OKC approves development agreement for new $950M Thunder arena.
Oklahoma City and the Thunder have a development agreement in place to build a new $950M arena for the team after their proposal was approved by a 7-2 vote during a Tuesday morning city council meeting. The deal allows the two sides to move forward on the arena project; a lease and other important contracts, like construction, design, and concessions, still need to be agreed. Oklahoma City manager Craig Freeman said during Tuesday morning’s city council meeting that the arena project will be completed no later than summer of 2029, but that the target date is the summer of 2028.
The new venue, which would be owned and maintained by the city, would be built on the former site of the Cox Convention Center across Reno Ave. from the Thunder’s current downtown home, Paycom Center. The bulk of the venue financing — $772M — will stem from the special sales tax that was approved by voters in late 2023. The city will additionally contribute $78M in MAPS4 money — a debt-free public improvement program funded by an eight-year penny sales tax — while the team will provide $50M. No practice facility was included in the deal. The agreement allows the team to negotiate and purchase a development ground lease for any property in the overall site that’s in excess of the arena, a parking deck and a potential transportation hub. Any revenue that the city received from the Thunder for a development ground lease of that property would go back into a capital improvement fund to maintain the arena long-term.
The city has an RFQ out for an owners’ rep and is going thru the process to select that firm. The development agreement doesn’t allow for the venue project cost to exceed $950M; any potential overages will require the city and the team to value engineer the project back under the budget. Any requests that the Thunder makes that can’t be value engineered into the project and causes cost overruns will be covered by the team. If the project comes in under budget, any excess funds will go into the long-term capital improvement fund.
