The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City is looking forward to several highly impactful projects that will kick off in 2022.

The Brockway and Lyons properties will start a planning and reuse study, funded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Both properties were added to the National Register for Historic Places, ensuring that we preserve two of only a few historically significant African American landmarks still standing in Oklahoma City’s urban core and embrace the history of our people and places.

Currently, the properties are in such disrepair, the Alliance is adding signs to the property to alert those passing by that the state of disrepair is temporary. We’ve hired Open Design Collective to provide extensive community engagement to understand what both properties mean to northeast Oklahoma City and to our city as a whole and create a vision for reuse and redevelopment. Public meetings for Brockway and Lyons will begin next month and will dovetail with the planning process being kicked off for South of 8th. We look forward to the results and how these studies will inform each other and create a larger vision to continue their legacies as community gathering places and preserve part of Oklahoma City’s Black history.

The C-PACE program will fund its first project, the 301. The developers at Pivot Project will use the C-Pace financing as they convert a former auto dealership at 301 NW 13th into offices and a fabrication shop for Gardner Architects, a bakery and cafe. The new C-Pace clean energy financing program, approved by the Oklahoma County commissioners in November 2021, connects developers and private landowners with low-cost, long-term funding for energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, water conservation and building resiliency projects.

Late spring, construction will begin on Boulevard Place, the eight-story, mixed-use development across from Omni Hotel along the corner of Oklahoma City Boulevard and Shields Boulevard. This development will include 265 residential units, a 5,000-square-foot restaurant, outdoor kitchens and courtyard with pool. The project is scheduled for completion in 2024.

2022 will be a busy year. These and other development projects will continue to move our city forward and provide opportunities to reuse and redevelop spaces in ways that improve our community and add to our quality of life.

Cathy O’Connor is the president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City.

This story originally ran on the JournalRecord.com.