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Vision 2025 Funding Recipients Announced

Mayor Bill LaFortune today announced recipients of $10 million in Vision 2025 funding for downtown housing.

The City of Tulsa’s Vision 2025 Oversight Committee received the recommendations from the Downtown Vision 2025 Housing Fund Committee and approved the four projects today in a meeting with Mayor LaFortune.

LaFortune said, “These four projects were unanimously selected from a total of 10 excellent development proposals. Tulsa is coming back and coming back strong. We see so many public and private revitalization efforts underway, and wonderful plans for downtown. We appreciate the work and vision of all of the applicants.”

The Vision 2025 funds of $10 million is expected to create approximately 166 residential units and upwards of $36.8 million in total investment.

The projects selected are:

TransOK Loft Apartments, owned by Navajo Properties LLC, 2 West 6th Street
The Mayo Lofts (hotel), Mayo LLC, 115 West 5th Street
The Mayo Building, Mayo Redevelopment LP, 424 S. Main
The 1st Street Lofts, Blue Dome Properties, 310 E. 1st Street

The request for proposals (RFP) was released on August 9, 2005 and the 10 submissions, requesting  a total of more than $30 million, were received by December 7, 2005. The Downtown Housing Fund Committee, which makes recommendations to the Oversight Committee, held nine meetings to evaluate the proposals. One meeting included a field trip to view each of the buildings proposed for adaptive reuse, as well as to view the sites of proposed new housing construction. The Committee interviewed each applicant and received a professional financial evaluation conducted by an outside consultant. The committee evaluated all 10 proposals based upon a numeric value established by the criteria in the RFP. The criteria included: urban quality of project; feasibility; public/private ratios; experience; number of units.

Kim MacLeod 918-596-7806