Broken Arrow’s Rose District
By: J. David Chapman/December 19, 2019
Most Realtors specialize in either commercial or residential real estate. I am a bit of a unicorn doing both. I have represented thousands of buyers in residential sales transactions over the last 18 years.
Recently, I had the opportunity to do my most significant residential transaction ever. I had the pleasure of representing my 24-year-old daughter, Jennifer, in purchasing her first home. As she walked across the stage at Oklahoma State University’s graduation last week with a brand-new degree in mechanical engineering, she did so as a new homeowner.
She begins 2020 with a career in engineering in Broken Arrow and could have lived anywhere in the Tulsa metropolitan area. After a mostly online two-week home search, she fell in love with Broken Arrow’s quaint, unique downtown area they have branded the Rose District. It took her a full day of touring about 10 homes within a few miles of the Rose District to find the perfect home.
She has purchased a beautiful mid-century home in the Rose District. It has been interesting for me as an Edmond city councilman to analyze downtown Broken Arrow. I have spent a large part of the last six years of my professional and personal life building value and quality of life in our downtown.
The city of Broken Arrow’s motto is “Where Opportunity Lives” and it’s meant to inspire citizens to think and dream big; that is exactly what they did together as a community in keeping their historic downtown from fading into obscurity. Broken Arrow is the fourth-largest city in Oklahoma. With a population of over 112,000, it is an award-winning city recognized for its high quality of life and has a reputation for being one of the most progressive municipalities in this region. Broken Arrow was established in 1902 as part of Indian Territory (before statehood), and the central core of the city, with its downtown, thrived for over 80 years.
However, as the suburban areas saw tremendous growth from 1980 to 2000, the historical part of the community was neglected and became an economically challenged area. Buildings were deteriorating and the visible decline discouraged new commercial, residential, or retail investments on Main Street. The story definitely doesn’t end there for Broken Arrow and next week, I, as Paul Harvey used to say, will tell you “the rest of the story.”
J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).