Oklahoma City Council Members Give Green Light To Near $180 Million Development

Oklahoma City council members signed off on a major development for the Innovation District. It includes private investment to help expand the MAPS 4 project.

Stiles Circle Park was already set to be the new home to the $10 million MAPS 4 project, Innovation Hall. The city hoped a private investor would build close by and the project would have a similar cost, but a private sector responded with an even larger investment.

"Ultimately we're getting $180 million development that's utilizing this so the return far exceeded our expectations and it's come much faster than we would have expected," said OKC's Mayor, David Holt.

The Innovation District's latest project, Innovation Hall, will be a hub to meet, spark new ideas and businesses. Crews planned to break ground on the MAPS 4 funded project in the months ahead, and now it's grown. Tuesday, council members approved the multi-million dollar privately-funded development called "Convergence."

"This project has office space, it's got a hotel, it's got some public spaces and now obviously it has the Innovation Hall," explained Mayor Holt.  

The Mayor tweeted renderings of what the finished Convergence project will look like, at the center of all the buildings is the Stiles Circle Park, Beacon of Hope. Mayor Holt said the idea is to create a space in the city for bright minds to come together.

"It's supposed to be really a convergence of all the things that we hope to see in the Innovation District. This is supposed to be a place where the city is on the cutting edge of the economy." 

Mayor Holt continued, "We've find that when we look at these types of districts around the country, that atoms colliding just lead to good things. If you have more of these startups and businesses in the same physical location, the sum is greater than its parts."

The partnership between the city and private investors can already be seen across Oklahoma City.

"We build a canal in Bricktown people build restaurants, hotels, and movie theaters all around it so that's what we're kind of seeing here already with MAPS 4," says Mayor Holt.

The Convergence development is expected to be finished in 2024.