The Gathering Place Park Restaurant & Community Facilities
“The Gathering Place” Park Restaurant & Community Facilities
Tulsa, OK
RGDE completed a market and financial feasibility analysis for a destination restaurant, meeting facility, and community spaces in a proposed riverfront park near downtown Tulsa.
The Tulsa Community Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation sought to establish a “central” park for Tulsa with facilities that could serve to bring together dispersed elements of the broader community. The foundations wished to ensure that commercial components of the park could generate sustainable revenues. Mr. Gross determined the viability for the commercial facilities and recommended a development program and marketing concept if certain pre-conditions were met. Since completion of his work, the Kaiser Family Foundation made a $200 million donation (the largest private donation ever made to a public park), to fund the Michael Van Valkenburgh-designed riverfront park. The park and its restaurant have since been completed and have become not only a Gathering Place for all residents of Tulsa but have also received numerous international accolades and was voted the Best New Attraction in America, by USA Today readers.