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7/11/2006, 01:04 PM

University of Tulsa: Spreading Out: City helps with new entrance

By APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
7/10/2006

This summer, progress comes in the form of heaps of concrete, bricks and dirt being hauled off what is now University of Tulsa property.

Starship Records and Tapes has a new location three-quarters of a mile away from its original home, once Hurricane-blue and yellow but now merely a memory atop vacant land.

Farther back on TU property, construction workers shovel and level gooey black asphalt onto the north end of an oval drive that will become the university's front entrance.

More workers in hard hats clear the broken wallboard and bricks of old buildings and erect metal framing for a new student services center.

TU is on schedule to complete its front entrance by fall 2008 or sooner and to complete the Collins Student Services Building, Case Athletic Complex and student apartments by fall 2007, said Kevan Buck, vice president for business and finance.

Tulsa Development Authority has acquired five properties along 11th Street for TU's project, said Pat Treadway, a manager with the city's urban development division. A sixth property, an apartment building, has been condemned, and the owners have filed a motion for a new trial. The trial could change the fair market value amount -- $255,000 -- awarded by assessors, TDA officials said.

The owner of the long-vacant JR's Bar & Grill also has sued to try to get more money, said TDA attorney Darven Brown. TDA paid $165,000 for JR's, $800,000 for Metro Diner, $304,000 for the acquisition and relocation of Carter's Drive-In Cleaners, $502,500 for the acquisition and relocation of Charles Pest Control and $63,750 for a house, TDA reported.

Metro Diner has about two months to move out of its building, Brown said. Employees in the restaurant with the roof trimmed in faded aqua said they did not know about plans for the diner, but they pointed out that it is still open and serving food. The sign outside read, "Come in for our best chicken fry" on Friday.

TU's master plan is tied into the Kendall-Whittier urban renewal district and the city's master plan, Brown said. That gives TU's plans priority over the surrounding businesses. In that arrangement, TU has agreed to develop surrounding land. Buck said a front entrance was part of the university's 1984 master plan.

TU negotiated its own deal with Starship about a year ago, Buck said. The two sides first discussed a buyout about six years ago and started talking again several years ago.

TU also is working on an agreement with Wendy's, 3019 E. 11th St., which could be reached in about three months, Buck estimated.

"They've been real supportive, and they understand the growth," he said. Wendy's might relocate a few blocks east to 11th Street and Harvard Avenue.

The idea of TU's front entrance is to attract top students, Buck said. TU has to compete with Southern Methodist University and other colleges that have grand entrances that could seduce the same potential students. The new entrance will provide students with part of "a true private-college experience," he said.

Plus, it will make giving directions to campus much easier, he said.
For now, TU is in demolition mode, tearing down old apartment buildings to make way for new. It is a slow transformation, with old foundation slabs being crushed and carried away, dirt being smoothed over, and the shaggy weeds inching taller along abandoned buildings being erased in favor of willowy trees, anchored in fresh soil and tethered to the ground.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory.asp?ID=060710_Ne_A13_Cityh56010