(rshsdepot) Oklahoma City, OK

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Journal Record.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Train station set for retail  
November 20, 2007  
OKLAHOMA CITY – In 1998 Bricktown developer Jim Brewer purchased the old  
Santa Fe Railway Station in downtown Oklahoma City. At the time, passenger rail  
service had not come to the city in nearly two decades, and the station itself 
 was neglected and dilapidated.  
Built in 1934, the 20,685-square-foot, art deco-style station maintained a  
stop for different rail routes, including a Chicago-to-Houston Amtrak line. 
Then  passenger service discontinued in the city in 1979.The station fell dark 
and was  largely ignored until Brewer purchased the building from the railroad 
for  $374,667 after nearly seven years of negotiations.  
“It took a long time to get and a long time to renovate it,” Brewer said. “I 
 felt like it was something I wanted to keep a part of downtown, and I wanted 
to  control it; I didn’t want someone else getting it.”  
After a $3.1 million renovation in recent years, the station’s south end is  
now being fitted for retail space.  
The Heartland Flyer Brewer said the money for the initial renovation came  
when Oklahoma Department of Transportation officials came to him in the late  
1990s and wanted to know if they could use the station to service an Amtrak  
passenger line. That line came in the form of the Heartland Flyer, which since  
1999 has departed Oklahoma City daily for Fort Worth, Texas, with return trips  
in the evening.  
“I said yes, you can use it if you can come up with some money,” Brewer 
said.  
The money came from ODOT through the city of Oklahoma City, which in turn  
paid Brewer to complete renovations and do some necessary upgrades. Brewer said  
nearly $2 million of the money was spent solely on making the station 
compliant  with the Americans with Disabilities Act, installing an elevator and 
rebuilding  the overhead on the platform.  
Other repairs included duplicating some of the rotted art-deco molding,  
redoing the floors and walls and replacing two 40-foot-high lights that  
disappeared sometime after the station closed in the 1970s.  
Downtown OKC Inc. President Brett Hamm, who worked for former U.S. Sen. Don  
Nickles when passenger train service returned to Oklahoma City, applauded the  
public-private partnership for the renovation of the Santa Fe Station and for 
 returning rail service to the city.  
“Projects such as this require a public-private partnership for success,”  
Hamm said. “The Heartland Flyer and the station is another example of that.”  
Retail ready With the initial renovations complete, Brewer submitted plans to 
 the city in November 2005 – then a revised version in 2006 – to remodel the 
 south end of the station for retail. The main part of the station is rented 
out  for private parties and receptions.The plans, drawn by Rick Brown &  
Associates, call for the renovation of four docks into retail suites, one with  
689 square feet, one with 794 square feet, one with 842 square feet and the  
largest with 1,280 square feet.  
Brewer is overseeing the renovation of the spaces and said they will be  
completed and available in the near future. The costs submitted to the city for  
renovating the spaces ranged between $30,000 and $40,000 each. Brewer said 
those  renovations will likely be more costly in the end.Leasing has not begun on 
the  spaces but Brewer said there is interest from a car rental company and 
from food  and clothing retailers.  
“It’s getting pretty close to ready,” Brewer said.  
The station was zoned in the Bricktown Core from 1993 to May 1, 2007, when it 
 was rezoned as a part of downtown. But many still consider the station the  
gateway to Bricktown.  
Jim Cowan, executive director of the Bricktown Association, said he welcomes  
the station’s potential to be both an area of retail leading into Bricktown 
as  well as an important train stop for future extended passenger service.  
“The potential for that as being a gateway to the rest of the country from a  
transportation standpoint is enormous,” Cowan said. “A lot of people might 
be  skeptical, but they might be the same ones who said MAPS would never pass.” 
 
Future plans Brewer said when the retail space is done he has additional  
plans for the station, and is ready for the call that Oklahoma City will host  
more passenger lines requiring a manned station similar to the station in Fort  
Worth.  
“We’re ready at any time they hook this up to other lines,” he said.  
For the time being, Brewer is tight-lipped about future plans for the  
station, but promises something great when all is said and done.“It will be the  
shining, bright light right there,” he said. “It will be the highlight of  
Oklahoma City.” 



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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1634
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org