Arts District

American pop artist Andy Warhol once said: “Uptown is for people who have already done something. Downtown is where they’re doing something now.” Nothing truer could be said of this vibrant neighborhood at the center of Oklahoma City’s urban core. Jenna Laird, a top Realtor with Verity Real Estate, calls the Arts District: “A fun area with more of a metro, urban feel than a lot of other areas in the city.” She adds: “There’s so much to do around here, like rooftop patios and lounges and tons of restaurants. And there are so many different fun little communities nearby, too, so from here you can head up to Uptown, shoot over to the Paseo, or go right next door to Bricktown.” Laird, who has been working in real estate around the OKC metro for nearly 20 years, says this is one of her favorite neighborhoods to show clients. “I love going there and exploring all the fun things to do. It’s walkable, there are all sorts of opportunities for dining and nightlife, and it’s convenient to everything.”

The vast majority of homes you’ll find here are in multi-family buildings of apartments or condos. They range in age and style from 1930s Art Deco-style condos to towering 1980s (and younger) high rises. Laird confirms: “There are very few single-family homes in that area. In this part of OKC, there’s just not a lot of land left to develop, so instead of building out things have been built up.” She explains that this lifestyle is a huge draw to homebuyers looking to land in the Arts District: “They’re attracted to the low-maintenance aspect of a condo unit, where they aren’t handling lawn care or anything like that. Here, they can just go to work, come home, get changed and go out for the night.”

Home prices here range between $199,000 and $2.5 million, but the median hovers around the $390,000 mark. You can expect to pay around $200,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, condo on the ground floor of a building built in 1982, featuring new luxury vinyl tile flooring and a recently remodeled galley-style kitchen. For the penthouse in Park Avenue’s 1931 City Place building, which has three bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms and Art Deco-style marble accents throughout, you can expect to pay closer to $2 million. Laird observes: “They’re maybe half owner-occupied and half long-term or short-term rentals, it’s a fun mix of both of those,” explaining that rent prices are easier to come by than sale prices. She explains: “Sale prices just aren’t that available. Once people get these homes, they don’t let them go. But rent, depending on the place, is a minimum of around $1,500 to $1,800 per month.”

Students in the Arts District attend schools in the Oklahoma City Public Schools system. Many go to Thelma Parks Elementary between preschool and fourth grade, F.D. Moon Middle School for fifth through eighth grade and Douglass High School between grades nine and 12. Douglass High is one of the oldest schools in the metro, established in 1891 as the first school in OKC serving African-American students. Today, it’s known affectionately by locals as the “Pride of the East Side.” Named for a renowned early 20th-century educator and civic leader in the OKC community, Moon Middle has also been serving students for more than 100 years.

The low-maintenance condos and historic schools aren’t the major draws to this urban core gem, though. Most Arts District residents move here for the sparkling urban atmosphere. “It’s a great location,” says Laird, noting that it’s not just walkable in terms of dining and entertainment, but for everyday essentials as well. “There are lots of little convenience-type stores where you can pop in and grab things for one meal at a time and carry them home. In Oklahoma City there are a lot more areas where you have to shop for the week, because you’re driving to the store, but not here,” she explains, likening the little shops to New York City’s iconic corner bodegas. And if you don’t feel like cooking, visit one of the enormous selection of eateries nearby. Just south of the neighborhood, less than a mile from most homes, you’ll find Omni Oklahoma City. Laird notes: “It’s a newer hotel with a lot of really nice restaurants.” There’s something for everyone there, from a hip bar and lounge to a retro-style diner, taphouse and coffee shop.

The expansive, newly opened Scissortail Park is close by, too, less than a mile south of the Arts District. “Scissortail Park is amazing, it’s a huge park, and so much fun,” gushes Laird, adding that the park is fun for all ages. “There are a lot of food trucks that park there regularly, they have a little butterfly garden area, there’s a fountain and a theater where they do outdoor concerts. Just recently they had an open-air ballet performance, and the OKC Philharmonic plays there pretty often as well,” she lists, adding that there are also webs of walking trails crisscrossing the park. “My kids and I can spend almost two hours just walking along the paths, up and down, having a great time,” she says. “It really is a lot of fun, it was a great addition to the city just a couple of years ago.”

With its fun, urban atmosphere and an almost endless array of walkable amenities, this urban core gem’s sparkle is hard to miss.

Written By

Megan Quintin

Photography Contributed By

Lindsey Torres

Video By

Andrew Sutton