Developer Mark Beffort and investor Christian Kanady say they own the land and have the money to create an ambitious $1 billion stadium district south of Lower Bricktown that will include housing, retail, hotels and entertainment.
Beffort, whose developments include Convergence, West Village and OKC 577 , said he expects the stadium, part of MAPS 4, and some of the adjoining commercial development will be open by time the 2028 Olympics canoe slalom competitions begin along the Oklahoma River.
“We firmly believe that with MAPS 4 putting a stadium there that we will have a large sophisticated outdoor venue that we can build around it, a first-class entertainment district with retail, housing, entertainment and hospitality,” Beffort said. “We want to create a very walkable community where traffic goes around the development.”
Kanady, the investor behind Prairie Surf Studios and Wheeler Bio, earlier this month bought a majority interest in the Energy FC soccer team. He also confirmed at that time he was stepping in to complete a land donation to the city as part of the proposed agreement to build the stadium on the former site of the Producers Cooperative Oil Mill .
Beffort, meanwhile, acquired the Tal Technologies property at 200 SE 3 at a recent sheriff’s auction. Beffort and Kanady have a purchase contract for a parcel just south of the Tal property that was home to the city’s first milling company and is owned by the descendants of the mill’s founder, 89er James Baxter Garrison.
The full expanse being pursued by Beffort and Kanady spans 50 acres between Interstate 40, Oklahoma City Boulevard, the Bricktown Canal and the BNSF Railway viaduct. Beffort and Kanady hope to acquire a former lumber yard at 101 SE 4 that is now a temporary parking lot owned by Fred Mazaherri and Champ Patel. Mazaherri and Patel originally purchased the former lumber yard with plans of building multiple hotels.
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The final property being pursued by Beffort and Kanady is The Silos Climbing, Yoga and Fitness at 200 SE 4, a redeveloped former grain elevator that is owned by an investor group once led by the late Mark Ruffin.
“We talked to all of them, and I don’t know where it will land,” Beffort said. “We are concentrating on the three sites we have now and our long-range plans around the stadium.”
David Todd, who oversees the MAPS 4 initiatives, said Wednesday the city already has hired an architectural firm, Populous, to design the stadium and that he hopes the stadium will go out for construction bids by fall of 2025.
Current plans call for a stadium that can seat between 8,000 and 10,000 people and can accommodate an array of concerts and sporting events in addition to hosting the Energy FC.
Beffort said parking will be kept at a minimum in the development with most spaces to be incorporated into mixed-use structures. He said he anticipates parking for the stadium largely will be provided at the 1,100-space Convention Center Garage just west of where the stadium will be built.
“When you look at access to the stadium, people will walk up to a mile to go to a sporting event,” Beffort said. “We don’t want to put a big parking garage in the middle of the development.”
Beffort said the development will consist of mid-rise buildings and a mix of attractions that will draw people to the district and the stadium throughout the year.
Beffort said he wants to develop an area that ties into the Bricktown Canal, which connects the property to Riversport OKC along the river, Bricktown, downtown, the new convention center and Scissortail Park.
“We don’t need another one-off district that plays by itself,” Beffort said. “It needs to connect with the core, the new arena and downtown. We need to look at whether we need to pull in the canal or do we bring the streetcar into our site. We want to be adjacent to all these elements, and we need to see what it would take to connect.”
The stadium district follows a string of joint ventures by Beffort and Kanady, including the Convergence development being built at Interstate 235 and Harrison Avenue that includes a hotel and offices that will be home to Kanady’s Wheeler Bio pharmaceutical production company.
“Mark and I have known each other for a decade,” Kanady said. “Our first project was at Convergence, and we’ve had other projects that went well. He's an investor in Prairie Surf and Wheeler Bio and I’m an investor in Convergence.”
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Energy FC to restart operations?
Kanady said preparations are underway to restart Energy FC operations, which were suspended for the 2022 season due to renovations at Taft Stadium and a determination by the league that the field was not adequate for tournament games.
Kanady bought majority interest in the team on July 17 from Bob Funk Jr., Tim McLaughlin and Donna Clark. Kanady said the three will remain involved in running the team despite their reduced ownership.
The multi-use stadium for the team was approved by voters as part of MAPS 4. The Oklahoma City Council in January unanimously approved using economic development funds that increases the budget for the MAPS 4 multipurpose stadium from $41 million to $71 million in response to rising construction cost estimates.
Funk and McLaughlin started the Energy FC in 2013. The team is part of the USL Championship, second division of the United Soccer League. Beffort said he and Kanady are donating nine acres, more than the minimum required for the stadium, to allow for expansion should the city become a MLS market at a future date.
Beffort also said Wednesday that unlike a majority of developments announced in recent years, the stadium district is being launched with property ownership already secured and funding in place.
Just weeks before buying the team, Echo, a company led by Kanady, sold less than half of its minerals affiliate for a price reported at more than $500 million to Sixth Street Partners, a global investment firm based in San Francisco.
“This is going to happen,” Beffort said.
Fred Mendoza, founder and chairman of the Oklahoma Hispanic Institute, predicted the relaunch of the team and construction of the stadium and surrounding development will be a hit with his community, which accounts for 20% of the city’s population.
“What's going on here today and with the future of soccer, and with the Hispanic population, this is a grand slam for Oklahoma City,” Mendoza said. “A large part of your ticket buyers will be Hispanic. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics in the state and regionally will be spending a lot of money here.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: A $1 billion stadium district may be coming to Lower Bricktown
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