Tulsa's northwest passage

You don't see many new subdivisions in North Tulsa. So when a new one started a few weeks ago, it caught our eye. News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg followed the compass north. <br/><br/>It's

Thursday, July 21st 2005, 12:08 pm

By: News On 6

You don't see many new subdivisions in North Tulsa. So when a new one started a few weeks ago, it caught our eye. News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg followed the compass north.

It's been a long time since anyone tried to build a large, new subdivision in north Tulsa. Developer David Charney says better late than never. â€œThere had not been a planned unit development, PUD, in the Osage, rolling hills area in 30 years from what we could tell."

Northwest Passage features 92 lots for upscale homes about a mile north of Gilcrease Museum. Charney says he of course did his homework, but the native Tulsan, who has developments in Owasso, Bixby, and Broken Arrow, says he just had a gut feeling that a north Tulsa development will work. "I think we had roughly four times as many visitors through these model homes on the Parade Homes as we did in our other homes in the supposedly hot suburbs."

There are sociological barriers; Tulsa still has some deep racial divides and geological ones. It's not easy to build on rocky, hilly land, but the tradeoff is some beautiful landscapes. One of the nice things about the lack of development out here is that you feel like you're in the country even though you're only 5 minutes from downtown Tulsa. â€œThe land is as aesthetically pleasing as any land in the Tulsa Metro area. So we were pleased to be able to develop these homes in an area that is both physically gorgeous and has not been previously served."

Charney says out-of-town developers are stunned to see such a large undeveloped area so close to downtown. He says it will take time to shift the momentum from the south. But if this works, he says you can be there will be more jumping on the bandwagon.

Charney says city officials often get criticized when it comes to development, so he wanted to point out they've been very helpful with his project.

The homes range in price from $140,000 to $240,000.