. He said there are a number of reasons behind that decision, beginning with the fact that he never has liked elevators. McClendon also said he could not figure out how to accommodate a growing company in a tall building. Plus, he really enjoyed college and liked working close to home. McClendon estimated his office is about three minutes from his house.
maximizing returns,” McClendon said at the time. “We believe we have assembled the best assets in the U.S. and have the technology, experience and financial and human capital to convert these assets into rapidly growing production, proved reserves and cash flow.” The plan already is reaping dividends, as Chesapeake’s stock surged in
G. JEFFREY RECORDS | MIDFIRST BANK CEO
Bank chairman’s accomplishments speak volumes
MidFirst Bank now has offices in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix and Southern California. PHOTO PROVIDED BY DON MECOY Business Writer dmecoy@opubco.com
G. Jeffrey Records doesn’t court the limelight, and the CEO and chairman of MidFirst Bank may not be one of Oklahoma City’s most recognizable names. But when Records joined with some of his contemporary local business leaders to buy the Seattle SuperSonics, he gained some level of recognition. Records doesn’t talk publicly about his accomplishments. The team, of course, moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder, and Records’ MidFirst Bank remains one of the team’s major sponsors. In addition to an ownership role with Professional Basketball Club LLC, Records also serves as a director with Casady School, the Oklahoma State Fair and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. Records took on the role of chief executive officer at MidFirst in 2009, and since that time the bank has grown and remained profitable. That same year, Records discussed MidFirst’s attributes when the company acquired an insolvent Arizona bank. “We attribute MidFirst’s success and stability to the fact that we provide the ‘best of both worlds’ to our customers, the capabilities of a large commercial bank and the responsiveness and personalized service of a privately held community bank,” Records said. MidFirst employs about 1,900 people and has offices in Oklahoma City,
We believe we have assembled the best assets in the U.S. and have the technology, experience and financial and human capital to convert these assets into rapidly growing production, proved reserves and cash flow.”
CHESAPEAKE GROWS COLLEGE-STYLE CAMPUS
We attribute MidFirst’s success and stability to the fact that we provide ... the capabilities of a large commercial bank and the responsiveness and personalized service of a privately held community bank.” G. JEFFREY RECORDS
CEO AND CHAIRMAN OF MIDFIRST BANK
Tulsa, New York, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix and Southern California. MidFirst Bank believes in supporting the communities it serves, investing time and money in educational, charitable and civic organizations. “Our volunteerism is powered by MidFirst Bank employees from all of the communities in which we live and share with our customers,” the bank said.
AUBREY MCCLENDON
CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORP. CEO
in Arcadia, and part of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Aubrey McClendon Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO
February after the company announced a deal to sell its holdings in Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale to a subsidiary of Australia’s BHP Billiton for $4.75 billion. Chesapeake, one of the largest lease holders in the industry, also has struck a series of lucrative deals with other foreign oil and natural gas giants to subsidize its drilling programs in some of the nation’s
largest resource plays. That has McClendon feeling optimistic about the company’s future. “I think we’ve only begun to scratch the surface,” he said. “I think I’m more excited about the next 10 years than I’ve been at any time in the past.” McClendon’s success is not limited to Chesapeake. He also owns POPS, a popular attraction on Route 66
Moving toward oil McClendon said this is a great time to be in the energy business, especially in Oklahoma City with industry stalwarts like Devon Energy Corp., SandRidge Energy Inc. and soon Continental Resources Inc., which is moving from Enid. McClendon said he is proud of Chesapeake’s growth and success over the past 20-plus years, as well as the value it has provided for its shareholders and the community. Despite continued weak prices for natural gas, he said Chesapeake remains
its “champion” because it is cleaner than coal and cheaper than crude oil. McClendon said Chesapeake isn’t ready to abandon natural gas, even as the company shifts its focus to producing more oil. “Our job is to make money for our shareholders,” he said. “It’s easier to do, finding oil right now.” The lessons Chesapeake learned in becoming one of the country’s premier gas producers have helped in that quest, McClendon said. The company has holdings in most of the emerging oil and liquids plays in the United States.
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T. BOONE PICKENS | ENERGY INVESTOR AND CREATOR OF THE PICKENS PLAN
Pickens pushing national energy plan FROM STAFF REPORTS
Holdenville native T. Boone Pickens has not given up on his quest to wean the United States off foreign oil. Pickens continues to push the eponymous Pickens Plan, his vision for a national energy plan. Pickens has been preaching about the evils of foreign oil for more than two years. He introduced the Pickens Plan in July 2008, when he laid out his comprehensive solution to America’s growing de-
T. Boone Pickens
pendence on imported oil. The plan, which has attracted support from many in the energy industry and
consumers, calls for increased use of domestic renewable resources, such as wind and solar, in power generation and using abundant supplies of natural gas as a transportation fuel alternative to oil from the Middle East. Pickens has spent millions of dollars of his own money to publicize the plan, speaking to lawmakers, campus groups and seemingly anyone else willing to listen to his views. He even sends out monthly figures detailing U.S. oil imports, with
spending broken down to the minute. In March, the United States paid more than $750,000 a minute for oil imports in February. “Price shocks and instability led to a reduction in imports, but a significant increase in the amount of money the U.S. is spending on foreign oil every day,” Pickens said in a March 11 news release. “With no end in sight to the unrest in the Middle East, this spending spree is not going away. While import numbers may have been down, we
saw no increase in domestic production.” Pickens maintains there are sufficient domestic resources to supply the country’s needs. “We are the Saudi Arabia of natural gas and need to take advantage of that,” he said. “Using natural gas to fuel heavy-duty trucks can immediately reduce our dependence on OPEC oil, improve national security and strengthen our economy. I correctly predicted we would see $100 oil by end of the first quarter and it’s going to go even
higher. We are going to see oil prices hit $120 a barrel this year. The solution is right in front of us and it’s time for Congress to act and put an end to our dependence on OPEC oil before it’s too late.” The Pickens Plan to encourage more heavy duty fleet vehicles to run on domestic resources has been included in several pieces of legislation introduced in the House and Senate, but none have been passed so far. Pickens remains optimistic that will change.
PETE DELANEY | OKLAHOMA GAS AND ELECTRIC CO. CEO
GREG PHILLIPS | OKLAHOMA NATURAL GAS PRESIDENT
Future of OG&E to include smart grid technology
New ONG president stressing customer service FROM STAFF REPORTS
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. is revolutionizing its transmission grid with new technology meant to help customers reduce their electricity bills by managing energy use during times of peak demand. Smart grid technology is expected to significantly reduce the company’s operational costs. Future additions to the system will make OG&E’s power grid more reliable and efficient, officials have said. OG&E CEO Pete Delaney said the smart grid program is an important part of the company’s stated plan of not adding any fossil-fueled generation facilities to its system until at least 2020. “We saw very positive, year-one outcomes from
Renewable energy has a role in continuing ... to offer customers reliable and reasonably priced electric service.” PETE DELANEY
our smart technology study in the Norman area last summer,” he said. “Customers used the technology to reduce their peak demand and save on their energy bills.” Delaney said OG&E is
Pete Delaney Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. CEO
on track with its 2020 plan so far. “There’s still a long road ahead with many unknowns, but we believe that we have the plan in place to take us to 2020,” he said. OG&E will continue to utilize renewable resources like wind to meet customer’s energy needs. “Renewable energy has a role in continuing to pursue a balanced portfolio that will enable us to continue to offer customers reliable and reasonably priced electric service in the future,” Delaney said.
Greg Phillips is excited about the future of Oklahoma Natural Gas, because of its namesake fuel source. “Recent natural gas discoveries across our nation will allow natural gas to reliably fuel the United States for the foreseeable future at current usage levels,” said Phillips, ONG’s president. “This increased natural gas supply has had a positive effect for our customers, as natural gas prices have dropped over the past two years, lowering gas bills for consumers.” Phillips said natural gas benefits Oklahoma as well. “The natural gas we deliver to Oklahomans today is acquired from Oklahoma producers and marketers,” he said. “Using natural gas to heat homes and businesses makes sense, because you
dent of another ONEOK subsidiary, Texas Gas Service, since July 2008. Under Phillips’ leadership, Texas Gas Service earned the highest score in the region on J.D. Power and Associates’ 2011 Gas Utility Business Customer Satisfaction Study.
‘Excellent service’
Greg Phillips ONG President
save money, help the environment and you keep Oklahomans employed.”
Background Phillips is new in his role with the Tulsa-based company. He was named president of ONG in February, succeeding the retiring Roger N. Mitchell. Before moving to ONG, Phillips had been presi-
Officials hope Phillips can achieve similar results for ONG, which finished seventh among eight companies in the region in the survey released last month. “Our primary mission at Oklahoma Natural Gas is to provide clean, reliable energy to our customers with outstanding customer service,” Phillips said. “Thanks to feedback provided by our customers, we are now able to individually track our employees’ ability to provide excellent service to our customers.”
THE OKLAHOMAN
NEWSOK.COM
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
11
12T
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
PRICE EDWARDS & CO. | CO-MANAGING PARTNER FORD PRICE AND PHIL JACKSON, CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Price Edwards’ tech stays ahead of game BY RICHARD MIZE Real Estate Editor richardmize@opubco.com
Today’s pain is tomorrow’s gain. That about sums up Price Edwards & Co.’s running approach to keeping up with information technology — and run the firm does, compared with most others in often slow-tochange commercial real estate. Ford Price, comanaging partner, is making sure of it. To Phil Jackson, chief information officer, that, more than anything, is what keeps Price Edwards on the cutting edge, whether with the proprietary interactive property databases the firm deployed years ago, the iPhone app it debuted last fall, or its integration of the iPad and internal databases and systems into the daily lives of property managers and others earlier this year. That’s because the biggest obstacles to technological innovation, Jackson said, aren’t always hardware or software, but comfort zones and familiar habits — and it helps to have the boss on board. “No one likes their job to change, so every time you want to do something new technologically there’s a lot of company culture that has to change with it,” he said. “I could outline 10 or more specific times when we’ve tried something and people run to Ford or someone and complain that ‘this is worse than just doing it manually.’ Rather than give up and go back to the old way, Ford convinces the people
Ford Price Co-managing partner of Price Edwards & Co.
in our company to stick with it, keep trying, tweaking and working, and almost always, six months later people come around and say ‘wow this is really a good system.’ ” Not every innovation works, of course. It “takes a belief that change isn’t easy but if you spend time on the front end, that yields dividends later down the road. There’s things we’ve done wrong. We’ve had failures in tech, things that didn’t work or didn’t save time,” Jackson said. “Without failure, we wouldn’t have success. It’s not always obvious when going into the change IF it will work, how it will work, or what benefits it might yield. If it was easy everyone would do it. Ford is committed to doing the hard things now that reap rewards later.” Price put it like this: “We just view technology as an investment, not an expense.” Here’s another indication of Price’s view on tech innovation: Jackson has been the top staff tech guy since 1996. Fifteen years ago. When
the Internet, for most people, was still a baby. Jackson said that there was a “pivotal point” when the informationtechnology staff quit being seen as a repair crew and started being part of business strategizing. Price said it was in the mid-to-late 1990s that he came back from a Realcomm conference — Realcomm, “the intersection of commercial real estate, corporate real estate, automation and technology” — and got with Jackson and some others and decided to push innovation rather be pulled by it. Yes, there are downsides. It diminishes personal contact, which Price said is still critical to relationships, which still define commercial realty management and brokerage in big ways. Face time goes scarce “when you’re flipping emails around all the time,” he said. “And obviously the compression of time. Like it or not, we are all plugged in 24/7. This notion of ‘see you in a week, I’ll be on vacation’ is long gone,” Jackson said. Price Edwards also struggles to decide how much staff-produced data to make available to the public. “We do a lot of primary market research,” Jackson said. “Do you give all that away for free?” What is the latest challenge? How to use Facebook and other social media in business, not just as novelty — and how to balance employees’ freedom of expression with their responsibility to help maintain the company’s
Phil Jackson, chief information officer for Price Edwards & Co., demonstrates an iPad app at the firm’s offices downtown. PHOTO BY STEVE GOOCH, THE OKLAHOMAN
reputation. Such issues are hashed out regularly. “We actually sit around this table every month and talk about technology. All the relevant people sit around a table and talk,” Jackson said. “We know things are going to change. How do we adapt and
change to meet it? And ... the main guy is involved. I’m not sure other people are (so) committed. Ford is, month to month, quarter to quarter.” And Price wouldn’t turn back technology for all the ink, paper spreadsheets and typewriters left in the world. He has painful me-
mories of manual number-crunching — crafting multiyear revenue and expenditure scenarios, calculating debt service and the like. “That would take hour after hour. It was torture,” Price recalled. “And inevitably there’d be mistakes in it.”
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
TOM WARD | CEO OF SANDRIDGE ENERGY INC.
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
13T
MORGAN HARRIS | OWNER OF GREEN BAMBINO
Ward, SandRidge plan to reshape downtown FROM STAFF REPORTS
Tom Ward is no stranger to building. He has a proven record of success in the energy industry, despite a brief hiatus to pursue more personal pursuits. Ward’s current venture is SandRidge Energy Inc., a growing company with plans to reshape part of downtown Oklahoma City. Ward has been CEO of SandRidge since he paid $500 million for 46 percent of the company in May 2006, when it was known as Riata Energy Inc. and based in Houston. He had left the energy industry three months earlier when he resigned as president and chief operating officer of Chesapeake Energy Corp., which he cofounded with CEO Aubrey McClendon in 1989. Ward moved Riata to Oklahoma City and renamed it SandRidge in September 2006. Ward has shepherded SandRidge through an unprecedented transformation over the past couple of years. The company was 80 percent natural gas in 2008, when officials decided to focus on oil instead. SandRidge hedged all of its gas at more than $8 a thousand cubic feet, then set out in search of oil. “It was a very unique time, during the recession, for us to make a bold move,” Ward said. SandRidge officials decided to focus on Texas’ Permian Basin, which has produced more than 39 billion barrels of oil. “That’s more than all of Canada, all of Nigeria, all of the U.K. or Norway,” Ward said. “Just in this one small area, it’s produced more than all these countries. “It has the best source rocks that we could find.” SandRidge acquired $800 million worth of properties in the Permian from Forest Oil Corp. in late 2009 then spent another $1.4 billion last year to acquire Tulsa-based Arena Resources Inc.
Ward said those investments now are worth nearly $4 billion. SandRidge’s holdings are now about 80 percent oil. “It’s the most dramatic shift of gas to oil of any company in the U.S.,” Ward said. That shift has spurred SandRidge to grow out of its current accommodations. SandRidge has resided in downtown Oklahoma City since Ward swung a deal with former partner McClendon to acquire Kerr-McGee Tower in July 2007. “Our company is growing very rapidly, and the KerrMcGee tower is an ideal location for our corporate headquarters,” Ward said in a news release when the deal was announced. “I look forward to becoming a member of the downtown business community and to contributing to the ongoing renaissance of downtown Oklahoma City.” More than three years later, SandRidge is in the midst of an ambitious renovation plan, which calls for construction of one new building at 120 Robert S. Kerr and replacement of six remaining structures with landscaped plazas. The development dubbed “SandRidge Commons” is expected to add usable open space to downtown through the replacement of old blighted buildings. Ward said the expansion is necessary to accommodate SandRidge’s growth. The company already has filled more than two-thirds of its current downtown home, so it needs more space, he said. Ward said he expects SandRidge’s workforce to double over the next few years because its core holdings are in areas with high rates of return. He said SandRidge has plenty of acreage to develop in the Permian and the Mississippian formation in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. “We have 10 years worth of drilling in each of the areas,” Ward said.
Morgan Harris is the owner of Green Bambino in Oklahoma City.
PHOTO BY PAUL B. SOUTHERLAND, THE OKLAHOMAN
Baby store celebrates its first birthday BY JENNIFER PALMER Business Writer jpalmer@opubco.com
Morgan Harris’ baby is one year old. Not her son, he’s three. The Green Bambino retail store she’s nurtured tirelessly for over a year now recently celebrated its first birthday. Throughout that year, Harris has met many new parents and grandparents in the metro area. She has become a sounding board for problems like eliminating stink, laundry issues, toilet training, diaper rash and more. Issues moms easily become obsessed with when it’s affecting their baby 24/7. And for Harris, her passion for using eco-friendly reusable diapers hasn’t changed a bit. “I still wake up thinking diapers, and I go to sleep thinking diapers,” she said. “I enjoy being the person who I wish I had when I was a stay-at-home, cloth diapering mom.” What has changed is the store. In just one year, Green Bambino has gone from a one-woman operation to having eight employees. Lots of new products have been added: organic baby clothes, non-
plastic dishes and eating utensils, baby food making supplies, green cleaners, and of course, diapers and diapering accessories. Reusable cloth diapers of different brands, styles and even colors and prints, remain the focus and the main source of revenue — Harris said the store has been in the black since it opened. “We have been so successful partly because we sell a product that saves people money,” Harris said. Product knowledge is so important to her that when Harris is interviewing potential employees, she asks: ‘What diapers do you use and how do you wash them?’ Harris is cultivating a community of like-minded parents through her Facebook page and with classes in the store, like cloth diaper basics, breast-feeding and babywearing. Before Harris gave birth to her son, she spent five years working at Full Circle Books, an experience that gave her a solid retail background. But transitioning from employee to stay at home mom to business owner, wasn’t easy. She credits the Oklahoma Small Business Development Center with helping birth her
business. Her business adviser assisted with funding, merchandising and all the nitty-gritty details she’d never dealt with before. The organization helped with the startup of 278 new businesses in 2010, creating nearly 900 jobs and injecting more than $25 million into Oklahoma’s economy, director Susan Urbach said. For 2011, Harris wants to host more workshops outside the store in hospitals and obstetrician’s offices. And she’s looking into expanding the store or adding a second location. Customer Abbi Meadows has shopped at the store since it opened in March 2010, when she was expecting her first child. “The best thing about Green Bambino is the customer service. Morgan has remembered my name and my son’s name ever since we first came in the store. She remembers what brand of diapers we like and can therefore make educated suggestions as to what new products may interest us,” Meadows said. “I feel that she cares about my family, our health and our eco-friendly efforts more than she cares about the store’s bottom line.”
14T
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
JEFF CLICK | OWNER OF JEFF CLICK HOMES
In homebuilding, help is only a Click away
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
P.B. ODOM III | REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER
Developer P. B. Odom III stands on a bridge on SW 131 east of May Avenue, which leads into the Rivendell addition. PHOTO BY JIM BECKEL, THE OKLAHOMAN
Homebuilder Jeff Click stands in one of the buildings in the Main Street Business District, east of Pennsylvania Avenue between NW 150 and NW 164.
Focus on long-term goals has paid off for developer
PHOTO BY JOHN CLANTON, THE OKLAHOMAN
BY RICHARD MIZE BY RICHARD MIZE
Real Estate Editor richardmize@opubco.com
Real Estate Editor richardmize@opubco.com
Jeff Click has always worked the cutting edges of technology and home design. At 35, he is both already an old hand as a builder, and the go-to guy for everything new in the constantly evolving dance of form and function, whether in the living room or a handheld communications device. He started building houses at age 22 after already starting a successful software company. In 13 years, Jeff Click Homes has built about 300 houses and become a regular face of homebuilding. Two years ago, he was president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association. He is on track to be president of the Oklahoma State Home Builders Association — before he is 40. He latest endeavor is a branch out into office development with Main Street Business District, itself an edgy kind of place, on Pennsylvania Avenue north of NW 150. But housing, design and tech are still his mainstay. Here are his thoughts on the industry during a recent interview with The Oklahoman: Q: You’re a visionary, not only in tech stuff, but in cool urban residential design — in a sea of suburbia. How in the world did that happen? A: I’ve always been drawn to the style of urban and metropolitan design and architecture, particularly in residential spaces that were created within old buildings. I love the idea of embracing otherwise mundane aspects of old, urban structural details and drawing attention to them as a major focal point for interior design — brick walls and columns, exposed undersides of upper-story floors and even pipes and air ducts. As I started experimenting with recreating those details in a new construction setting, I began to notice these details getting all the attention when people came through my homes. The fact that I implement them in a suburban setting is merely incidental, as that’s where I’ve built to this point. But there is an inherent irony there that I’ve embraced as bringing a little “urbana” to suburbia. Q: Where do you look for inspiration in design? A: Almost everywhere, in anything. If I travel, I’m always taking photos of cool ideas I come across. I have a huge bin of design magazines and catalogs that are often a great source of solutions to design challenges. There are also numerous design and architecture blogs I check in on regularly. Locally, I enjoy looking at design in trendy restau-
There are some great homebuilders and designers here, but I want to resist the temptation to copy or do something that’s already being done here. JEFF CLICK
rants and work spaces of innovative companies, but don’t pay much attention to other residential design here. There are some great homebuilders and designers here, but I want to resist the temptation to copy or do something that’s already being done here. Q: In technology? A: Technology to me is what dark chocolate is to my wife, Deziray. Technological advancement is happening so rapidly, and new innovation opens the door to even newer possibilities that didn’t previously exist. I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about how technology is creating new conveniences and solving age-old problems in our every day living habits. This is important for homebuilders to be paying attention to, as these products and solutions are changing the way we wire and even design living spaces. Technology even plays a pivotal role in the way my company builds homes, as we rely heavily on a job management system we’ve designed that allows us to store every plan, design note and sketch for a home, as well as track every task on a project and communicate among staff, trades and suppliers electronically. Our jobsites are no stranger to iPads, iPhones and other gadgets, as we’ve been able to go almost paperless, even down to blueprints. I’m challenged to find a good term to replace “blueprint,” because literally, they’re seldom actually printed at Jeff Click Homes. Q: You were 22 when you started out in building. Did local builders first tend to see you as an upstart with your fancyschmancy high-tech stuff? Did anyone caution you to stick with the tried-and-true? Did anyone step up as a mentor? What was it like that first year or two? A: When my building career began, I also managed a software development company I had started in college. Technology — at that time email, Internet commerce, gadgets, being mobile — wasn’t a schtick to me, but just a part of my everyday way of operating and living. I designed software, which required a great deal of consideration to the graphical user interface, and to me a home is
the quintessential human interface. I didn’t receive much notice from other builders until I became more involved with Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association, where I began to help bring the organization more forward-thinking in the use of technology. From a general business perspective, I would say my father has made the greatest impact on how I run my business. I would credit guys like the late Jim Ferris, owner of JF Homes, and his then building staff Rick Melton and John Broadhead, with showing me the ropes of the building process. As I became more involved at an industry level, experienced guys like Mark Dale, Tom French, Jim McWhirter, and Mike Means have played significant roles in mentoring me on many levels as a builder and in industry leadership.
P.B. Odom III does not suffer pessimism gladly. Those prone to tsk-tsk at an aggressive approach to real estate development need not apply. The developer of southside Oklahoma City’s upscale Rivendell neighborhood — more than 500 homes, 3,000- to 10,000plus square feet in size, at SW 131 and May Avenue — and numerous other developments is quite willing to take a little pain now for gain later. That could be partly why, when so many other developers were still licking wounds from the recession, Odom expanded Palagio, a shopping center at SW 104 and Western Avenue; started the fourth phase of Talavera, a residential addition at SW 164 and Santa Fe; and started expansion at Rockport, another neighborhood, at SW 125 and Portland. “I do nothing shortsighted or short-term. I always take the long-term view,” said Odom, 58. “Sometimes that hurts in the short term.” He got that from his grandfather, P.B. Odom. He was the one who pushed Odom III through his first envelope. “Let me tell you how he pushed me,” Odom III recalled. “I started going into
Dad has been a great adviser and confidante through these many years, but Papa got me started.” P.B. ODOM III
the fields with the crews when I was 12 years old. I’ve always worked for a living. I worked several summers. (One day), he said, ‘Have you ever thought about building a house?’ I said, ‘Well, I guess it would be OK.’ ” A couple of weeks later, young Odom was riding with his grandfather from job site to job site when he drove up to one — in his Ranchwood Manor addition near SW 89 and Santa Fe 93 — and stopped. Reaching into the back seat, he retrieved a rolledup set of plans. Handing them over, he said, “Do you remember that house you said you wanted to build? Here’s the foundation.” That was in 1969. Odom III was 17. He gulped and said, “But Papa, I only said I guessed it would be OK!” But with years of handson building knowledge already under his belt, he did
it. A few months later, he sold the house, 2,000 square feet, for $27,000. Therein lies the start of the third generation of builders-developers by the name of Odom in Oklahoma City. Inspired as a young man by his grandfather, guided as an older man by his father, Paul Odom Jr., 82, P.B. Odom III has been acting rather than reacting ever since. P.B. Odom started building in Nichols Hills in the 1930s but turned to Ranchwood Manor in the 1940s and 1950s. Also in the 1950s, Paul B. Odom Jr. developed property from SW 74 to SW 89, then west of Pennsylvania, then south of SW 89 — some 2,000 homes. P.B. Odom III started building in earnest after graduating from Moore High School in 1970. Aside from a push, and inspiration, from his grandfather and occasional advice from his father, Odom III said what he mainly got from the first two generations of Odom builders-developers, rather than financial help, was what Proverbs 22: 1 says is “greater than riches.” “They both gave me something more valuable than money; their name. With that and their advice, I was able to capitalize on that,” he said. “Dad has been a great adviser and confidante through these many years, but Papa got me started.”
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
15T
CHAD HUNTINGTON | CO-OWNER OF OKLAHOMA’S RED DIRT EMPORIUM AND THE BRICKTOWN MARKETPLACE
Dreams become reality for retailer BY STEVE LACKMEYER Business Writer slackmeyer@opubco.com
Chad Huntington was a young, enthusiastic new director of the Automobile Alley Association in the late 1990s when he was schooled in the stark realities of retail by one of downtown’s veteran developers. “I was very excited about the potential for retail on Automobile Alley,” Huntington said. “The reason it made so much sense to me was the configuration of the buildings — they were designed for retail from the outset. They had these great windows, great sidewalks, and I just knew they could be great for creating retail on Automobile Alley.” Nicholas Preftakes was the first to gamble on downtown housing in the 1990s with the Garage Lofts at NW 10 and Broadway and at the time was proceeding with renovation of a handful of former dealership buildings along the strip. Huntington pled with Preftakes and others to consider putting more effort into recruiting retailers.
Chad Huntington is a co-owner of Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Emporium and the Bricktown Marketplace. PHOTO BY STEVE LACKMEYER, THE OKLAHOMAN
“He gently steered me away from the idea by injecting a dose of reality by saying downtown needed more rooftops first,” Huntington said. A dozen years later, Huntington admits Preftakes was right. And in that interim, downtown has seen an influx of hundreds of new
BOB BENHAM | OWNER OF BALLIETS
apartments and condominiums with hundreds more still being built despite the Great Recession. Those retailers Huntington dreamed of setting up shop along Broadway have taken root and include Broadway Wine Merchants, Schlegel Bicycles and Rawhide gifts, clothing and furniture.
Business Writer jpalmer@opubco.com
Balliets corners luxury market BY JENNIFER PALMER Business Writer jpalmer@opubco.com
There are many names that can make an upscale shopper swoon: Prada. Jimmy Choo. Diane von Furstenberg. Milly. Valentino. But in Oklahoma City, only one name has them all: Balliets. The retailer has settled into its new space at the Classen Curve shopping center, in a store that is every bit as beautiful as the shoes and dresses within. The store is a dramatic display of natural light, features a gorgeous center staircase and defies department store tradition with an upstairs cosmetics department. “The scale of this store says we’re part of something big now,” said owner Bob Benham. He made the leap from being a boutique at 50 Penn Place to anchoring the Classen Curve shopping center in August, expanding the store’s inventory and redesigning the company logo to emphasize its rebirth from the ground up. Before making the big move, Benham, who has served on the board of the National Retail Federation for 33 years and is currently corporate secretary, asked some of his retail counterparts if they were interested in coming to Oklahoma City. Despite the clout that came with gaining an NBA team, luxury retailers Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys say this market is not even on their radar. Oklahoma City’s income per household indicates it won’t be worth it, Benham said. “It’s just not on people’s minds. We’re still perceived as a big box retail market,” he said. Britt Beemer, chairman
of America’s Research Group, predicts overall retail sales will increase 2 percent in 2011, but luxury sales will jump 8 to 11 percent. He noted that the luxury consumer follows the stock market, and barring a crash, wealthy consumers will keep on shopping. There is a market for luxury retail here and Balliets is proof. Total sales have increased by 51 percent since the store relocated, Benham said. Highend apparel hasn’t fully recovered from recession lows, increasing just 17 percent. But shoes and handbags are way up, which more than compensated, he said. Balliets also seems to be successfully attracting a younger, hipper crowd. The number of customers using store charge accounts hasn’t changed but credit card sales are “through the roof,” Benham said. The new store added a contemporary department, with more denim and lower prices, to attract 20- and 30-something shoppers. And Benham’s own daughter, Lisa Shinn, has been quick to push him to adapt to changing times. He talks about a day when she’ll take over the store but balks at the mention of his own retirement. He says he’s here for the long haul. “My definition of an optimist is a 70-year-old retailer signing a 10-year lease for a new, bigger store,” he said, adding that without Aubrey McClendon’s vision for a retail corridor near the Chesapeake Energy campus, Balliets wouldn’t be where they are today. “My vision for Balliets was to be part of something new.”
have, and he’s become very passionate about it and has come up with his own ideas and has supported these ideas very much.” Going one step further, Huntington and Bekoff opened their own booth within the marketplace, “Classic Toys,” where shoppers can find oldstyle tri-cycles, hard-tofind Viewmasters, Lincoln Logs and other beloved diversions too often overshadowed by video games and computers. “It’s been a hit,” Huntington said. “Visitors to the marketplace have really responded well to it.” Huntington said he and Bekoff have listened carefully to visitors who repeatedly ended their excursions along the Bricktown Canal with questions about where to shop. “The retail environment is getting dramatically better,” Huntington said. “The mixture of added residential and a large increase in hotel rooms — quality hotel rooms — are a constant pull. Along with the visitor market the city has created an environment where the well crafted retail endeavor can do very well.”
Macy’s, Dillard’s have new things in store BY JENNIFER PALMER
Bob Benham, president and CEO of Balliets, stands inside the store at Oklahoma City’s Classen Curve shopping center. PHOTO BY DAVID MCDANIEL, THE OKLAHOMAN
Huntington, meanwhile, has spent the past decade operating the water taxis along the Bricktown Canal, promoting Oklahoma City tourism, and, with backing from Water Taxi owner Bob Bekoff, has launched two of the biggest retail operations yet in Bricktown. In 2007 the pair
launched Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Emporium in the Miller Jackson Building along the canal. The store proudly focuses on Oklahoma themed merchandise, including music and books, crafts, historic photos, Flaming Lips collectables, food and clothing. Encouraged by the success of the Emporium, the pair last year launched a second store, the Bricktown Marketplace, which is the largest retail operation opened downtown in recent years without any public incentives. (Bass Pro Shops in Lower Bricktown is the largest retailer, but it opened after the city agreed to spend $21 million to build the store). The marketplace now boasts an array of retailers ranging from clothing and antiques to art, jewelry, Western and American Indian gifts, food and toys. “I’ve always been very excited about the prospects for retail back to my time on Automobile Alley and even before as a worker,” said Huntington, who is also a longtime downtown resident. “But with Bob Bekoff, I’ve had the opportunity to explore the retail ideas I
Macy’s and Dillard’s department stores say Oklahoma is an important market and worth investing in. There are four Macy’s in the state, two each in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and 10 Dillard’s stores in Oklahoma — three in the metro area. Neither has plans to add stores in the state; each retailer is focusing on remodeling existing stores and tailoring its merchandise selection.
Macy’s Tom Harvey, Macy’s district vice president for Oklahoma and Fort Worth, Texas, said the company is about to begin a remodel of Tulsa’s store inside Woodland Hills Mall. In Oklahoma City, the retailer is looking at upgrades to the merchandise at Quail Springs Mall, including expanding the home store, fine jewelry and watches. At the Penn Square Mall store, exclusive lines from designers such as Kinder Aggugini are debuted — the only store in the district to receive those, Harvey said. It’s also the only store carrying Tommy Bahama and Lacoste sportswear. “Our vision for Oklahoma is to offer brands that are exclusive to Macy’s ... that the customer can’t get anywhere else and better brands so that we are the destination for brands both exclusive (to Macy’s) and national for value,” Harvey said. Macy’s Inc. has corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York and also operates Bloomingdale’s. Though Harvey is based in Fort Worth, he said he has been spending a lot more time in Oklahoma developing the four stores here. “We are very much alive and well in Oklahoma and believe in this market,” Harvey said.
Dillard’s Presenting a more upscale mix of merchandise and emphasizing service is on the agenda for the Little Rock-based retailer, said Dillard’s spokeswoman Julie Bull. Last year, the company brought Kiehl’s cosmetics to its stores, including the three metro area locations in Oklahoma City and Norman. A MAC counter was added to the Quail Springs Mall location, and in Penn
Square Mall, the store revamped its handbag and lingerie departments. “Handbags, shoes, accessories and cosmetics are ways a woman can really freshen up her wardrobe,” Bull said. To localize the company’s appeal, it has been giving customers a chance
to interact with celebrities through personal appearances. Area stores have hosted Oklahoma City Thunder basketball player Russell Westbrook and celebrity Chef Emeril Lagasse recently. Bull said the lack of an upscale department store such as Saks Fifth Avenue
or Neiman Marcus in Oklahoma City presents a huge opportunity for Dillard’s. “We completely realize our role there as an upscale, contemporary choice,” she said. Dillard’s first opened in Oklahoma in 1960 when it acquired Brown-Duncan Department Store in Tulsa.
16T
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
MARK FUNKE | BANK OF OKLAHOMA’S PRESIDENT FOR OKC
Banker is passionate about serving public
Mark Funke is the head of the Oklahoma City market for Bank of Oklahoma. PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE
BY DON MECOY Business Writer dmecoy@opubco.com
As head of the Oklahoma City market for the state’s biggest bank, Mark Funke believes his company and his city work best together. “I think banks flourish when their communities do,” said Funke, president of Bank of Oklahoma’s Oklahoma City operations. “If the community is doing well, we’re doing well because people have deposits here and they have loans with the bank and they use our products and services. Because banks are a beneficiary of a lot of that, I think it’s incumbent on banks to give back to the community.” “As a banker I feel like that’s part of my role as a leader in our market to lead by example for our employees and to show them I think it’s important,” he said. Funke has served as head of Oklahoma City’s annual United Way fundraising campaign and has led the Allied Arts campaign. Funke’s community service benefits the bank and the area, but also fulfills his passions, he said. “I try to be involved in things where I have a passion,” he said. “I think that arts are a great economic tool, not only to provide for economic development and a great quality of life for the community, but I also think that it does provide a great level of jobs in our community and benefits from that perspective.” Funke also has held leadership positions with the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, including stints as vice chair for
community redevelopment and vice chair of biosciences. “I think our chamber is a very strong economic development engine and can help provide growth in jobs in our community with the work that they do,” he said. “I think they can also help existing businesses here grow, provide benefits to them.” Funke’s passion for service isn’t lost on Bank of Oklahoma employees. “We have hundreds of employees on boards, in the community that volunteer and give back and do things,” Funke said. “I think it’s very important to give back to the community in different ways.” Despite Funke’s record of service, his main job remains banking. Funke has become more involved in lobbying and information efforts as federal policymakers consider major regulatory changes. “My activity has changed a little because I’m much more involved with the American Bankers Association and the Oklahoma Bankers Association to help legislators understand,” he said. “Three or four years ago I wouldn’t have been involved with at all.” Funke said his financial expertise is something he can offer to the various community causes he volunteers with. “I represent Bank of Oklahoma, so in some cases, I can utilize resources that the bank has or commit resources that the bank has to those agencies in the community that might otherwise not get committed,” he said. “I’ve been able to be in some reasonably high-profile positions because of my job with the bank, and I think because of that I can add some value.”
HAROLD HAMM | CEO OF CONTINENTAL RESOURCES INC.
Oil company will make move to foster growth FROM STAFF REPORTS
Enid oilman Harold Hamm is poised to become downtown Oklahoma City’s next energy mogul. Hamm called the recent decision to move Continental Resources Inc. from its longtime home in Enid bittersweet but acknowledged Oklahoma City is better equipped to help the company achieve its desired growth. Continental is about 12 months into a five-year plan to triple the size of the company, with officials indicating things are ahead of schedule so far. “That sounds like that’s a huge growth target. It’s really not,” Hamm said. “We typically have doubled the size of the company every five years.” That kind of growth is what is forcing Hamm to move his company into the downtown office tower being vacated by Devon Energy Corp. Such growth is a hallmark for Hamm, whose success has made him one of the state’s richest residents. “That’s all I’ve ever run is growth companies,” he said. “We started with less than nothing.” Hamm said he enjoys the challenge of making his business ventures successful. “Our whole culture is built around growth companies,” he said. “You have to find oil and gas to do that.” Hamm has said he views himself as something of a rebel for his dogged pur-
Enid oilman Harold Hamm
suit of oil, even when big companies moved their operations out of the United States and other independent producers switched their focus to natural gas. That “contrarian view” is paying off now, as Continental is poised to move into the same territory occupied by Oklahoma energy giants like Devon and Chesapeake Energy Corp.
‘Simple beginnings’ That is quite a leap for a company formed by Hamm in 1967 when he was only 22 years old. Hamm, who is the youngest of 12 children, moved to Enid when he was 16, leaving the family farm in Purcell to finish high school. Two years after graduation, the young entrepreneur went into business for himself, starting HammPhillips Service Co. with a
single service truck. “I borrowed money at the bank for the few things I needed to outfit it and start that business,” Hamm told The Oklahoman in 2008. “I had somebody co-sign a note for me. It was pretty simple beginnings.” Hamm took Continental public in June 2007, a move that made him a billionaire because of his majority stake in the company. The company’s stock initially sold for about $15 a share, but continued growth has pushed the price as high as $73.48 this year. Hamm, who also has a stake in several other Enid-based companies, is confident Continental is well-positioned to continue growing in the future. “We’re involved in some of the hottest plays in the U.S.,” he said recently.
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
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OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
17T
DEVELOPERS | BOB HOWARD, MICKEY CLAGG AND CHRIS FLEMING
Trio transforms MidTown neighborhood BY STEVE LACKMEYER Business Writer slackmeyer@opubco.com
Standing atop the Plaza Court Building in MidTown, Bob Howard and Mickey Clagg gaze at a neighborhood they’ve known for years — an area they’ve also dramatically transformed in a relatively short period of time. Howard, a veteran car dealer who sold most of his operations to a Texas company in the early 2000s, has worked with Clagg on redeveloping the MidTown area and other holdings for the past nine years. But the pair’s friendship goes back further to the days when the pair worked at the original Bob Moore Cadillac at NW 5 and Walker. “We’ve come a long way since the 1970s,” Howard jokes, “about five blocks.” The MidTown Howard and Clagg knew in the 1970s was a neighborhood in sharp decline when they quietly joined former partner Greg Banta in buying up landmarks like the Plaza Court and Osler buildings and flophouses like the old Cline Hotel and Hadden Hall. The city and county rushed in and promised street and infrastructure improvements to the area when its last anchor, St. Anthony Hospital, flirted with abandoning its historic home in 2003.
Pair begins a renaissance It was soon after that Howard and Clagg began investing in the neighborhood, turning longtime eyesores into trendy restaurants, shops and renovating flophouses into upscale apartments. Howard fondly recalls riding a bus as a child from Moore to see movies in downtown Oklahoma City, and those memories are driving their plans to establish MidTown as a truly mixed-use urban neighborhood filled with housing, offices, shops and restaurants. “Our vision in this is more a little town of its own like I saw it 50 years ago,” Howard said. “We started with the restaurants, then we add residential, then we add some offices. We want a mix. And we’re starting on the outside and hoping to have the inside fill up.” It’s Clagg who is most often seen representing their MidTown Renaissance efforts at public meetings. Clagg has immersed himself in the study of urban design, historic tax credits and the best approaches to redeveloping old neighborhoods. His library includes everything from a copy of Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” to copies of analysis of downtown by experts like walkability consultant Jeff Speck. “People are coming to MidTown for a different reason: it’s historic. There are a lot of cool restaurants you can walk to,” Clagg said. “And with Oklahoma City, we have an advantage in that downtown is in the middle — there are over 600,000 people within 1520 minutes of downtown. We have the third-shortest commute time in the country.”
The business of growing up The third partner in this venture, Chris Fleming, was on the fast track before joining Howard and Clagg in 2006. He had grown up working for Pleasant Pools, a successful family-owned business started by his father and uncle in 1978. “Growing up, business was dinner table discussion,” Fleming said. “At the age of 16, I was managing one of my family’s retail stores. Throughout high school and early college, I was highly involved in the family business, and this in-
volvement provided me with a broad base of practical skills that continue to serve me today.” Fleming graduated from the University of Oklahoma in two and a half years, and then followed up with an MBA in 2005. He had done stints in corporate finance with Devon Energy Corp. and Chesapeake Energy Corp. before joining up Howard and Clagg. “They were looking for someone, I was looking for something with a little more variety and different from what I was doing,” Fleming said. “We do a lot of things, including the MidTown development. I like the variety and challenge. One minute I’m wearing a hat
where I am dealing with architects and next I’m with hedge fund guys, and then maybe something after that where we’ve got another investment.” When historic tax credits were being threatened last year by legislators looking to save money, it was Fleming who worked behind the scenes to help preservationists convince lawmakers to turn a cancellation of the credits to a deferral. Fleming admits he is constantly learning from Howard and Clagg. “They continue to be great mentors,” Fleming said. “They’ve got stories and situations for everything we come across — if not exactly, then pretty close.”
From left, Mickey Clagg, Bob Howard and Chris Fleming stand on top of the Plaza Court Building with downtown Oklahoma City in the background. PHOTO BY DOUG HOKE, THE OKLAHOMAN
18T
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
THE OKLAHOMAN | NEWSOK.COM
CHIP FUDGE | COLLECTOR AND DEVELOPER
Collector works to get projects done right BY STEVE LACKMEYER Business Writer slackmeyer@opubco.com
Bringing life back to downtown’s Film Row may not be as lucrative as Chip Fudge’s daytime job. But for Fudge, it’s as much fun as his other hobbies — restoring old cars and international travel. In just a few short years, Fudge has led efforts to convert the section of Sheridan Avenue west of Walker into downtown’s newest creative district. An area once considered “skid row” is now home to architectural and design firms, media companies, IAO gallery and OK City Scape, the nonprofit that stages the annual Lego recreation of downtown every December. The area was for a few decades one of the country’s 35 film exchange dis-
tricts, where Hollywood studios hosted movie screenings for regional theaters. Fudge spent most of his life living in Oklahoma City’s historic inner-city neighborhoods, and that, combined with antique shopping sprees with his grandmother, have turned him into someone who doesn’t just collect old things but also does what he can to bring them back to life. His family ran a collection business — Credit Collections — which he still chairs, and in 1988 he started Claims Management Resources, which employs 125 people. The company last year handled $100 million in property damage claims. It was also in the late 1980s that he first began buying and renovating historic homes and du-
Chip Fudge in the Film Exchange Building
plexes. He later moved on to such landmarks as Kamp’s before his current project — Film Row, along the 700 block of W Sheridan Avenue. “My projects typically get done over budget, but
STEVE MASON | OWNER OF CARDINAL ENGINEERING, EARL’S RIB PALACE
it’s more important to me they be done right,” Fudge said. In addition to buying and redeveloping several of the historic buildings, Fudge also led efforts to add the area to the downtown business
improvement district so that a streetscape now wrapping up could include new landscaping. “The upstairs of the Film Exchange Building (700 W Sheridan) has to be my favorite project,” Fudge
said. “It was on the verge of falling down. To effectively bring it back from the brink, that has to be my most favorite. Financially it’s not my biggest achievement, but personally, I’m very happy it was done appropriately.” Fudge said he was influenced early in his life during visits to his grandparents’ historic homes. “For some reason, at an early age I could tell the difference between a cheaply built apartment and a well-built home from the 1920s or ’30s,” Fudge said. “To me it was the difference between real wood or real stone and fake wood or fake stone. In a perfect world, I would have been an architect instead of in the claims or collection business. I think I’m a frustrated architect, and that’s why I do this stuff on the side.”
JOHN BELT | PASEO DRIVE DEVELOPER
Attorney is bringing Paseo ‘back’ BY STEVE LACKMEYER Business Writer slackmeyer@opubco.com
Iguana Mexican Grill is seen in this file photo at 9 NW 9 Street in Oklahoma City. Below, a residence at 7 NW 9 Street, now home to Sara Sara Cupcakes, is seen next to the Iguana Grill in 2008. PHOTOS BY PAUL B. SOUTHERLAND, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVES
Developer works to save historic OKC properties BY STEVE LACKMEYER Business Writer slackmeyer@opubco.com
Steve Mason is a big believer in “spheres.” Historically, he notes, “spheres of influence” were cited in somewhat ominous tones when Cold War-era fears spurred talk of Communism enveloping Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. But Mason cites the “spheres of influence” concept as the reason for downtown Oklahoma City’s ongoing revival. If done alone, his work along the 1000 block of N Broadway along Automobile Alley might have resulted in little if any success. But when paired up with the work started 20 years ago by Nick Preftakes, Mark Ruffin, Chris Salyer, Meg Salyer and Rand Elliott, the area as a whole “clicks.” Mason expands those spheres of influence even further, adding in Bob Howard, Mickey Clagg and Chris Fleming’s work in MidTown; Ron Bradshaw, Anthony McDermid and Pat Garrett’s work in Deep Deuce; the legacy of the Brewer family in Bricktown, and so on. Mason’s own investment downtown started in 2006 with a century-old former Cadillac dealership at 1015 N Broadway that had frustrated previous owners’ attempts at redevelopment. Mason, owner of Cardinal Engineering and Earl’s Rib Palace, admitted at the time he was a suburban guy discovering the urban core. Mason never intended to go as far as he did with his renovation of the 1015 N Broadway building, noting his Realtor initially advised him he could do an easy “flip” of the early-day car dealership. “I bought the building for under a half-million dollars and thought it would be a good invest-
ment,” Mason said. “My Realtor said I could flip it in three months.” Instead, Mason discovered the building was dilapidated, despite stabilization efforts done a few years earlier with Murrah Building bombing recovery funds. Mason proceeded with a top-to-bottom renovation in which he had to tear up the building’s foundation while propping up the facade, and then worked with state preservation officials to restore the building in a way that would earn him tax credits — and ultimately placement on the historic register. It was during that restoration that Mason insisted on walking across the street and on to NW 9. The street was a disaster. An old brick garage was the only building that wasn’t overrun with brush and trees. And even it looked like a building best left to the fate of a bulldozer. The three old houses along the north side of the street looked like an oversight of either Urban Renewal from the 1970s or more recently the city’s neighborhood services department. By any standard, the houses were blighted and were dangerous to the public. “You’re going to tear them down, aren’t you?” Mason was asked. He paused. “No, I think I can do something with them.” And yet he didn’t know what. He had a vague idea
of setting up an overflow parking lot around the mechanic’s garage building for the Iguana Mexican Grill he was planning to reopen at 1007 N Broadway. Mason instead took a huge gamble and moved the restaurant to the garage (9 NW 9) and gave it a cool urban oasis vibe by adding a front bar area and an outdoor patio under the shade of some of downtown’s oldest trees. The restaurant was a hit, even with blighted houses next door. Mason took another gamble and renovated the house next door into the home of Sara Sara cupcakes (contractors advised him repeatedly to tear the homes down). Mason proceeded with renovation of the two remaining homes, which are now home to Shop Good and the Pachinko Parlor. With the glow of Rawhide’s new neon sign lighting up the 1000 block of N Broadway, Mason admits the job of drawing retailers and life to Automobile Alley is getting easier. Rawhide, meanwhile, is the seventh business opened downtown in the past three years as a result of Mason’s efforts to redevelop NW 9 and Broadway. “The seventh was easier than the first,” Mason said. “And the eighth, I think, will be easier than the second. It’s like a strip shopping center, and it’s filling up. The last bay is easier to fill than the first bay.”
As a metal sculptor who has shown his work at the Paseo Arts Festival for the past decade, Kenny McCage constantly wondered about the one large, plain-looking white building in the heart of the arts district. Once he even stepped inside the four-story building at 3010 Paseo Drive only to find it being used for storage. “I really thought the building would sit just the way it was,” said McCage, who also has sculptures on display at the nearby Contemporary Art Gallery. “It’s so big — it required the right person to come in and buy it to make something happen.” That person was John Belt, who has spent the past three decades redeveloping the majority of Paseo Drive and waited patiently for the chance to take on what was once the home of the Paseo Plunge and later the Spaghetti Factory. Belt, who bought the building in 2009, launched a renovation that added a tile roof matching those on surrounding buildings and a more colorful facade that included new window openings and the exposure of a long hidden deck. “The deck originally overlooked the (Paseo Plunge) swimming pool and it had a slide on it,” Belt said. “We’re just bringing it back.” Bringing Paseo back has been a passion for Belt
John Belt talks about his plans for the building at 3010 Paseo Drive in Oklahoma City in this file photo. PHOTO BY JOHN CLANTON, THE OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE
since 1976. Belt, an attorney, was dismayed to learn a favorite sandwich shop where he often ate lunch was about to be closed by a neighbor who planned to buy the building and use it for storage. In a quick cash upfront deal, Belt did the deal instead, and the restaurant stayed put. More deals followed. As Belt renovated one building after another in the funky former Spanish Village, artists opened up galleries and the neighborhood enjoyed a slow but steady rise from blight. Belt’s exterior renovation of the former Spaghetti Factory completes a decades-long redevelopment of Paseo Drive, though he has yet to finalize plans for what will occupy the strip’s largest single building. That long-lost patio deck has its own history, dating back to when it was once the popular Paseo Plunge. The plunge closed during the polio epidemic of
the 1950s. The pool was converted into cold storage for frozen pizzas in the 1960s. The structure was enclosed into a quirkily multi-leveled building that featured a narrow ramp for trucks to make pickups and deliveries. In later years the building was home to the Spaghetti Factory — a restaurant still remembered by Paseo visitors even though it closed almost 20 years ago. “There were a lot of young people who came to the Spaghetti Factory who are now adults,” Belt said. “And they had a lot of good memories there.” Belt urges inquisitive minds to share his patience for determining the building’s future, emphasizing he waited 30 years to add it to his Paseo holdings. “I’m having a lot of fun doing this and I’m enjoying the whole process,” Belt said. “I’m not in any hurry, though I do want this building contributing to this wonderful street.”
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OUTLOOK VISIONARIES | BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY
SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2011
19T
RAND ELLIOT | ARCHITECT
Classen Curve architect Rand Elliott stands recently at the complex in Oklahoma City.
PHOTO BY CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN
Designing a vision of OKC’s future FROM STAFF REPORTS
Rand Elliott’s architectural portfolio includes some of the city’s most visible landmarks, including the Chesapeake Energy Corp. campus at NW 63 and Western Avenue, nearby Classen Curve, Boathouse Row along the Oklahoma River and POPS in Arcadia. The ascent for the architect wasn’t quick or easy. He is quick to recall a time, more than 30 years ago, when he paired up with friend (and now a successful contractor) James Pickel to form Elliott + Associates and survived on tips Pickel earned on the side as a waiter. The men were fraternity brothers at Oklahoma State University. Elliott graduated and apprenticed at Lockwright Foster, HTB and Howard and Porch. Pickel, meanwhile, took a job with Dow Chemical.
‘A fabulous time’ Elliott has fond memories of his time at Howard and Porch, which in the 1970s was a premier firm in the city, based downtown. “It was a fabulous time to be downtown,” Elliott said. “At that time, on Friday there would be music playing on all the plazas at Fidelity, Kerr Park, and it was an important time for me to be introduced
ONLINE For more on the Classen Curve complex, go to NewsOK.com and search for “Classen Curve.”
to downtown.” But Elliott wanted to start his own firm, and Pickel was unhappy as a salesman. Pickel wasn’t an architect, but the business major proposed forming a firm with Elliott. The architect was free to spend his time on design, and Pickel would oversee the business. The men began working in 1976 from their duplex homes along NW 42 and Classen Boulevard. “We lived one block away from each other,” Elliott said. “We started from an absolute dead standstill. We had no money, no wealthy parents, no inheritances. We literally started with one phone number that rang at both places.” Pickel, now executive vice president of Smith and Pickel Construction, recalled Elliott even in those early days displayed a unique design style. “One of his first niches was doing graphic designs,” Pickel said. “He did stationery and logos.” Within six months of starting the firm,
money ran out. Pickel took jobs waiting tables at Steak and Ale and later the Grand Boulevard Restaurant (now Flips Wine Bar). For two years, Pickel divided the tips with Elliott to keep the firm alive. “We only grossed $5,000 that first year,” Pickel said. “It wasn’t enough to pay for supplies.”
1980s, Elliott + Associates was devastated by the mid-1980s oil bust. His firm shrank to four employees and spent the next decade rebuilding. “It was like starting over,” Elliott said. “I consider James to still be my closest friend.”
A taste of success
Elliott returned to downtown in 1995 after renovating the fire-gutted Heierding building at 35 N Harrison. The contractor for the job was Smith and Pickel Construction. Other notable projects in Elliott’s portfolio includes the transformation of the Conncourse into the Underground, renovation of City Hall, the corporate headquarters of Kirkpatrick Oil. Elliott calls his job “an old man’s profession,” in which one only gets better with time. “This profession is all about evolving; your experiences, growing in capabilities and being able to push,” Elliott said. “It’s about timing. I know people who start with family money, and there are advantages to that. For me, it has been a very slow process. And from that standpoint, the experiences are real. You learn by being on the front line, and it’s a very slow growth. And I don’t know I could have done it any other way.”
The client list improved over the years, with Elliott winning jobs designing home extensions. Elliott said key jobs were a commission to do a poster for Junior League, a rendering for Nichols Hills Plaza and a house addition for attorney Hugh Rice. “When you start from zero, it takes a very long time,” Elliott said. Elliott and Pickel opened their first formal office in the Hightower Building at Main Street and Hudson Avenue. They stayed downtown until an oil company took their space, forcing them into temporary offices along Classen Boulevard. While still in their Classen Boulevard office, the pair began to manufacture modular bank buildings. By the mid-1980s, the firm was up to 22 employees. After eight years, the partners split when Pickel departed to go into construction. Like many architecture firms in the
Better with time
DESIGNERS | JAMES WILLIAMS, HANS BUTZER AND DAVID WANZER
Designers get to the core of OKC urban development Many people are working to redesign the urban core of Oklahoma City. Here is a look at three: FROM STAFF REPORTS
James Williams Designer James Williams is no stranger to the JFK Neighborhood east of the Oklahoma Health Center. He watched as the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority cleared entire blocks of the area and solicited new housing construction in the 1970s and into the early 1980s. Then everything came to a halt with the oil bust in 1983. Williams is one of several developers who have restarted development of the neighborhood in recent years as Urban Renewal went with a new plan that called for a nicer mix of housing stock with a policy of allowing individual lot sales instead of massive development contracts. Over the past decade the JFK Neighborhood has revived, with dozens of new homes built by Williams and several other developers who saw a chance to rebuild a once thriving neighborhood.
Williams started housing development in JFK with a nod to the past he remembered — with an emphasis on porches facing the front yard and garages behind the home. “It had a real neighborhood feel; it had the feel of an extended family,” Williams said. “It had sidewalks; it had porches. You knew your neighbors. You could walk to the grocery store; you could walk to church. You could walk to your school. It was a very friendly community.”
Hans Butzer Hans Butzer may forever be best associated with one of downtown’s best known architectural triumphs — the Oklahoma City National Memorial. But in the near future millions of travelers along the new Interstate 40 south of downtown will pass under yet another addition to his portfolio — the Skydance Bridge. Butzer moved to Oklahoma City after winning first prize in the 1997 international competition to design a memorial for the fallen Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building. He is now a professor at the University of Oklahoma, and his design practice is located on Film Row on the west edge of downtown.
David Wanzer David Wanzer saw a blighted stretch along Sheridan Avenue west of the central business district and instead of being scared away by the area, which was also home to several homeless shelters, he marveled at the area’s Art Deco buildings. After doing research into the area’s history, the designer discovered most of the buildings were once associated with major Hollywood studios including RKO Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Paramount. After presenting that history to developer Chip Fudge, the pair embarked on a revival of the area that almost a decade later has been recast as the home to the IAO Gallery, Joey’s Pizzeria, and several design firms including Wanzer’s own 308 Design Collaborative.
James Williams
Hans Butzer
David Wanzer
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