City staff outline status of Improve Our Tulsa capital and parks projects; utility relocations causing long delays

City staff briefed the Budget and Special Projects Committee on April 2 on the status of capital and parks projects in the Improve Our Tulsa program, highlighting a $79.7 million renovation listed as IoT 3, upcoming construction for an expanded animal shelter and widespread delays caused by utility relocations.

Staff said Beck Design has been selected as the design firm for the $79,700,000 IoT 3 project (project number 28) and that the city has budgeted an initial $5,000,000 for early work and will solicit a construction manager at-risk in the next 30 to 60 days. Public Safety Center work is moving forward as well: a joint design team of Narrate and DLR Group was selected and a construction manager has been chosen, and staff reported the project is moving into conceptual design.

Parks items highlighted included an animal shelter expansion (project 10), for which bids opened in February and staff said a contract award and construction mobilization are expected in the next two to three weeks. Parks staff said Chamberlain Pool reconstruction is under way with an anticipated completion in early June 2025, and multiple playground replacements and rehabilitation projects are staged across the system (about 20 full replacements and roughly 20 smaller improvements). The zoo’s carnivore exhibit had a February pre-bid and staff said construction will begin soon; the new elephant encounter is wrapping up with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for April 7.

Gilcrease Museum work is largely complete on the building shell, staff reported, with the building roughly 93% built; the structure is slated for substantial completion around September 2025, exhibit installation continuing through late 2026 and a museum opening targeted for early 2027. The Greenwood Cultural Center is in schematic design with biweekly meetings, and staff described scope work including roof and sanitary-sewer replacement and general shoring.

Staff told the committee that the biggest implementation risk across the capital program is utility relocations. The presentation said the city currently has roughly 99 projects in various stages of utility relocation work, representing about $362 million in construction that is constrained by utility work; roughly 58 projects remain waiting to begin utility relocations, and some relocations have been delayed multiple years, with examples up to five to eight years for particular corridors. Staff said utility agencies — including ONG and other local providers — have added engineering capacity and that the city has created a seven-person utility-relocation team to coordinate with utilities and consultants, but that utility scheduling remains the principal bottleneck for getting many projects to construction.

Council members pressed staff for more detail on several items. Councilor Gilbert asked about development at the Crybaby Hill site (815 South Riverside Drive); staff said negotiations with a private developer are ongoing and that the Improve Our Tulsa funding language did not require a hotel specifically but rather allowed for improvements in the geographic area. Councilor questions also included requests for a district-level breakdown of projects, a clearer split of the $1,275,000 appropriated for municipal-court accessibility work (staff said roughly 90% of that work is exterior at the courts), and more details on the Public Safety Center maintenance facility budget and location. Several council members asked for quarterly updates and for staff to correct district labels in the packet (staff acknowledged the district mapping reflects the boundaries in place when the original votes occurred and said they will update the packet display).

Staff also said IoT 3 included about $94 million intended to help offset inflation-driven cost increases and that project teams have undertaken value engineering where needed. Staff noted several funding sources supporting parks projects beyond sales tax — including Route 66 funds and other grants — and warned that frozen or delayed federal grants (staff cited a national planting grant used by a local tree-planting partner) and tariff-driven increases in materials (steel, playground equipment) are introducing budget uncertainty. The presentation said the city is actively seeking additional private and grant funding to cover shortfalls where feasible.

Committee members asked for follow-up materials including: a consolidated packet that shows council-district impacts, a breakdown of municipal-court accessibility spending between the courts and the municipal core building, and quarterly status reports on projects with lines showing where utility work is pending. Staff said they would return with more consolidated, district-level reports and welcomed council feedback on packet format.