No condemnation yet for two downtown Tulsa properties

Two properties stand in the way of the city of Tulsaâ€™s Vision 2025 plan's for a new downtown arena. <br/><br/>The city council Thursday night decided to hold off for a couple of weeks before deciding

Friday, August 6th 2004, 11:01 am

By: News On 6

Two properties stand in the way of the city of Tulsaâ€™s Vision 2025 plan's for a new downtown arena.

The city council Thursday night decided to hold off for a couple of weeks before deciding whether to condemn the properties.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says the two properties have rejected the city's offers. They don't think they're getting a fair price. The Denver Grill is the more visible and the better known of the two. The other is a warehouse.

The city is offering the Grill owner, Peggy Jones, about twice its assessed value. But some on the council have pointed out that's quite a bit less than what some of the other properties in the area got. Somewhere, city officials have to find a balance.

Tulsa City Councilor Chris Medlock: "In this case, I don't think Ms. Jones has been unreasonable and hasn't gotten to the point of being unreasonable. And until she has, I don't think we pull the trigger on condemnation."

Tulsa Public Works director Mike Buchert: "We don't want to give them substantially higher than fair value, because then we're using tax dollars in an improper way."