The Cloud Puncher statue that joins Heartwood Park to Lively Hotel by means of a massive metal rope lassoing a cloud is designed to be a metaphor of Oklahoma’s relationship to the weather, something made clear in OAK’s messaging. While the statue is immediately one of the most interesting and dramatic pieces of public art in Oklahoma City, it also functions as a metaphor in a couple other ways: It’s a symbol of trying to wrangle success in food and beverage at a time when everything is hard for restaurants and hotels and of trying to capture opportunities at this point in OKC’s growth.
It’s impossible to view the statue, created by Dallas sculptors Brad Oldham and Christy Coltrin, and not see the symbolism — intentional or not — of trying to keep Lively Hotel and Cloud Puncher restaurant tied to the ground. The cloud in the installation is located on the terrace of Cloud Puncher on the second floor, the same floor where the hotel’s jump lobby is located. (A jump lobby is a lobby with check-in service not located on the main entrance floor.) If the second floor with its ballroom, restaurant, pool, terrace and front desk is the heart of this Hilton Tapestry concept, the hotel itself is the front door, so to speak, of OAK — at least for now.
Twenty-acre OAK at N. Pennsylvania Avenue and Northwest Expressway is the brainchild of master developer Ryan McNeill, founder and owner of Veritas Development. OAK includes Lively Hotel (132 rooms with 12 suites) and Residences at OAK (320 units for rent), and McNeill said the Phase I portion of development includes roughly 40 separate tracts. Included in those tracts are Arhaus, The Capital Grille, Tommy Bahama, Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn, as well as Lively Hotel with the Cloud Puncher restaurant.
“We haven’t really published a number, but Phase I represents more than $200 million in capital improvements,” McNeill said. “There will be 135,000 square feet of retail, including some local brands like [The] Oil Tree. I’ve personally engaged with potential local tenants for three years because local is important to me.”
Planned community
The primary draws for OAK are not likely to be local, though, given that much of the initial marketing was centered on premium national and international brands like The Capital Grille, Arhaus and RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) Studio currently under construction and due summer 2025. Still, McNeill is committed to a process that includes placemaking, a term that has transcended buzzword status to become a real process of improving public spaces, similar to what OKC has seen with the Wheeler District and the Innovation District.
As McNeill said on a recent episode of the Where We Buy podcast, “[People] are after community and communion and relationships. And you have to be able to establish then what the people really want to come and enjoy, which is the placemaking element.”
It’s too cynical to call placemaking developments “artificial” or “manufactured,” even as both are partially true. However, a planned community done well becomes a real community, a place where people live, gather, play, eat, work and thrive. OAK hopes to be exactly that, especially after the Residences open in early 2025.
“We have an amazing dynamic already,” Matt Cowden, general manager of Lively Hotel, said. “That dynamic exists because of OAK and the Hilton Tapestry brand. We expect to cater to our Hilton Honors guests, but we also expect our OAK partners to attract guests who are here to shop, eat and eventually live. We complement each other very well, and we, like other brands in OAK, offer an elevated experience both as a hotel and in our ability to create the atmosphere of a standalone restaurant.”
Cowden knows what’s required to create the ambience of a standalone restaurant inside a hotel, as he was GM at both 21C and Ellison hotels. To become a neighborhood restaurant requires establishing an identity apart from the hotel, as Mary Eddy’s did at 21C and Milo did at The Ellison. Cloud Puncher has done its part to add local to OAK, hiring some of the metro’s best chefs: Nathan Frejo, Chris McKenna and Bryan Wilson.
While the food and beverage program at Lively is excellent, the main draw for diners is likely to be Cloud Puncher’s neighbor, The Capital Grille. Managing Partner Brian Schwartztrauber had the same title at the Scottsdale, Arizona, location for 17 years before coming to Oklahoma City. He’s excited to bring the brand to a new market.
“We hang our hat on our beef program,” he said. “We dry-age, hand-cut and sculpt our beef on premise, and we have an award-winning wine list to go with it. The selection is relatively small now compared to other locations — 220 bottles as opposed to 300-350 — but that will change and grow as we learn what Oklahoma City likes to drink.”
Schwartztrauber also remarked on the placemaking, opting to describe OAK as “a modern example of a lifestyle center.”
“It’s a good addition to Oklahoma City’s growing renaissance of dining and entertainment,” he said.
Future plans
Phase I isn’t complete yet, with Tex Mex concept Mesero set to open in November and RH as late as next summer, so McNeill is reluctant to speculate on Phase II or a potential Phase III.
“We are planning office space for Phase II,” he said. “The project is really defined by Phase I, though. Any other phases will play to the same melody as Phase I. The goal is make Heartwood Park the anchor of our community, including public events, and draw the larger community here to shop, dine and stay at the hotel.”
Leasing for the 75,000-square-foot Loft office space has already started, and it’s one of possibly two office spaces that will be located in OAK. McNeill said they’re still talking to potential tenants, including a couple restaurants. McNeill said OAK is comparable to other spots around the city, which can range from $30 to $60 per square foot for retail and restaurant space, and he hopes local tenants will see the possibilities in this new community.
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This article appears in Bigger than basketball.