Chesapeake Energy, one of the nation's largest oil and natural gas corporations and headquartered at NW 63rd and Western in Nichols Hills, OK (which is the most affluent part of the OKC metro), has recently been buying EVERY bit of real estate within a square mile of them. A lot of it they have bulldozed already. A lot of it they say they are just landscaping and improving, and may develop later, they are actually rumored to be working out plans with city council people to do a mixed-use urban village development similar to what Google and Verizon have done.

So far the only thing they are actually moving on is their corporate campus. Currently they have 600,000 square feet, 300,000 planned in expansions they are doing as I type. The expansion buildings that they are building are in gray. That, and they have some land they've emptied that they are planning to build about 100 residential units on with some retail. Either that's it, or that's "the start." That thing in the back of that rendering is a parking garage that has a very contemporary design.

http://mysite.verizon.net/res17zef/ches5a.jpg

1 million square feet is more than enough for a 50 story tower, but they opted instead for a "collegiate-style campus that blends with NW OKC."

Anything radically big, or anything that would attract a very young crowd, would be frowned upon by a lot of people in Nichols Hills which is where only the wealthiest live for the most part. Something like this in the heart of OKC's elite community could also radically change the entire metro.

Something like the Chesapeake campus could radically change the OKC metro?

The Chesapeake campus has been affecting the city for several years already... There are people who avidly watch the highly inflated real estate transactions around the campus waiting to see Chesapeake's next move, or protest it, or whatever.

Downtown would have been a great place for Chesapeake and its hordes of young professionals- I think Tom Ward realizes that now, and that's why he positioned his new company, Sandridge, in KMG Tower. And if Ward realizes it, Mclendon realizes it too, so I'm sure we'll begin to see mixed use and residential components of the Chesapeake "Village" at some point so that they can make this more trendy and acceptable for the young professional crowd- as if Western Avenue wasn't trendy enough.

Something like the Chesapeake campus could radically change the OKC metro?

No. Something like the Village at Quail Springs in the middle of the metro could. "Chesapeake Village" would be slightly different from Chesapeake's corporate campus.

Downtown would have been a great place for Chesapeake and its hordes of young professionals- I think Tom Ward realizes that now, and that's why he positioned his new company, Sandridge, in KMG Tower. And if Ward realizes it, Mclendon realizes it too, so I'm sure we'll begin to see mixed use and residential components of the Chesapeake "Village" at some point so that they can make this more trendy and acceptable for the young professional crowd- as if Western Avenue wasn't trendy enough.

I don't believe McClendon has any regrets about Nichols Hills, and yeah Western Avenue is plenty trendy, it just won't be easy getting a new urbanist development passed in such a staunch old urbanist community... and it might not be where Nichols Hills Plaza currently is, actually Chesapeake owns almost all of the land, from what I hear, between Western and Santa Fe, so yeah we could be talking the scope and size of the Village as Quail Springs, which if it were located between Western and Santa Fe along 63rd, that could definitely change things up a bit.

Very cool. Nice development. :yes:

I'm really anxious on what this could be. They really need to announce the details. Does anyone know what is going on a Grand & Classen? People have said that something big is supposed to happen there?

Umm... Grand Blvd and Classen? I know that on Grand there's a large office park with a bunch of little 4-5-6 story buildings going up, I believe Chesapeake is actually leasing some temp space in there as well..and further down on Classen they just finished the relocation of the Original Pearl's, which is actually really big. That's also Chesapeake-related. Another restaurant that got bought out by Chesapeake, that Mexican restaurant, is supposed to open this year at 50th and Classen, the thing that's been u/c forever and it has that metallic blue dome on top of it.

On Classen behind the Belle Isle Station shopping center there's a country club-style office park going up. I say country club-style instead of residential-style because these buildings look more like the McMansion variety of houses, but they still look very residential, in fact I believe some of them even have mail boxes unless I'm mistaken--I hope I am.

That's all I'm privy too.

edit: I also believe that Chesapeake has submitted a PUD for a site on the west side of Grand between 63rd and Western Ave where they're going to relocate a funeral home at a different location that they recently bought out.

I'm not sure how much longer that we will have to wait for Chesapeake to make a full disclosure, but there is no doubt whatsoever that there is a very major thing in the works after you piece together the latest events: Chesapeake hasn't just been buying up properties, but they've been buying up other properties just to relocate businesses on the properties that they bought up in the first place, it's almost as if they're just looking at their part of Nichols Hills and going, "No we think everything should have been built like this in the first place," and just going about it as simply as if this were Sim City, because they clearly have the money to do that. Then you have to address the properties that they bought up in the first place--we know that some of those were for their already-active corporate expansion plans which we know the full extent of, but everything that they knew they wouldn't be able to convince people "we're just holding it for future office expansion projects" they came out and said, "we may do something with it, we don't know, we just want to improve in general the properties around our corporate campus." Which, they have definitely done (if you've noticed all of the new landscaping on those properties). But the real kicker is that we know that Chesapeake has been working very quietly with officials from Nichols Hills, obviously in preliminary planning for something very big, and anyone that lives within a block of Nichols Hills Plaza is afraid for their property. But if it's true that Chesapeake owns so much land east of Western, then it might not end up being Nichols Hills Plaza that is in their plans.

Not that they don't have plans for the Plaza, from what I've heard they want to add a second level to the north half of it, similarly to the south half of it, and redo the facades a little here and there but nothing major, really. Then there's also the medium-sized mixed-use project on 59th that they have come out and released information about, mainly because that information became publicly accessible once they applied for the permit to do so. I think that it's obvious that we're talking about something much larger than this considering that nearly every commercially-zoned property within a half mile of 63rd and Western.

Very strange. Are those little house-looking buildings going to be just offices?

Good idea... It'll be interesting.

they have a big building they just started on, on the east side of the 63rd and classen intersection.... is this another parking garage?

There is a large retail project that Chesapeake is behind called the Classen Curve right in the area... It's hard to tell which construction project is which around Chesapeake.

Anything new?

No new renderings but I've heard that they've started demolishing more properties catecornered (sp?) from Chesapeake's HQ for their new mixed-use lifestyle center. No renderings for it yet. It's still got a ton of opposition.

the parking garage is beggining to go up and another 3 buildings on the main campus and one across the street next to the garage. the buildings demolished were next to the cemitary, and the classen curve is going up now too

Classen Curve = Whole Foods. Wooot!

Boo! They should build a tall tower in Downtown OKC!

Very strange. Are those little house-looking buildings going to be just offices?

^^What houses do you know of are 5-6 stories tall and as long as a football field?:ohno:LOL

some more renderings.

http://www.e-a-a.com/Images/ideas/chspk_bld_13/big13_bldg11.gif
http://www.e-a-a.com/Images/ideas-tn/chk-12large.jpg
http://www.e-a-a.com/Images/ideas-tn/3_bigbldg1.gif
http://www.e-a-a.com/Images/ideas/chspk_bld_13/big13_bldg30.gif
http://www.e-a-a.com/Images/ideas-tn/7_big-bldg1.gif
http://www.e-a-a.com/big_pgs/commerc_a/bigChesPG-J2.html
http://www.e-a-a.com/Images/ideas/flame/flame_ext_2.jpg


some various masterplans that have been leaked:
http://www.pc78.com/images/okctalk/chkcampusb2.jpg
http://www.pc78.com/images/okctalk/chkcampus3.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/res17zef/ches1.jpg

as for whole foods, i am more excited about the possibility, based on whole foods-like rumors, that trader joe's may also come to okc now.

Construction well underway:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BH6Ad9lny5Y/T9uHmh7T4iI/AAAAAAAAGe8/4ZC895_8AwQ/s1600/more+offices.png
http://soberlook.com/2012/06/welcome-to-chesapeake-headquarters.html

6/15/2012