Tulsa Looks To Columbus For City Development Inspiration

The City of Tulsa could learn a thing or two from Columbus, Ohio.

That was the reason for a chamber of commerce trip there this week.

A lot of time for the group was spent looking over the "arena district" in Columbus, Ohio; it's something being planned for Tulsa.

The idea is to capture some extra business from the crowds coming to the BOK Center; by encouraging new hotels and restaurants close by.

“The focus is still thinking about downtown revitalization and city revitalization and how you connect core assets. We talked a lot about that; how they've linked the core, the core revitalization of the arena district and linked it to the river and so there's a lot of similarities between Tulsa and Columbus in that aspect,” said Tulsa Director of Economic Development Kian Kamas. 

The Tulsa Chamber took almost 100 people to Ohio, starting with a tour and photo at Ohio Stadium.

The group included chamber leaders and city leaders, Mayor G.T. Bynum and former mayor Dick Crawford among them.

“We're already thinking about how we take some of the lessons learned and figure out how to implement them, whether it's the next six months, the next year, the next five years,” said Kamas. 

The inter-city trip was for the Chamber of Commerce and was the 9th time they've taken a group to get ideas from other cities.    

They've looked at downtown development, river development; a lot of ideas picked up over the years and used in Tulsa.