Dowell Center—Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Vertical Brownfield Redevelopment—A New Lease on Life

The City of Oklahoma City's dogged pursuit of its ambitious Metropolitan Area
Project (MAPS) masterplan for downtown redevelopment has inspired a host of
innovative projects that have transformed the city. One of these, the Dowell
Center, a 20-story building located in the City's Central Business District, has
been a beneficiary of this massive revitalization effort.

The Dowell Center building had stood vacant since the early 1990's. A declining
urban core and asbestos issues had made this site unattractive and too risky for
potential redevelopers. However, as Oklahoma City's multi-faceted masterplan
leveraged investment in its downtown
area, the Center became a jewel be-
cause of its location and potential for
reuse.

Oklahoma City provided a loan to the
Dowell Center from its EPA Brown-
fields Cleanup Revolving Loan Fund
Grant—one of the resources within its
arsenal of capital improvement fund-
ing. This $955,976 loan, granted in
March 2007 and currently the largest
in EPA Region 6, was for the asbestos
cleanup in compliance with the Okla-
homa Department of Labor's stan-
dards. Cleanup is expected to be
completed by the end of 2007.

Current plans for the Dowell Center
redevelopment focus on leasable of-
fice space marketed primarily to small
and startup businesses with some re-
tail encouraged at ground and under-
ground levels. Renovation will be
completed in stages, opening up ap-
proximately 30,000 square feet (3
floors) per year with completion ex-
pected by 2015.

A major component of Oklahoma City's revitalization has been MAPS' impetus on
projects such as the Bricktown Ballpark, Myriad Convention Center renovation,
state fairground improvements, Bricktown Canal, Library/Learning Center, trol-
leys, Civic Center Music Hall renovation, North Canadian River improvements,
and the Ford Center which have leveraged to date over $2.5 billion in invest-
ments. Projections indicate that another $1.5 billion in new downtown develop-
ment is coming. MAPS successes have also served as a model for the creation of
the "MAPS for Kids" program to energize the city school system. Additional fall-
out is a housing boom in the downtown area. Thirteen housing developments
with a total exceeding 1,200 units are under construction, and a need for nearly
13,000 units by 2010 is projected.

Dowell Center, 250 N. Robinson Avenue,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

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