OKLAHOMA CITY — The majority of the staff of the state Corporation Commission has moved to other locations in preparation for a massive renovation of the agency’s longtime home.
The Legislature last year authorized a revenue bond issue of up to $70 million to “renovate, repair and remodel” the interior and exterior of the 85-year-old Jim Thorpe Office Building at 2101 N. Lincoln Blvd. The project is expected to take two and one-half to three years to complete.
The primary tenant in the Jim Thorpe Building has been the Corporation Commission, which regulates the oil and gas, public utility (electric and natural gas), transportation and motor fuel sectors in Oklahoma.
“If this had happened five years ago, it would have been a nightmare,” Brandy Wreath, the commission’s director of administration, told the commissioners in January. “Our modernization efforts will make this a lot less painful.”
Most of the commission staff has moved into the Will Rogers Memorial Office Building at 2401 N. Lincoln Blvd., in the State Capitol Complex. The agency’s Transportation Division has relocated to temporary quarters in the Oklahoma Department of Transportation building at 200 NE 21st St.
The commissioners, though, remained in the Jim Thorpe Building as of last week and scheduled a regular meeting in the building for June 6.
Most commission divisions are paperless, and most agency employees use “soft” telephones, which means landline connections won’t be critical after the relocation is accomplished, he said.
Other occupants of the Jim Thorpe Building include the Department of Public Safety, the American Legion, the Arts Council, the Office of Management and Enterprise Services Training Center, storage for the Attorney General’s Office, the State Election Board (which has offices in the State Capitol and in the Jim Thorpe Building), plus a vending and snack bar. Some of those have moved to different buildings and some have shifted to newly vacant space in the Thorpe Building.
The building has 158,895 net rentable square feet, 12,925 of which had been vacant, according to Caden Cleveland, OMES director of legislative and public affairs.
The Jim Thorpe Building was constructed in 1938, during the administration of Gov. Ernest Whitworth Marland, an oilman and former congressman.
The state hired an architectural firm in Fiscal Year 2015 “to do some conceptual design of what the restoration would look like and need to include,” Cleveland said. “This was based on the current tenants of the building, best workflow use of space, and other code, Americans with Disabilities Act, mechanical, electrical and/or plumbing changes that may be needed for a modern work environment.”
The cost estimate in FY 2015 was $48.46 million. However, “with the latest information available on market increases, a 40% increase was projected to be added for today’s cost,” Cleveland said. Consequently the estimated price tag was “rounded up to the current $70,000,000.”
House Bill 3571 states that the Legislature intends to appropriate to OMES “sufficient monies to make rental payments for the purpose of retiring” the bonds.
The bill authorizes the Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority to hold title to the building and its improvements and lease it to OMES until “final redemption or defeasance” of the “obligations.” At that time, title to the property would be transferred to OMES.
Interest that bond buyers earn on the notes “shall not be subject to taxation of any kind” by the State of Oklahoma, or any municipality or county or any other political subdivision.
HB 3571 created a Jim Thorpe Repair Expenditure Oversight Committee whose duties include monitoring “the expenditure of proceeds” from the sale of the bonds until the improvements have been completed.
The oversight committee consists of nine members: three appointed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, three Representatives appointed by House Speaker Charles McCall and three Senators chosen by President Pro Tempore Greg Treat. Two of the House members and two of the Senators are Republicans, and one member from each chamber is a Democrat.