On Wednesday night, frustration was noticeable among a crowd gathered at the Greenwood Cultural Center as members from PartnerTulsa (formerly the Tulsa Authority for Economic Opportunity) tried to explain how and why a multi-million dollar redevelopment plan for the former Evans-Fintube site fell through.
Less than a week earlier, PartnerTulsa announced the decision to end negotiations with Franchell Adballa and her company Be Good Development to revitalize the site, leaving residents wondering what comes next.
"We’ve been going through this process for over two years now. Our team has invested hundreds, if not thousands, of hours getting to this point," said Kian Kamas, executive director of PartnerTulsa, just before the meeting began. "I think it’s really tough to have to make a decision like this for our team and I think it’s even more difficult for people in the community who are excited about the potential for development.”
The meeting started off with Jonathan Butler, senior vice president of community development for PartnerTulsa, informing the audience they would be able to ask questions either via an electronic form or written down on index cards. Submitted questions would be answered at the end of the slideshow.
"Preparing for this meeting was particularly difficult for me," Butler said before the slideshow began. "'Why?' you might ask. Well, I'm a Black man and sometimes it's hard to separate the personal from the professional.”
After the slideshow, a slew of questions were fielded. When asked via index card whether Adballa and Be Good Development were treated differently than other developers, Casey Stowe, senior vice president of finance and real estate, said 'yes,' they were treated better.
"We worked harder on this than we work on other projects. We moved faster on this than we move on other projects. We were more generous with our financial incentives on this than we are with other projects and we gave more grace," Stowe said.
However, community members were not satisfied with the answers being given, at times trying to question team members directly out loud.
After the meeting, community member Tyrance Billingsley II said he was left disappointed by the team's explanations.
"This is a great opportunity for the city to stand up and do something different, and they chose to go ‘by the book’ and ‘by the business,’ which only has created a horrible chasm between them and the community," Billingsley II said.
In addition to the community disappointment, Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper said her request to move the meeting to a different day was denied, causing her to be late and miss a vote on the city’s budget.
“They held this meeting when the leader of this community couldn’t be here," Hall-Harper said. "The city council is in session right now. I left that city council meeting to be here. I didn’t even vote on the budget.”
Abdalla was also not in attendance at the meeting, angering Hall-Harper who said the organizers should have chosen a different day. Hall-Harper accused the organizers of intentionally scheduling the event to conflict with her city council duties. "I think it was intentionally designed so that I couldn’t be here," she said.
Hall-Harper told the crowd that another meeting would be scheduled so that herself and Abdalla can be in attendance.
