OKC Council approves deal for Innovation Hall | The Journal Record

The location of the future Innovation Hall – one of the city’s MAPS 4 projects – is seen on this map of the Convergence development in near northeast Oklahoma City. (Courtesy of Oklahoma City)

OKLAHOMA CITY – Construction is set to begin this spring on a MAPS 4 project expected to create jobs and encourage more diversification of the local economy.

The Oklahoma City Council on Tuesday approved a master development agreement with the Oklahoma City Redevelopment Authority and BT Development LLC for the construction and development of the MAPS 4 Innovation Hall.

Activities at Innovation Hall could include learning academies like coding training for all ages; versatile space for meetings and events related to innovation and entrepreneurship; and pop-up spaces for entrepreneurs to showcase new ideas and build connections.

It will be part of the Convergence development – a joint venture of Robinson Park and Gardner Tanenbaum – in the heart of the Oklahoma City Innovation District. The 2.7-acre site lies between the University of Oklahoma Research Park and Oklahoma State University’s Hamm Institute for American Energy.

“It’s really connecting the universities together and providing a place where the universities will work together to provide new innovation and new job opportunities for all Oklahomans,” said Mark Beffort with Robinson Park.

The $177.5 million Convergence development includes more than $10 million for the construction of Innovation Hall.

The development also includes an office tower with 50,000 square feet of lab space and subterranean parking, a full-service hotel and a public space that includes the Beacon of Hope monument.

Cathy O’Connor with the Oklahoma City Redevelopment Authority said the agreement approved Tuesday spells out a way that $10 million in MAPS 4 funds can be provided to this project.

“Innovation Hall always was intended to be a private-public partnership constructed with $10 million from MAPS to match $10 million from non-MAPS sources, O’Connor said.

Mayor David Holt said the $10 million match was pushed by the council and the MAPS 4 development process.

“Our hope was to get $10 million obviously out of it and we’re getting a $180 million project, so I think that’s money well spent,” Holt said.

The developer’s $10 million will go for land cost, infrastructure, parking – 90 spaces in the parking garage will be dedicated to Innovation Hall – architectural and engineering services and more, O’Connor said.

The goal is to have the groundbreaking in April and the grand opening 24 months later in March 2024.

“This project will go under construction all at once – so the hotel, the office, the lab space, all the public realm improvements will all happen at the same time,” she said.

The city has approval of the conceptual design for Innovation Hall. The developer will construct, operate and maintain the facility and will convey the title for the surface of the land where hall is built to the Oklahoma City Redevelopment Authority.

“When we are talking about the operation of Innovation Hall we are talking about the physical building, not the operator who will provide the services and programming that the city will fund through MAPS 4,” O’Connor said.

That operator is being selected through a separate process that is already underway, she said.

“This is a big undertaking,” City Councilman David Greenwell said of the entire Convergence project. “It will be an important component of Oklahoma City for easily the next 50 if not the next 100 years. It’s really a big deal.”