Names of other tenants were not released, but project sources said they have an eye on a high-tech restaurant/entertainment entity that would occupy 40,000 square feet.

"We are crafting what should be a visionary oasis where a diversity of entertainment, retail and commercial elements will attract local residents and visitors to a very special destination," commented Marios Savopoulos, director of design at Perkowitz + Ruth’s Newport Beach office.

The project’s developer is TMK/Hogan (405-270-4659), a joint venture between Hogan Property Management LLC of Oklahoma City and Stonegate Management Co., of Birmingham, Alabama, a wholly owned subsidiary of Torchmark Co., a publicly traded insurance and diversified financial services holding company.

Bricktown’s revitalization is the result of a "massive infusion of public funds over the past 10 years," Jones said, transforming the area from a vast array of abandoned buildings to a thriving office and entertainment district by beefing up police patrols, improving streets and lighting and funding new public buildings. Yet to come in the district are a Hammond Hotel, a Renaissance Marriott and the new arena, all within walking distance of the entertainment project, he said.

Phase one, which also will include 75,000 to 80,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, Savopoulos said, is expected to cost about $47 million, including the canal and public amenities. In the second phase will be a mid-size hotel and additional retail, bringing the total project price tag to $120 million. The cost of the hotel alone could be $70 million to $80 million, he said.

"As conceived by the development and design team, Bricktown will emerge as a signature destination, enhanced by the use of theatrical lighting design, colorful building materials and a landscaping concept orchestrated with every architectural and planning element of the project," Savopoulos said.

The baseball stadium is directly across the street from the Bricktown Entertainment Center site, and a proposed 20,000-seat arena for ice hockey, basketball and other indoor events will be at the western end of the site. The canal, which will be accessible to the boating public, will enter the site from the north and weave through, passing directly across the front of the theater in a bowl-like public plaza, surrounded by broad brick-stepped terraces, which could be used as an amphitheater for outdoor stage events.

The public projects are being paid for through a Metropolitan Area Project (MAPS) tax program consisting of a one percent sales tax for five years that is expected to net $360 million. Other projects include a fairgrounds, a new convention center, a hockey/basketball arena, renovations to the performing arts center, a new library, reconstruction of the bombed-out Federal Building and the surrounding area, plus a memorial and museum related to the Federal Building bombing.

A unique feature is a $24 million art museum being built downtown entirely with non-public funds, including $6 million from the Kirkpatrick Foundation, to replace the current city-owned museum located by the fairgrounds on the edge of the city, and which is too small to display all the art it owns, Stoll said.

TMK/Hogan and Edwards Theatres Circuits Inc. paid $3 million for the land they will use, but the Urban Redevelopment Authority put that $3 million back into development of amenities along the canal. "You could say they got free land," said Stoll.

City council has set a January deadline for final development contracts to be executed, and groundbreaking will follow, according to Stoll. The final choice by the city council of TMK/Hogan was "a very controversial selection," Stoll said. The developer had been selected already, when a competing proposal from another local firm forced a showdown. A council vote to reconsider the developer selection ended in a 5-4 vote in favor of TMK/Hogan last May. Wounds from that battle are "healing," said Stoll.

"This is our first entertainment center," Hogan said. "We’re fairly active in retail in the area," he said, noting that his firm represents Home Depot in the Oklahoma City area and is developing a waterfront restaurant on nearby Lake Hefner. Torchmark developed Rancho LaQuinta Country Club in LaQuinta, California, where the "Skins" game is played, and Liberty Park, a 2,500 acre upscale planned community in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, outside Birmingham. The development includes retail and office complexes of a traditional nature.