By Randall Turk
OKCBusiness

Rising land costs and a scarcity of Class A office space in Norman have Sassan Moghadam convinced the only way to go is up.

After shelving a 15-story office building when a major investor backed out of the $50 million deal earlier this year, Moghadam is taking a smaller step toward his goal. He is going ahead with another project to make office condos available to small businesses. He said construction is scheduled to begin in about 60 days on Madison Square, a 100,000-square-foot “design/build” office and retail center to go on the northwest corner of 24th Avenue and Hemphill Drive.

The two-story, mixed-use center will have top floor office space built to suit new owners. The ground floor will be occupied by retail shops.

Work on the center in near west Norman will get under way after the company completes demolition of the former Coorstek Building on the site, said Tim Grissom, who recently purchased half of Precision Builders from Moghadam.

Grissom, who now handles all construction for the company, said the 40,000-square-foot Coorstek structure is nearly razed, but its foundation must also be cleared away before building starts. The total estimated cost of the project is about $19 million. Grissom said construction should be completed by May of next year.

“It’s a terrific project that will set an example for the area,” he said.

The 24th Avenue location is midway between two of Norman’s busiest intersections — where 24th crosses West Main and Robinson streets.

Moghadam said traffic through this busiest part of town will flow north across Robinson and into University North Park, the huge shopping, hotel and convention center complex under construction on 585 acres of former Westheimer Airport land.

“We’ll make Madison Square available to small Norman businesses at very competitive rates,” Moghadam said. “We’ll be marketing this for about $18 a square foot, well below the $26 to $28 for pre-leased space in University North Park.”

Moghadam said a 3-percent vacancy rate for office space leaves slim pickings for any company seeking to locate in Norman.

“Small businesses owners wanting to own their own property have to build,” he said. Often, they must build more than what they need and lease out the surplus space to recoup their investment, he said.

Moghadam began building homes in Norman after graduating from the University of Oklahoma in 1980. He turned to commercial construction in 1985, concentrating on assisted living centers, storage complexes and strip centers. He began developing land in 1992. In September, he opened Camden Village, another upscale shopping center at 19th and Santa Fe in Moore. Only two of the center’s 92 retail spaces remain to be leased, he said.

But Moghadam’s most ambitious concept by far is the Norman office tower, a project he says he has not abandoned. He said he has “talked to a couple of investors” about the tower project, planned for the northwest corner of Interstate-35 and West Lindsey Street, overlooking the Canadian River.

The 350,000-square-foot tower is designed to provide eight floors of office space, a restaurant and retail shops on two levels, condo loft apartments on four top floors and a clubhouse and fitness center with swimming pool. A rooftop heliport and attached four-story garage would complete the tower’s self-contained features.

Moghadam said the immediate need for office space led him to go with the smaller Madison Square project.

The Norman office tower, which would be the city’s tallest structure, will be built, he said. “We just haven’t had time to push it or market it.”

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