Matrix founder leads bid to create music cluster, renovate Brady

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 29, 2007 by Kirby Lee Davis

With the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame renovation nearly complete, Chairman Steve Alter turned his attention to two different but complementary remodeling projects.

A group of Tulsa music enthusiasts led by Alter, founder of Tulsa- based Matrix Architects Engineers Planners, launched a capital funding campaign to buy and renovate the 93-year-old Brady Theater, scene of legendary performances ranging from Enrico Caruso, Benny Goodman and Fatty Arbuckle to Bill Cosby, Cyndi Lauper and U2.

While that $17 million-plus project advances - Alter expects to move on the lease/purchase contract with Brady owner Peter Mayo by the end of the year - he started negotiations on a simpler project that could spur a makeover of all downtown.

The trumpeter and guitarist intends to form a coordinating system or body to better attract and market performing acts to the region's varied venues, including the BOK Center coming next year, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Brady Theater, Jazz Hall, Cain's Ballroom and the many smaller hot spots in the Brady and Blue Dome districts.

By working together, Alter believes the north Tulsa stages will create a synergy that would repeatedly and profitably draw not just new acts, but patrons, back to downtown on a weekly basis - making downtown once again a center of culture and activity.

"The music business in Tulsa is something that we really have not capitalized on, and we need to grow it more," said Suzann Stewart, senior vice president of the Tulsa Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"You've got to have people moving between places," she said, which this budding "cluster of music" would accomplish. "If you have places for people to do and see, they're going to come downtown. The additional facilities are going to make all the difference in the world."

Urban planner Jamie Jamieson said these steps would not only help restart efforts to market downtown but also boost interest in these historic venues.

"We're not doing a good job of marketing the core of the city right now, but there's huge potential to do so and what Steve's doing will help," said the Tulsa developer of The Village at Central Park. "They're fabulous buildings in themselves; they can't be replicated elsewhere, and they're all within a minute's walk of each other. I see those venues as critical to restoring the walkability and vitality of downtown."

It's an important time for both Alter projects, with suburbs Bixby and Broken Arrow plotting convention centers that could lure performing acts - and their audiences - far from downtown.

The city of Bixby promises the greater competitor with its 165,000-square-foot SpiritBank Event Center, promising seating up to 4,000 in the midst of a busy retail corridor. That project by Remy Cos. subsidiary Interstate Construction is on track for completion next year.

But efforts by Broken Arrow to build a center on the hill above Bass Pro Shops remain in the negotiation stage, slowed by questions over the amount of land needed and dickering over the sale price with land owner Phil Roland. Keith Sterling, director of communications for the city, said Broken Arrow may seek new developer proposals this summer.

Stewart, however, said these facilities will never match the downtown atmosphere.

"They can do what they want and build what they want," she said. "That stuff is different. Those are different types of environments than a Brady Theater or a Cain's and the synergy that those things can bring together."

As a longtime director and current chairman of the Jazz Hall, which will begin hosting concerts on its 550-seat stage in July, Alter and Chuck Cissel, the Jazz Hall's chief executive, have already begun coordination talks with Johnny Buschard, who through Road Work Entertainment books acts at the Brady, and John Scott, manager of the PAC. He's also spoken to Michael Sager, who as developer of the Blue Dome District has talked about adding a concert venue there. This week Alter will meet with Jim Rogers of Cain's Ballroom.

Alter said the wide variety of downtown venues promises a stage for almost any performance. Combined with city initiatives to improve or eliminate other distractions, including train whistles and safety concerns, he believes the downtown atmosphere will win over a new, broader audience.

"What we're trying to do is change people's thinking about entering downtown," he said. "If they enter from the east, if they come early and they come through the Blue Dome District or the Brady District, they'll see there's always some event going on in one of these, so that we keep a constant liveliness."

Having completed a feasibility study of the Brady Theater, the buyout group Historic Brady LLC desires to not only restore some of its celebrated ambiance, such as the Bruce Goff interiors installed in the 1930s, but also to bring needed upgrades, including handicap access and environmental systems and wider, more comfortable 21- inch seats. While that promises to lower its 2,750 seating capacity, the remodeling would take advantage of unused supports made for a third balcony, adding a level to bring its capacity back to 2,500.