Monday, May 7, 2007
Taking It To The Streets
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Tulsa on the Right Track?
Have the years of Tulsa's reputation as a difficult and unfriendly city for builders and developers come to an end? Perhaps a change is in the air. Don Himelfarb, Tulsa's first Director of Economic and Real Estate Development, speaks frankly about the changes needed for the City of Tulsa to progress in the areas of economy and development. On May 3rd, The City presented "Developing Tulsa," a program geared towards building better relationships with the building and development community. Presentations included the state of Tulsa's development, Tulsa's first revision to the Strategic Plan in over 25 years, Historic Preservation zoning and The National Registry of Historic Places, infill building, and perhaps the most important of all, a new permitting process touted to make permitting a streamlined and friendly procedure for builders and developers. Talk is cheap but if the organization and intentions of the City of Tulsa are as genuine as what was presented in today's meeting, Tulsa's reputation will be changing soon and the citizens of Tulsa will enjoy the results of a prosperous and organized city.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Tulsa’s Luxury Presented to Worldwide Audience
Tulsa will be represented at the Spring Conference for Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate in Key Biscayne Florida. Tulsa’s representative for the organization, Darryl Baskin of McGraw Realtors says the event will draw two hundred of the world’s most esteemed real estate brokers for business development and networking. Luxuryrealestate.com is the world’s leading web site for luxury properties and is the web portal for the Who’s Who group.
“Representing Tulsa in a distinguished group like this is a real honor” Baskin says. “Not only do we have a cultured city worthy of attention, our prices for comparable luxury make people look twice at what we have to offer.” Baskin notes his last conference in Chicago was an opportunity to discuss the merits Tulsa has for business opportunities and investment. “Most luxury home buyers have a strong business interest. This means appealing to the luxury buyer as a viable location for a home can have ancillary benefits such as business relocation. It is common to have the opportunity to present a scenario to prospects that operating a business in Tulsa at a lower operating costs and owning a luxury home in Tulsa still affords the opportunity to own other luxury properties for second homes and vacations in other parts of the world because our housing costs are so reasonable.”
This is no new idea. Baskin notes that while selling the Skelly Mansion some years ago and studying the history of the home, he was impressed by the persistence of Mr. Skelly to show Tulsa’s attractiveness to the world. Mr. Skelly traveled the world as a delegate for the city often not in any official capacity. He even added onto his home in order to bring large groups to town and entertain them. He understood the importance of his guests leaving to say good things about Tulsa.