OSU-Tulsa Hoping Vision Plan Transforms Its Neighborhood

The Vision Tulsa tax package could bring some new big developments to the OSU-Tulsa campus.

“This needs to be thought of as part of downtown as well, in our opinion,” OSU-Tulsa President Howard Barnett said.

Barnett is excited about the possibility of expansion on campus.

“These kinds of facilities expand local businesses and can also be incubators for small businesses,” he said. “You know, this whole area is becoming kind of an entrepreneurial zone."

Barnett and his team of administrators have been working with the City of Tulsa on a plan to bring a technology innovation park and more development to the campus.

It's just one piece of the Vision Tulsa puzzle which will go before voters April 5.

“It builds on the investment Tulsa has already made on the Helmerich Research Center, so to us it's kind of a natural follow on a lot of respects."

The $3.6 million expansion would utilize land from the edge of the inner-dispersal loop all the way up to Emerson Elementary -- in between Martin Luther King Blvd and Boulder.

The technology center would help private businesses utilize the researchers at the Helmerich Center, while giving them the freedom to operate outside of the university setting.

The expansion would also bring commercial development like coffee shops, hotels and restaurants to the area, changing the dynamic of the Brady Heights neighborhood, the campus -- which is on the other side of Interstate 244 -- and even the IDL.

“We've got to look at this road like a road and not a big wall,” Barnett said.