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Innovation district promotes connections The $71 million proposal is focused on connecting neighborhoods and economic growth.

The Oklahoma Health Center is an Oklahoma City economic engine employing 18,000 that has long been overshadowed by the nearby downtown skyline both literally and figuratively. But a drive through the area reveals a neighborhood institutional in design with little street life and scarce evidence of the array of activity going on inside the buildings — anchors that include a medical school, hospitals, research labs, bio-tech companies, the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics and the Baker Hughes/GE Energy Innovation Center. Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, sees the proposed MAPS 4 investment of $71 million as being key not just to unlocking the area’s full potential as an innovation district but also connecting it with historically black neighborhoods that for years were kept separate. “Over the last 50 years with help of the University of Oklahoma and the State of Oklahoma, we’ve built a tremendous academic health center in our city,” Williams said. “And in the last 20 years we’ve taken this center of patient care and research and turned it into a real engine for economic growth.” The MAPS 4 innovation district proposal is focused on investments highlighted as a first step in a master plan created over the past two years by Chicago-based Perkins & Will.

They include:

• $15 million for redevelopment of the Henrietta B Foster Center for Northeast Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship at 614 NE 4. The former YMCA is currently a community center.

• $25 million for improved connections in and around the innovation district, especially on key bridges over Interstate 235 between the district and downtown.

• A $10 million matching fund for creation of an innovation hall.

• $21 million partial funding for operations of the innovation hall and Foster Center with expectations for additional funding from outside sources.

Other suggestions by the Perkins & Will plan are outside of the MAPS 4 innovation district proposal, but are listed on other parts of the MAPS 4 list including improvements to Booker T. Washington Park at 400 NE 4 and creation of a northeast bus rapid transit line.

After more than $1 billion of investment in the area in recent years, Williams admits it all adds up to a “self-contained daytime campus.”

“It isn’t integrated with neighborhoods that surround it and, in fact, many decisions in the past have the opposite effect, creating barriers between the health center and the neighborhoods,” Williams said. “We know we can do better and change this.” Williams believes the investments will attract more investment in jobs key to transitioning from an energy-oriented economy and expanding opportunities for the adjoining historically black neighborhoods that have been left out of the area’s success. “This new path is about creating a community, a place where there are no barriers between the institutions and the neighbors who live nearby,” Williams said. “We want a place where there’s a seamless flow between entrepreneurs, small business and workers who combine to bring a new reality and a new vitality along with economic growth. This will be a place where people live, work, play and learn.” Katy Boren, hired last year to oversee the innovation district, is tasked with helping transition the area with programming and get-togethers aimed at sparking collaboration among the schools, bio-tech firms, research institutions, hospitals and area residents. The stretch of NE 4 between Lincoln Boulevard and Martin Luther King Avenue is seen as an important opportunity to neighborhood connections with the district. The Foster Center, if MAPS 4 is approved by voters on Dec. 10, is set to become a minority small business and entrepreneurship hub. Boren envisions working with Moon Middle School and Douglas High School to create learning opportunities with anchors of the district. Washington Park, meanwhile, is just a few blocks east of the Foster Center.

“ Katy Boren, CEO of the Innovation District nonprofit created to oversee the area’s transformation “I think Booker T. Washington Park, with the MAPS 4 improvements, will improve activity in the area and create opportunity for events in the area bringing together residents and businesses.”